VBA Mail is a quarterly newsletter that provides industry and consumers with an overview of the VBA’s latest compliance and enforcement, audit and inspections, licensing and registration, industry education and research activity.
It’s sent to all Victorian building and plumbing practitioners, engineers, industry bodies and subscribers.
Welcome to the fourth and final edition of the VBA Mail for 2024. In this edition, we reflect on 2024, look ahead to 2025 and provide key industry updates and activities from the past quarter.
2024 in review
Our major VBA overhaul was in full swing in 2024, aimed at improving consumer outcomes and using our powers to their fullest extent, as we strive for the Victorian Building Authority (VBA) to be a trusted regulator.
The October announcement by the Minister for Planning of the establishment of a new more powerful building and plumbing watchdog, the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC), is the most significant change to the building regulatory system in decades and puts consumer protection clearly front and centre.
This new entity will see the VBA, Domestic Building Disputes Resolution Victoria (DBDRV) and the Domestic Building Insurance (DBI) function of the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA) come together to deliver stronger protections for Victorian homeowners and create a better regulator of Victoria’s building and plumbing industries.
You can find out more about the BPC, including some of its new powers, .
This year, the VBA demonstrated it is becoming a more credible threat than ever before. Our compliance and enforcement activity to November showed we suspended and disqualified 21 practitioners, cancelled 15 registrations, issued 77 show cause notices and issued more than $860,000 in penalties.
In addition to undertaking more than 12,000 building and plumbing inspections this year, our inspectors and auditors have also been out in force across the state as part of two ongoing compliance blitzes that will continue into next year on areas where practitioners can do better.
The first is a compliance blitz on unregistered practitioners. One in 10 of the complaints to the VBA are about unregistered and unlicensed builders and plumbers. As part of the blitz, the VBA has visited more than 1,100 sites and found 34 unregistered or unlicensed people working across 23 sites and five employers permitting unregistered or unlicensed work.
The VBA is also using data and intelligence much more effectively to inform where we should put our regulatory effort, with our water ingress on balconies blitz an example of this.
With a focus on class 2 apartment buildings, the blitz uses combined building and plumbing inspector teams and has inspected more than 120 balconies across Victoria. This has been positively received by practitioners, who received immediate direction regarding compliant practice.
The VBA will continue to work hard to deliver our important reforms that prioritise and protect consumers and improve industry performance.
For your information, the VBA reception at 242 Exhibition St will be open on all business days except public holidays.
I wish you all a very happy and safe holiday period and look forward to getting back to work in 2025.
Anna Cronin
Chief Executive Officer
Victorian Building Authority
In this edition…
Our activities to minimise harms caused by water ingress
The VBA has been focusing on water ingress, which is a common defect causing significant harm, frequent complaints and insurance claims. Read about our inspection blitz on water ingress on balconies using cutting edge technology to identify and reduce risks.
Proactive Inspections Program Activity Report for FY 2023-24 now available
The VBA’s Proactive Inspections Program (PIP) is a statewide early intervention regulatory oversight initiative which aims to monitor the compliance of work under construction performed by building and plumbing practitioners.
Building Legislation Amendment and Other Matters Bill
The
