During the three-day operation in early April, Building Commissioner James Sherrard led a team on inspections of 72 sites across Port Macquarie, South West Rocks, Lake Cathie, Taree, and Forster.
The inspections focused on identifying building defects, combatting unlicensed work, ensuring compliance with supervision requirements and inspecting complex electrical work as part of the NSW Government's focus on building quality across the state.
Inspectors identified a range of issues during the visits, including with fire safety systems and waterproofing, which are common defects that have been identified during state-wide building inspections.
Electrical inspectors focused on the safety of heat pumps, solar panels, batteries, and electrical installations.
Inspectors identified 18 electrical-related breaches, with Building Commission NSW expected to issue written notices to comply for each.
Inspectors also issued 14 penalty infringement notices (PINs) related to unlicensed work and contracting, as well as four PINs for signage offences, and one PIN for a non-compliant device that protects from electrical shock.
General supervision of tradespeople was found to be at an acceptable standard across the board, with no supervision breaches identified in the specialist trade areas.
As a result of the inspections, Building Commission NSW has issued notifications for one stop work order, one prohibition order, and eight rectification orders.
Before these orders are finalised and made public, Building Commission NSW must consider written representations from the developer or principal contractor, as required by the legislation.
Building Commission NSW inspectors will re-inspect sites where issues were identified to ensure orders are complied with and defects are rectified.
Inspectors will be visiting a range of sites across regional NSW in coming months, to ensure building quality is maintained across the state.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Building, Anoulack Chanthivong:
"Compliance in the building industry is one of the Minns Labor Government's highest priorities.
"Since the establishment of Building Commission NSW in December 2023, we have worked hard to drive out the industry's bad actors and rogue operators to rebuild confidence in the building sector.
"Under the leadership of the new Commissioner, we are seeing a greater focus on data driven compliance and enforcement, to weed out the players who are tarnishing consumer confidence in an industry that has broadly embraced our push for an uplift in building quality.
"The Building Commission conducts both 'Anywhere, Anytime' inspections as well as complaint-driven and targeted inspections.
"The Commission is clamping down on bad behaviour in the building industry through inspections, licensing oversight, and enforcement activities, to ensure people making one of the biggest investments of their lives get a safe home with no major defects."
Quotes attributable to NSW Building Commissioner, James Sherrard:
"During this compliance campaign in the Mid North Coast, I visited a number of sites to re-iterate to the construction sector that Building Commission NSW is keeping an eye on the region.
"During the three-day operation we saw a range of issues, but overall the industry on the Mid North Coast is doing a pretty good job when it comes to the quality of building work they are providing.
"But rest assured we'll be back to make sure the players we identified doing the wrong thing, fix the problems we found, so consumers are not burdened with building construction issues after they move into their new home."
