The state government has announced a suite of new measures to better protect homebuyers and those hiring a builder in South Australia.
For the first time, building inspectors will be required to be registered to ensure they have the appropriate qualifications and experience to be assessing the quality of building work.
A discussion paper setting out options for registration, along with the minimum qualifications and experience required to be a building inspector in South Australia is available on the YourSAy consultation website.
Options include:
- Individuals with certain approved building roles such as a qualified builder could have their existing licence expanded to include residential building inspections.
- A new type of registration could be created that specifically addresses residential building inspectors.
Minimum qualifications would include at least five years of experience in specified building roles, proof of formal technical qualifications and a national police check.
The state government wants to ensure that the people South Australians trust to inspect the quality of their building work are qualified to make those assessments and follows concerns raised about unqualified inspectors providing shoddy reports.
Building inspection reports enable people to identify and raise issues prior to a property purchase. Consumers can also request building inspections for other purposes, such as when renovating or as part of a building dispute.
Whilst it is recommended that persons engage a qualified and independent surveyor, architect or other qualified person for an inspection, there is currently no requirement for a person to be qualified when conducting building inspections in SA.
In addition, the government has introduced new reforms to state parliament to deliver tougher penalties for shonky builders who prey on vulnerable consumers, with penalties to increase from $50,000 to $550,000 for a range of offences including working without a licence or seeking unlawful payments.
The reforms also propose new offences targeting unlicensed builders who try to dupe consumers by using another builder’s licence number as we are aware of contractors who have advertised their services using another person’s licence number.
The government is also aware that within industry, subcontractors have been performing work whilst unlicensed - despite the requirement to be licensed to carry out building work when they are under a contract with another building work contractor.
As a result, a new offence prohibiting building work contractors from engaging unlicensed subcontractors to perform work is included in the bill.
This will provide extra assurance for South Australians in terms of the quality of work being provided and reduce unlicensed work within the building industry.
To make a submission on the proposed building inspector registration scheme, visit https://yoursay.sa.gov.au/building-inspector-registration.
