Regulatory Priority: Water

Taking actions to address harms arising from water ingress and water damage that may lead to significant consumer issues such as mould, moisture in buildings and structural deterioration.

Reducing the risk of harms from water supply contamination, and consideration of events like flooding.

What we know:

*Incorrect construction, poor design, inappropriate materials and/or non-compliance with relevant standards may result in water ingress and moisture damage, which is linked to negative impacts on human health and amenity as well as building structural integrity

*Damage may only be revealed following a significant rainfall event or eventuate over time through continuous exposure to water.

*Significant water or mould issues can lead to and cause major financial, physical and mental health impacts on consumers.

*The incorrect installation/connections of water or sewerage may cause contamination to the water supply.

What we expect:

*Practitioners must understand and perform their work in accordance with relevant legislative requirements, the National Construction Code (NCC) and Australian Standards.

*Practitioners must work within the scope of their registration/licence and ensure their knowledge and professional development is maintained.

What we have done

• Published the quarterly findings from our Proactive Inspection Program (PIP) and our biannual Compliance & Enforcement Report that gives an insight into the Authority’s activities to highlight the most common non-compliance issues found during plumbing and building inspections such as roofing cladding and penetration, drainage and water ingress.

• Provided practitioners with new educational webinars focused on matters such as the development of performance-based solutions for plumbing; insights from proactive site inspections, audits and enforcement and commonly identified non-compliance issues; and insights from research into water ingress and indoor mould.

• Completed a series of National Construction Code (NCC) Roadshows across Victoria to ensure practitioners are up to date with the 2022 NCC changes including those related to condensation management to decrease health risks associated with condensation in new buildings.

• Updated and published a range of practice notes to provide guidance to practitioners on requirements under the Building Act 1993, Plumbing Regulations 2018, Building Regulations 2018 and the NCC that relate to topics such as stormwater drainage, roof flashings, gutters and downpipes.

• Setup a resource hub for consumers that provides links to safety guides on issues such as water ingress on balconies, decks and terraces, storm and flood information and hot water safety.

• Regularly published media releases to generate public awareness on the importance of regular home maintenance that may avoid damage and flooding during periods of wet weather (ie. checking gutters), the importance of using registered plumbers and WaterMark certified plumbing products and ensuring consumers check their balconies (ie. looking for wear and tear including wet rot and deterioration of balcony structures).

• Continued to prosecute unlicensed and unregistered individuals for undertaking plumbing working and providing details of prosecution outcomes in our Annual Report and on the VBA’s website.

• Continued to impose infringement fines against practitioners for failure to arrange drainage inspections.

• Provided consumers with access to our practitioner register and disciplinary register and promoting these tools to ensure they use registered and licensed practitioners.

• Established an Industry Harms Consultative Committee (IHCC) (PDF, 6157.96 KB) (page 57) to provide a forum to enable ongoing dialogue with key industry stakeholders on the regulatory priorities as well as emerging harms, risks and issues in the built environment and to seek insights on approaches and opportunities to best address these.

Conducted or supported research on:

• the capacity of the construction and plumbing services training package to support an industry call to improve skills and competencies of future plumbing graduates leading to improvements in plumbing qualifications.

• ways to reduce water damage and the risk of indoor mould in Victorian homes. Insights from this research will assist in identifying improvement opportunities for building design, construction, certification and regulatory oversight.

• building design to combat water damage.

• a proof of concept virtual reality training tool that will focus on inspection scenarios targeting the risk of moisture ingress and water damage in Victorian buildings.

• the frequency of water-related defects encountered in concrete balconies in apartment buildings to identify opportunities for improvement in concrete balcony design and construction practices, as well as regulatory standards.

• the risk of mould growth in external wall system used in the construction of regulatory compliant 6 and 7 star new homes in Victoria.

• the development of comprehensive recommendations for the design, construction and maintenance of climate-appropriate building envelope methods in Victoria to increase the moisture resilience of the external building envelope.