Legislative Update: Building And Development Certifiers Act & Regulation And BCA Out Of Cycle Amendment

Legislative Update

Building and Development Certifiers Act and Regulation

The Building and Development Certifiers Act 2018 and Regulation 2020 have been finalised and will come into effect on the 1st of July 2020. This legislation will replace the Building Professionals Act and Regulation currently in force. Items covered by the legislation include accreditation of certifiers, requirements for insurance and conflict of interest provisions.

For people considered as ‘competent fire safety practitioners’ under previous legislation, they will continue to be considered as a competent fire safety practitioner for as long as they previously would have been recognised under previous legislation up to 5 years.

This legislation also contains accreditation provisions for professionals undertaking regulated work.

The new Act and Regulations can be viewed here:

Building and Development Certifiers Act 2018
Building and Development Certifiers Legislation 2020

Building Code of Australia Out of Cycle Amendment

The Building Code of Australia is being amended out of cycle, with BCA 2019 Amendment 1 expected to be implemented in mid-2020. The preview of the amended NCC is expected to be available this month. Key amendments to the BCA are proposed as follows:

  • Additional provisions relating the early childhood centres in high-rise building
  • Introduction of a defined term for ‘building complexity’. The implication of the building complexity term is still to be released, however it is anticipated that additional requirements will be put in place for buildings of a higher complexity level.
  • Clarification of concessions for low rise Class 2 and 3 buildings
  • Adoption of a Technical Specification relating to the permanent labelling to ACP’s

In addition, the ABCB is looking to mandate the method of development of performance solutions, which is currently documented in their document ‘Development of Performance Solutions’. This is currently open for public comment, and the provisions surrounding this will not be finalised in the preview issued this month.

The ABCB’s ‘Development of Performance Solutions’ is available here for review.

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