THERE are serious industry concerns over the financial implications of the state government’s plan to introduce private certification for building licences and doubts have surfaced as to whether it will actually hasten the building approvals process.
THERE are serious industry concerns over the financial implications of the state government’s plan to introduce private certification for building licences and doubts have surfaced as to whether it will actually hasten the building approvals process.
Commerce Minister Simon O’Brien announced new legislation last week that he said was designed to streamline the building approvals process and strengthen protection for consumers.
The legislation allows builders and developers to use private assessors to certify compliance with building standards instead of local government representatives.
Under the new laws, the Department of Commerce’s new Building Commission will become the principal regulator of building standards and building services providers in Western Australia.
But, under the changes, local government authorities would still have 14 days to approve building certification once a development has been assessed, regardless of whether the assessment was done privately or through the council.
The changes, from three separate pieces of legislation, will be implemented in August and October.
Alcock Brown-Neaves Group managing director Dale Alcock said the proposal had been touted as private certification, but could be more accurately described as private assessment.
He said the private certification scheme in place in Victoria was more efficient because it removed the onus on the local government authority to provide certification.
“If what we were getting was true private certification of building licences without the intervention of the local authorities as we do in Victoria, then I’d be fully supportive,” Mr Alcock told WA Business News.
“What we’ve got is a model that has been like fruit that has been too long on the vine and, unfortunately, it’s been picked at and what we’re getting is not in the true sense private certification, but it’s private assessment.
“Why do we have to have that extra layer that we don’t have in Melbourne?”
Master Builders Association Western Australia director of housing and economics Gavan Forster said the group welcomed the reform, but said “the proof would be in the pudding” as to whether it had an effect on approvals efficiency.
“Our position to the planning minister has been that single-lot developments which comply with residential design codes should be exempt from planning approval and that would make the position very much faster,” Mr Forster said.
Mr Alcock and Mr Forster shared concerns over potential extra costs associated with the private assessments process and the establishment of the Building Commission.
Mr Forster said under the current system a builder’s licence fee cost $40. With the introduction of the Building Commission, that fee has been changed to 0.09 per cent of a development’s total cost. For a $10 million project, the building licence fee would be $9,000.
“That’s a rather hefty increase,” Mr Forster said.
For private assessments themselves, Mr Alcock said it was unclear how much extra cost that would bring.
“Whatever your fees start at, it would be naive to think that that’s where the fees will remain, so we’ve got to be worried about another fee per se and where that heads,” he said.
“In an environment where there is so much talk at a state and federal level about housing affordability, my response to that is get the hell out of the way and let us get on with it.
“These building licence approvals add very little value to the process of building a home, because at the end of the day the builder still accepts full responsibility for any inaccuracies or non-performance of the private certifier or the local authority.”
