By: Andrew Brennan, Sarah Metcalfe, Nick Lux and Jordan Bova

At a glance

  • The Victorian government will abolish and replace the Victorian Building Authority following an independent review that found significant management and cultural failures.
  • A new regulator, the Building & Plumbing Commission, will be created by merging the Victorian Building Authority with other agencies, offering expanded powers to enforce building defect repairs and manage disputes.
  • The reforms, including changes to complaint handling and enforcement powers, will require legislative changes and are expected to take effect in the first half of 2025.

The Victorian government has announced it will abolish and replace the Victorian Building Authority (VBA) in response to the independent review conducted by Weir Legal and Consulting.

Released today, the ‘Victorian Building Authority – The Case for Transformation’ report (Report) found that there was “no doubt that the VBA’s management and culture failed consumers”.

The failures of the VBA identified in the Report included:

  • duplicated, delayed, lost or ignored complaints
  • conducting no to very few technical inspections
  • complainants being told to provide their expert reports for the VBA’s review
  • focusing only on practitioners and issues identified by complainants and not addressing others
  • referring complaints to other agencies, and
  • a dismissive culture towards complainants.

VBA CEO and Commissioner, Anna Cronin, apologised to Victorians and pledged in principle to support to the Report’s 20 recommendations for improving the regulator’s functions.

The Report’s recommendations include greater enforcement powers and changes to complaint handling, it being “critical that the system is reformed” for the VBA to become a trusted and effective regulator.

Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny today announced that the VBA would be brought together with Domestic Building Disputes Resolution Victoria and the Domestic Building Insurance (DBI) function of the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority to form a new regulator, the Building & Plumbing Commission.  The new regulator’s powers will include a greater ability to order builders to fix defects and expanding DBI so that claims can be made when builders fail to comply with rectification orders.

These reforms require legislative changes and are expected to come into effect in the first half of 2025.

Ms Cronin’s full statement and the VBA’s press release can be found on the VBA website, and the Report downloaded here.

A more detailed publication on this important issue from Wotton Kearney will follow.