Substantial changes made to Victorian building law

The Victorian Government has made a range of changes to Victorian building law including the introduction of the Building and Plumbing Administration and Enforcement Act 2026 (the Enforcement Act), repealing the Cladding Safety Victoria Act and making a large number of changes in preparation for future reforms under the Building Legislation and Treasury Legislation (Tax Relief) Amendment Bill 2026 (Amendment Bill).

The Enforcement Act does a range of things including legally establishing the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC), introduces a new overarching building system objective to promote and protect the health and safety of building occupants and the public, identifies the statutory roles in the building and plumbing regulatory system, equips the BPC with modern enforcement powers to strengthen oversight of the system including broader scope to use infringement notices and a new improvement notice power to monitor compliance and identify issues early as well as new civil penalties for more serious cases. The Enforcement Act is expected to commence mid to late next year and no later than 1 December 2027.

Cladding Safety Victoria (CSV) was established in 2020 to oversee the Private Residential Cladding Rectification Program and Government-owned Buildings Cladding Rectification Program. Now that the CSV has completed remediation of more than 99% of the highest-risk buildings in the Cladding Rectification Program the CSV is being wound up. This also means that the Cladding Rectification Levy component of the Building Permit Levy will be repealed.

The Amendment Bill also introduces a legislative framework for a range of changes which are either effective immediately or will follow now that the legislative framework has been established. These include but are not limited to:

• resolving key challenges with the Place of Public Entertainment scheme 
• making further amendments to the Security of Payment Act (including requiring the Minister to conduct regular reviews of the Act, extending immunity to authorised nominating authorities which currently only applies to adjudicators) 
• taking further steps towards the establishment of a scheme for the private market to provide ten years of insurance cover in relation to relevant building elements of new residential buildings 
• enabling building surveyors to issue emergency orders and building notices in relation to land following the recommendations of the McCrae Landslide report.
   

For further information contact:

Mel Rohan
mrohan@rics.org