Petition Building Legislation Amendment (Buyer Protections) Bill 2025

The petition of certain citizens of the State of Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Council the proposed Building Legislation Amendment (Buyer Protections) Bill 2025.

The proposed changes are not in the best interest of all building consumers as they are going to result in an anti-competitive situation through the creation of a government-controlled insurance monopoly, centralised power with inadequate oversight of a regulator that has a proven track record of failing consumers and building practitioners alike. All of these factors increased costs that will be passed onto consumers.

These changes do nothing to address the failure of the Domestic Building Contract Act 1995 where the limits and schedules put in place in 1995 do not meet modern requirements.

There is a lack of procedures to resolve disputes between builders and subcontractors whenever a disputes occurs over works which increases costs to consumers, a lack of accountability from third party building inspectors both private and regulated, a lack of transparency and fairness in how the regulator investigates practitioners and unfair costs associated with accessing building standards and technical information which includes the limited hours the regulators technical team are available.

These factors are only some factors that are making building practitioners leave the State or walkaway from the industry all together. All things that adversely affect the cost of building.

The Bill needs to be referred to the Economy and Infrastructure Committee with expanded terms of reference to consider a whole of industry review encompassing all aspects of building. The committee should make recommendations on changes to all affected Acts and Regulations associated with the building industry to improve confidence in the building regulator and the building industry. The terms of reference should consider what can be done to improve efficiencies in the system, what regulatory costs are unnecessarily increasing prices on consumers, deposit limits of head contracts and supplier/subcontracts, first resort versus last resort insurances for practitioners and trades and how building disputes can be handle better.

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Council refer the Building Legislation Amendment (Buyer Protections) Bill 2025 to the Economy and Infrastructure Committee to review and report on system efficiencies and regulatory costs, deposit limits of head contracts and supplier and/or subcontracts, first and last resort insurances for practitioners and trades and the handling of building disputes.