The Building Commission carry out performance audits on registered practitioners for the following reasons:

• A proactive approach to determine and monitor the levels of compliance by registered practitioners with the Building Act 1993, Building Regulations 2006 and the BCA 2006.
  
• Enable the Building Commission to provide educative advice to registered practitioners in relation to the relevant legislation.
  
• Gauge from anecdotal evidence, the effectiveness of the current broadcast program of changes to regulatory requirements related to building work.

Hot Spot Audits

Between 3 and 18 March the Practitioner Compliance Unit of the Building Commission conducted its second hot spot audit program for the 2007/2008 financial year at 27 councils in the metropolitan area and selected larger regional centres.   The regional centres audited included Ballarat, Wodonga, Echuca, Shepparton, Swan Hill, Wangaratta, Warrnambool and Wodonga.   The objective was to examine approximately 20 - 25 building files at each council relating to work by private building surveyors to establish the following:

• Compliance with 5-Star requirements;
• Whether drawings submitted with the applications and subsequently approved identified whether a water tank or solar hot water unit was to be installed;
• Who prepared the drawings (architect, draftsperson, builder or owner);
• Whether all of the documents required by regulation 302 were on the file;\
•  Whether the forms 1 & 2 were accurate and aligned with building permit levy information;
• Whether Certificates of Compliance - Design were prepared correctly;

In excess of 36,000 elements on 628 building files were audited for compliance with the Building Act 1993 and the Building Regulations 2006.   2,321 breaches were detected amounting to 6.37% of the elements audited.  It was interesting to note every one of the 58 elements audited on each file had at least one occurrence of non-compliance across the audit program.  Most occurred in such small numbers as to not pose a major concern.

The most commonly occurring breaches identify that most problems are associated with drawings submitted as a requirement of regulation 302.  The major concerns were as follows:

1. Compliance with section 80 of the Building Act 1993 - notification of appointment of the private building surveyor.  The Commission generally allows for some leniency in the 7 days for notification.  The notification process assists in preventing dual appointments of building surveyors and while dual appointments are rare excessive delays in providing this information puts councils in a difficult position and make it difficult to prevent problems arising from dual appointments such as work commencing under a building permit issued by the wrong (second appointed) building surveyor.

2. Regulation 302(2)(b) requires the allotment plan to show the distance of the allotment to the nearest intersecting street.   291 (12.54%) files did not comply with this requirement.   It can be argued that with the availability of satellite imaging of the entire State, the identification of the allotment cannot be miscalculated.   However this does not always assist in 'on the ground' identification of building sites and with broad-acre developments and rural and remove areas, the site is not readily identified.   The non-compliance with this element requires broad remedial attention.

3. Many of the drawings (9%) did not identify who had prepared them.

4. In files where a draftsperson prepared the drawings, that practitioner is not cited on either the application for building permit or the building permit in 12 cases.

5. While compliance with assessment of the building fabric by a rating tool was extremely high, in 191 instances (30%) there was no suitable notation on the drawings or within any of the documents on file as to how compliance with clause 3.12.0 of the Building Code of Australia would be achieved (rainwater tank or solar hot water system).

6. The auditors found a concerning rate of non-compliance with the requirement of regulation 2(c)(iii) to show the position and dimensions of a proposed building and its relationship with any part of a building or land on an adjoining allotment where necessary to show compliance with the Act or regulations in 89 instances or 3.83%. 

Regulation 302 provides clear guidelines as to what information must accompany an application for a building permit to construct a building.  It is clear from the audit that there are still some issues that need addressing in the preparation and submission of this material.

The hot spot audit program will continue throughout the next year and any changes in the patterns identified by the examination of specific elements in building files will be monitored and reported.