Building Practitioners Board

The Building Practitioners Board (BPB) was an independent statutory body established under the Building Act 1993 to administer Victoria’s building practitioner registration system.

The BPB’s role was to:

• register building practitioners
• monitor the conduct and ability of registered practitioners
• take disciplinary action against registered practitioners for breaches of building legislation
• issue Certificates of Consent to owner-builders.

On 1 September 2016, the BPB was abolished, and its functions, powers and responsibilities were transferred to the Victorian Building Authority (VBA). The BPB ceased to exist, except to decide disciplinary matters that had already commenced by transitional arrangements.

Under the transitional arrangements, all outstanding disciplinary matters were to be decided by the BPB under the law in place at the time of the alleged offending.

On 1 December 2020, under new transitional arrangements, the VBA assumed responsibility for deciding any remaining disciplinary matters not yet determined by the BPB.

Abolition of the BPB

The BPB was abolished on 1 September 2016 following the commencement of reforms introduced in the Building Legislation Amendment (Consumer Protection) Act 2016.

As part of the reforms, several important updates to ongoing registration requirements also commenced, although these updates did not affect the registration status of existing practitioners.

Building practitioners issued with a Notice of Inquiry by the BPB prior to the abolition date continued to have their disciplinary matters determined by the Board.

Since the abolition of the BPB, the VBA has

• decided all applications for building practitioner registration and renewal
• issued building practitioners with Show Cause Notices outlining proposed disciplinary action for alleged breaches of building legislation
• funded an independent internal service for practitioners seeking a review of a VBA disciplinary decision
• determined all applications for an owner-builder Certificate of Consent to carry out domestic building work.

On 1 December 2020, a small number of outstanding BPB disciplinary inquiries became the responsibility of the VBA following the commencement of the Building and Environment Protection Legislation Amendment Act 2020.