Victoria Has Watered Down Its Building Reforms Before They Even Started
The Victorian Government has just ‘pulled the rug out’ from under its own building reforms.
For the last year we heard that Victorians would have a new Building and Plumbing Commission which would finally hold builders and developers to account.
We were expecting a bulldog…
Defective work would be rectified. Homeowners would have somewhere to turn other than spending years in VCAT.
The Ministerial Direction held back until just weeks ago has exposed the real truth.
The much publicised rectification order regime has been ‘watered down’ (just like the thousands of plumbing defects and defective balconies) and this is before it has even commenced.
Unless your home is effectively uninhabitable or falls within some other limited criteria…don’t expect your builder to be ordered back to fix defective work.
So what was all the fanfare about?
In my view, this was never about fixing Victoria’s building crisis.
It was about buying time and quietening public outrage after years of defective apartment buildings, failing regulation and collapsing confidence in the industry.
Oh and don’t forget the corruption at our VBA too! You remember don’t you, the VBA, the one that was separate from VMIA until ‘plumbing’ was put into its name.
Ironically, the BPC has entirely overlooked any plumbing reform too!!!! Please…
But here is the truth…
Nothing, no-thing, nothing really has fundamentally practically changed yet with residential building law. Sure there are heavier prosecution powers but that doesn’t help already impaired consumers.
Every week I act for Victorians whose homes have been seriously damaged by defective building work. I already see how little practical intervention occurs. I have no confidence this new regime will be any different.
In fact, I am doubling down now, investing more in high quality legal services that cut through the nonsense to get results.
I am ready and know that homeowners will now have another layer of bureaucracy to fight before ending up where they were always heading in the first place - VCAT.
But Court is also an option and as are a variety of other non litigated claims on insurance - from plumbing insurance, DBI, property insurance and PI.
AND what about the so called first resort insurance scheme?
Let me ask another question - how is the BPC as insurer supposed to pay for defective building work when they haven’t ordered that they are defects?
Well, back in the queue to legally establish them after 4 years at VCAT AND if your case is efficient that is!
More smoke and more mirrors
The Government has announced reform.
The reform is all dressed up with no where to go…
Victorians deserve a regulator with a bite as bad as its bark! This new regulator was looking like a bulldog but this is the bulldog we got
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