Latest news with #BuildingCommissionNSW
ABC News
09-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Building Commission NSW fails to seek fines for developers that lag on defect orders
Thomas Luxton has been forced to launch his own legal action against the developer of his Sydney apartment building after it ignored the regulator's order to fix serious fire safety issues. The developer behind the Rockdale property was referred to the Building Commission NSW's legal enforcement team in March 2024 for non-compliance. Mr Luxton waited months for the commission to commence proceedings against the developer, Knightsbridge Development Group, to seek a hefty fine and grew frustrated when no further action was taken. He described the regulator's defect order as being "about as useful as a sunroof on a submarine". The ABC can reveal that not a single developer that failed to comply with a defect order issued by the commission, known as a building work rectification order (BWRO), has received a fine. BWROs outline serious potential or actual defects in residential apartment buildings, such as structural cracking and waterproofing failures. At least 60 per cent of the 208 rectification orders issued by the commission under the Residential Apartment Buildings Act — which was introduced in 2020 amid a well-publicised crackdown on shonky building work — have not been fully complied with. Non-compliance is a criminal offence, and the regulator can take a developer or builder to court to seek fines of up to $110,000 for individuals or $330,000 for corporations. However, the first time Building Commission NSW prosecuted a developer or builder was last month, and it has not secured any court-imposed fines. A spokesperson for the commission said 40 per cent of its orders had been "fully complied with or revoked", others were being modified, and several were on hold as they were being disputed in court. In Mr Luxton's case, inspectors found the fire stair pressurisation system was faulty, which "may prevent the safe evacuation of residents" during a fire and cause flames to spread "in an uncontrolled manner". In November, he launched his own proceedings against the developer at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal on behalf of owners, seeking costs for the repair work. A spokesperson for Knightsbridge Development Group said it was "working on a solution with body corporate to have the issue resolved", noting the builder had gone into liquidation. Internal sources at Building Commission NSW say there is a lack of appetite for legal action within management and dysfunction and staffing issues in the legal team. The regulator has wide-ranging enforcement powers and a mandate to restore trust in the industry to avoid another Mascot or Opal Towers. A spokesperson for Building Commission NSW said its "primary approach" was to work "constructively with the developer, builder, and owner's corporations to ensure defects are rectified at no cost to homeowners, without the need for legal action", but said it would prosecute if needed. It is "currently assessing all non-compliant BWROs for further potential regulatory action, including prosecution, licence cancellations and suspensions", the spokesperson said. The ABC has seen documents obtained under Freedom of Information that reveal the agency previously had an internal list of 42 developers recommended for potential prosecution over non-compliance with an order. It took the regulator almost a month to respond to the ABC's questions. Earlier this year the ABC also revealed the agency had handed out thousands of tradie licences without running a criminal history check, as it had failed to secure a memorandum of understanding with NSW Police for information sharing. The regulator also took more than 16 months to deliver authorisation badges to staff who were legally required to identify themselves on worksites, which some feared might undermine investigations. The delay stemmed from a long-running branding dispute over whether the new agency should be called the NSW Building Commission or Building Commission NSW.
The Guardian
08-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Building Commission NSW using old parking infringement notice books to fine builders and developers
The Building Commission NSW is using old parking infringement notice books with carbon paper to issue fines to builders and developers who break the law, the state's building commissioner, James Sherrard, has confirmed. Officers are required to cross out the words 'Department of Motor Transport' and write 'Building Commission NSW' on the notices, with duplicate copies made using carbon paper. In 2024-25, the commission issued 202 infringement notices. As the Minns government seeks to accelerate construction times to meet its pledge to build 377,000 new homes by 2029 under the National Housing Accord, the organisation responsible for enforcing building standards is scrambling to equip itself with the necessary data and systems. 'That is correct,' Sherrard said when asked about the commission using old carbon paper ticket books. 'We are very close to turning those into a digital platform – it should be in place before the end of this calendar year – but for now, yes, people really understand what CC stands for, as in carbon copy.' The ABC reported in April that the building commission did not have access to police databases, so it could not conduct criminal checks on tradies before issuing building licences. There are concerns that the agency, established in late 2023, is struggling to create a cohesive investigative culture with modern data collection due to a lack of digital platforms. Tim James, the opposition's fair trading spokesperson, said the building commission needed a modern system to efficiently issue and track fines. 'Dodgy builders move fast, yet the building commission is stuck scribbling fines on carbon paper,' he said. 'Enforcement is only as strong as the tools behind it and right now those tools are outdated.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The NSW government announced in the 2025-26 state budget that it had allocated $145m over four years to fund the organisation charged with policing shoddy builders. This was the first time the commission had been given permanent funding, which would be supplemented with revenue from fines. Sherrard said the funding would allow the agency to do its job, provided the government did not dramatically increase its scope – or the number of projects it oversaw. It had taken time to compile a team from disparate parts of the public service and to build its capabilities, Sherrard said. 'Our analytics team is improving daily and we are getting better quality information. So when we look at our complaints now, we can see what percentage of those relate to apartments and what [percentage] relates to dwellings,' he said. The inaugural building commissioner, David Chandler, was appointed in 2019 after cracks appeared in Opal Tower at Olympic Park and at the Toplace development in Mascot. Since then, the government has expanded the commission's remit beyond allegedly shoddy apartments to all residential buildings, including houses and renovations. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Sherrard said class 1 buildings – residential houses – make up 'the overwhelming majority' of the building commission's work. He said problems often arose with unlicensed builders and builders who failed to provide written contracts as required. The Minns government's push to speed up the planning process in NSW includes streamlined approvals for compliant developments and fast-tracking state significant developments. Sherrard said he believed standards were improving despite pressure to build homes more quickly. He said the commission had moved from being reactive, when responding to complaints about faulty buildings, to a more predictive model. The commission now examines development plans lodged with councils and the planning department and maintains a list of high-risk developers whose work needs more rigorous review. 'I'm very cognisant of how much noise I make about individuals because it's a very, very small element within the industry, but me making a noise about it in media or social media does a tremendous amount of damage to consumer confidence,' Sherrard said. 'It's very difficult to find people willing to buy off the plan at this point in time. So … we're paying particular attention to those individuals who we are aware of and are bad players, and we are running through effective prosecutions, and we're trying to shift them out of this industry. 'It's about balancing consumer confidence and awareness at the same time.' The commissioner said the main way people could protect themselves against shoddy developers was to search their builder or tradesperson on the commission's website to see if they had any building offences.
