The Malinauskas 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.
The Minister is releasing a discussion paper today setting out options for registration, along with the minimum qualifications and experience required to be a building inspector in South Australia.
Options include:
Option 1 – Individuals with certain approved building roles such as a qualified builder could have their existing licence expanded to include residential building inspections.
Option 2 – 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 Malinauskas 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 Government's proposed building inspector registration scheme, visit https://yoursay.sa.gov.au/building-inspector-registration
As put by Andrea Michaels
The Malinauskas Government wants to ensure the people trusted to assess building work in South Australia have the necessary experience and qualifications for South Australians to rely on their judgement.
Buying a home is one of the biggest investments people make in their lives and they expect their building inspector to be qualified to detect any defects before they make such a significant investment.
No one would want a builder that wasn't appropriately qualified undertaking building work and yet the people trusted to assess that work, currently do not require any set qualifications to make judgements about its quality.
As put by Master Builders Chief Executive Will Frogley
For most South Australians buying a home is the biggest investment they will make in their lives. They should feel confident a building inspection report is prepared by a properly qualified industry professional.
These important reforms will eliminate dodgy, unlicensed operators. Many reports, despite costing consumers significant money, aren't worth the paper they are printed on.
Master Builders SA has strongly campaigned for mandatory registration for building inspectors. You quite rightly need to be licensed to be a builder - the same should apply to persons inspecting the quality of their work.
As put by Housing Industry Association Executive Director Stephen Knight
The Housing Industry Association has long held the position that building inspectors providing services to consumers, such as pre-purchase inspections and defects reports, should be licensed.
Building inspectors are commonplace in the SA residential building industry, providing a range of services to purchasers of new and established homes.
Their influence on both the payment claim process and a client's confidence can be substantial, despite many not having appropriate qualifications or experience in a relevant building, construction or engineering trade or profession.
For this reason, HIA supports the government in introducing requirements to regulate quality of advice, service standards and business conduct to protect consumers, government and industry.
As put by Chris Short from the Association of Building Consultants and long-time building inspector
The Association of Building Consultants welcomes the government's proposal to register building inspectors. The experience and expertise of building inspectors is critically important and of significant concern to professional building inspectors and the building industry generally.
Not having a licensing or registration system in place has allowed some inexperienced operators to take advantage of the situation and this has, at times, been to the detriment of consumers.
The proposed registration system, particularly the requirement for 5 years experience in construction and formal technical qualifications, will cause all inspectors to have a base level of knowledge that will ultimately benefit all consumers.
