Industry alert for building practitioners: Building and Plumbing Amendment (Solar Water Heater and Other Matters) Regulations 2023

On 28 November 2023, Victoria introduced the Building and Plumbing Amendment (Solar Water Heater and Other Matters) Regulations 2023.

These changes amend the Building Regulations 2018 to provide a regulated schedule for the application of certain provisions of the Building Code of Australia (BCA).

The amendments include:

• Delayed implementation for livable housing provisions and requirements to consider roof loads to support solar photovoltaic panels until 1 May 2024, in line with other National Construction Code (NCC) livable housing and energy efficiency provisions that also come into effect on 1 May 2024. Until then, practitioners may continue to use relevant NCC 2019 requirements.
• Modifications to Form 2 – Building Permit in Schedule 4 (of Building Regulations 2018), to require reporting where an exemption or partial compliance has been granted against some clauses in BCA Volume Two – Livable Housing Design (step-free access path requirements). This will become enforceable when the livable housing provisions are adopted on 1 May 2024.
• Effective immediately, any type of solar or heat pump water heater that meets relevant energy efficiency performance standards can be installed in new Class 1 homes, regardless of whether reticulated natural gas is available for connection, meaning the requirement for a gas-boosted solar water heater in those areas has been removed.

For more details on the changes, please visit the building or plumbing legislative and regulatory amendments web pages on the VBA website.

If you have questions about these amendments, please contact the VBA on 1300 815 127 or email our Building Technical Enquiries team.