On Thursday 11 May 2017 the Building Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Bill 2016 (the Bill) was passed by the Victorian Parliament and is due to receive Royal Assent next week. The changes will be introduced on a staggered basis throughout this year and the next.

The provisions of the Bill relate to a range of issues such as:

• Registration of companies
• Regulation of building surveyors
• Improvements to the building permit and levy system
• Changes to entry and information gathering powers
• Reforms to the practitioner registration system

These are summarised in the Explanatory Memorandum.

We have been generally pleased with the level of consultation with industry with respect to most of the measures in this Bill.

One change we highlight is a new indictable offence. The changes mean that if a person is in the business of building, and knowingly carries out work without, or not in conformity with, a building permit or laws, it could be considered an indictable offence, which carries with it a maximum penalty of five years in jail and fine of up to $93,000 for individuals and $466,400 for companies. We lobbied the government and, consequently, they confirmed in debates in the Lower House of Parliament that this would only be used in serious cases.

We also note that the Bill strengthens the section 16 offences requiring builders to ‘ensure’ a building permit has been issued and that the building work is carried out in compliance with the Act, the building regulations and the building permit. We asked for the government to confirm that the section 16 offence provisions will be considered strict liability offences which would carry a defence of honest and reasonable mistake. The government made statements to this effect in the debates in the lower house of Parliament.

While the industry wasn’t consulted on the indictable offence provisions before they were introduced, and would have preferred amendments to the Bill to clarify the provisions, we were pleased that the government did provide the industry with assurances in Parliament that the indictable offence provision would only be used in serious cases.

Master Builders will be working with the VBA on the implementation of these changes over the coming weeks and will keep members up to date here.