An independent registrar must work to protect homeowners in the ACT from the harm of poor building quality and improve community confidence in the way the construction industry is regulated, Better Regulation Minister Tara Cheyne has declared.
Ms Cheyne made a statement of expectations for the construction occupations registrar in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, setting proactive compliance checks, enforcing rectification orders and using data to investigate defects as the regulator's priority focus.
"With our population rapidly increasing and more people choosing to call the ACT home, ensuring our homes are safe and building quality is up to code is essential to community wellbeing," Ms Cheyne said.
"When people walk into their new home, they should have the confidence and peace of mind that building quality standards have been met. It's important that the ACT community feels that they can trust the work of developers and builders. Canberrans expect their government to take the necessary action to keep them safe."
The ACT's construction occupations registrar within Access Canberra, Nick Lhuede, said the perfect outcome was when inspectors could issue a certificate of occupancy or use without any issues.
"I think by and large the industry do a really good job in meeting their statutory and legal requirements in building and construction," Mr Lhuede said.
"In a very broad level, we issue in the ACT about 5000 building approvals a year. We probably get about 300 complaints coming through to Access Canberra and of those maybe around 10 end up in actual orders or clear directions.
"So it is a very small proportion that we're actually taking specific action against. All of the matters are considered and most of them are addressed through engagement with builders and the construction industry."
The construction occupations registrar spoke to The Canberra Times at a residential building site in Taylor, where an Access Canberra inspector found the new home to be compliant with the Building Act and national construction code.
Mr Lhuede said a big focus for his team of inspectors was proactive inspections, with buildings assessed at all stages of construction to identify potential issues early.
The registrar manages two proactive audit teams, with one focused on single-dwelling residential projects and the other considering medium- and high-density residential buildings.
"They spend their time on the road. We actually target our audit program to obviously areas where there are new builds, but also to look at specific issues that we may have identified in the past or have come up through the complaints process, for example," he said.
Mr Lhuede, who has been in the role for a little over a year, said Ms Cheyne's statement of expectations would help boost the community's confidence the regulator was actively engaged in improving building quality.
"As with any regulatory function, it's important to have that separation and that independence. So whilst we engage really closely with industry, we are very much independent from them," he said.
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