Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Eastern Victoria Region housing

Ms BURNETT-WAKE (Eastern Victoria) (17:55): (1928) My adjournment matter is to the Minister for Planning, and it concerns the many orphaned homes across Eastern Victoria Region. The action that I seek is for the minister to help the many Victorians impacted by their surveyor no longer being in business by invoking powers under the Building Act 1993. I was recently made aware of the term ‘orphaned home’. An orphaned home is a home build that cannot be completed or is unable to be lived in due to the building surveyor going missing in action, losing their licence or no longer being in business before final permits are received. Now, there are over 800 orphaned homes in the Yarra Ranges council area specifically and tens of thousands across Victoria. Many of my constituents cannot get final building permits or certificates of occupancy because their surveyor has shut up shop. These home owners cannot find other surveyors willing to take on the job due to crippling insurance liabilities.

A news article by the ABC from October last year tells the story of a couple from Mount Eliza, part of my electorate. They were kicked out of their home in June last year after lodging an objection with the council over a neighbour’s building proposal. In dealing with the complaint, the council discovered they did not receive a certificate of occupancy before moving in in 2015. They discovered the building surveyor had been deregistered, and no-one is now willing to take on the issue. The couple have been turned away by two dozen surveyors, with no-one willing to take on the job due to liability, despite the fact the home is perfectly habitable. The issue all comes down to risk. The Andrews Labor government banned flammable cladding in 2021 and clamped down on surveyors in the months that followed. This resulted in professional indemnity insurance prices skyrocketing. One surveyor’s insurance jumped by 800 per cent in one year. This has resulted in many surveyors closing their doors, leading to the orphaned homes crisis.

Under section 83B of the Building Act 1993 the Victorian Building Authority have the power to step in and appoint a manager in the event that a building surveyor dies, is imprisoned, has their licence suspended or cancelled, becomes insolvent or ceases to carry out their functions. In the October ABC article the Minister for Planning declined to say whether this law had ever been invoked and instead directed affected residents to contact their local council. This is a statewide issue that needs to be addressed at a state level. That is why there are provisions under state legislation that allow the minister to step in in these exact situations. Further, the Victorian Building Authority can recover moneys paid to these appointed managers under section 83L, which local councils cannot do. An insurance lawyer from Lander & Rogers states clearly in the same article I have mentioned that the government have a responsibility to intervene to help these home owners left hanging in the balance. Again, I call on the minister to invoke his powers under section 83B of the Building Act 1993 so the many impacted Victorians can live in their homes and get on with life.