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Compliance reports

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Builder Building surveyor Licence holders Painter Permit authority Plumber

Building disputes

Building disputes monthly reports

These reports provide an overview of the number and type of complaints received, average time taken to close and the decisions/outcomes achieved for the month.

View all monthly reports

Disputes (building service or home building work contract complaints)

Any person adversely affected by the carrying out of a regulated building service may lodge a complaint alleging that a building service has not been carried out in a proper and proficient manner or is faulty or unsatisfactory. This type of complaint can only be made within six years of the building service being completed.

A person under a home building work contract (HBWC) may also lodge a complaint regarding a breach of the contract or a breach of the Home Building Contracts Act 1991. This type of complaint must be lodged within three years of the cause of the breach arising.

Building service complaints may be lodged against both registered and unregistered building service providers. Home building work contract complaints may be lodged by either party under the contract, including by the builder against the owner should a breach of the contract be alleged.

The purpose of dispute resolution is to provide a remedy or a determination to the issues in dispute. This is done without regard to who is at fault or apportioning blame to a particular party. If concerns with regard to conduct, or a breach of statutory law is identified during the course of dealing with a building service or home building work complaint, these concerns are referred to the Enforcement Branch for consideration outside the dispute resolution process.

If warranted, the Enforcement Branch will commence an investigation into the matter if it is considered that a statutory offence or disciplinary complaint may be substantiated.

Dispute resolution process

In 2020/21 there were 771 complaints lodged comprising 608 building service complaints, 113 home building work contract (HBWC) complaints and 50 complaints relating to both building service and HBWC complaints.

Table 1: Disputes lodged

	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
Building service	707	579	547	494	608
HBWC	118	102	82	63	113
Building service and HBWC	79	53	40	42	50
Total	904	734	669	599	771

In 2020/21 complaints against registered/licensed service providers made up 514 of the 771 disputes received, while complaints against unregistered/unlicensed services providers comprised 253. In addition, there were 4 complaints where building service providers had contractual disputes with an owner.

Table 2: Disputes lodged – service provider type

	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
Registered/licensed	536	412	390	321	514
Builder	506	376	363	300	487
Plumber	6	9	6	3	3
Painter	24	27	21	17	22
Builder Surveyor	Nil	Nil	Nil	1	2
Unregistered/unlicensed	325	296	247	253	253
Builder	317	291	238	247	246
Plumber	1	1	1	2	2
Painter	7	4	8	4	5
Complaint against owner – HBWC	43	26	32	25	4
Total	904	734	669	599	771

There were 643 disputes finalised in 2020/21 with 647 outcomes recorded. During that year there were 261 orders issued by the Building Commissioner, 152 complaints referred to the State Administrative Tribunal and 70 complaints withdrawn due to intervention by Building and Energy Staff.

Outcome and finalisation numbers may vary due to some complaints resulting in multiple outcomes, for example an order may have been issued for part of a complaint by the Building Commissioner with the remainder of the complaint being referred to the State Administrative Tribunal. Disputes may be refused for a variety of reasons, including those that have not been lodged in accordance with the relevant legislation or that are lodged outside of the statutory time limit.

Table 3: Finalised disputes – outcomes


	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
Complaint refused by Building Commissioner	66	64	46	34	32
Order made by Building Commissioner	330	303	229	217	242
Conciliation Order issued	68	49	43	25	19
Referred to State Administrative Tribunal	178	156	141	139	152
Complaint withdrawn	146	163	136	96	110
Complaint withdrawn due to intervention	54	41	36	60	70
Complaint dismissed by the Building Commissioner	54	58	33	31	22
Total	896	834	664	602	647

It took on average 163 calendar days to close a dispute in 2020/21. This includes matters that have been refused or referred to the State Administrative Tribunal. Of these, 45% were finalised within three months, 71% were finalised within six months, 94% were finalised within 12 months and 97% were finalised within 18 months.

Table 4: Finalised disputes – timeliness


	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
Average calendar days to close dispute	164	162	175	171	163
Disputes finalised within 3 months (%)	33	34	32	33	45
Disputes finalised within 6 months (%)	67	67	65	65	71
Disputes finalised within 12 months (%)	94	83	92	92	94
Disputes finalised within 18 months (%)	98	98	97	99	97

Enforcement

Enforcement (investigations into statutory offences and disciplinary complaints)

A disciplinary complaint can be lodged in connection with the conduct of a registered building service provider and a statutory offence complaint can be lodged about both registered and non-registered building service providers. Registered building service providers include builders, painters, building surveyors and approved owner-builders.

A statutory breach relates to allegations that a building service provider has breached statutory obligations or where an unregistered person performs work which requires registration.

The aim of an investigation is to establish the facts and, where applicable, attribute fault to a party.

There were 129 statutory offence and disciplinary complaints received in 2022/23. Of these, 65 related to disciplinary matters and 64 to statutory offences.

Table 1: Investigations received – complaint type


	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Disciplinary matter – registered/licensed	54	72	56	66	65
Statutory offence – unregistered/unlicensed	58	60	45	54	64
Total	112	132	101	120	129

Of the 129 statutory offence and disciplinary complaints received in 2022/23, 102 related to a building service, 20 to a painting service and 7 to building surveying.

Table 2: Investigations received – building service


	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Building service	88	95	76	89	102
Painting service	15	22	19	22	20
Building surveying	9	14	6	9	7
Adjudicating	-	1	-	-	-
Total	112	132	101	120	129

There were 75 disciplinary matters and 68 statutory offenses finalised in 2022/23.

Of the disciplinary matters finalised, 44 were refused by the Building Commissioner, 12 were referred to the Building services Board and 17 were dismissed by the Building Commissioner.

Table 3: Disciplinary matters finalised – outcomes


	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Complaint refused by Building Commissioner	36	28	37	36	44
Complaint dismissed by Building Commissioner	13	19	16	16	17
Referred to Building Services Board	14	21	20	17	12
No action/no breach	5	7	1	1	2
Caution/reprimand	2	1	4	1	1
Fine/penalty	7	11	10	10	1
Referred to other	-	1	-	-	-
Referred to State Administrative Tribunal	2	4	2	6	10
Total	79	92	90	87	87

*A finalised disciplinary matter may result in actions against multiple respondents.

Of the 68 statutory offence complaints finalised in 2022/23, 46 resulted in an administrative warning, 8 in no action/no breach and 6 in prosecution.

Table 4: Statutory offence complaints finalised – outcomes


	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Referred to prosecution	4	4	4	8	6
Infringement notice	-	-	-	2	-
Administrative warning	29	46	19	33	46
No action/no breach	19	17	10	7	8
Education/advice	-	17	2	-	8
Total	52	84	35	50	68

It took on average 300 calendar days to close statutory offence and disciplinary complaints in 2022/23. Of these 56 per cent were finalised within three months, 63 per cent within six months, 71 per cent within twelve months, and 78 per cent within eighteen months.

Table 5: Investigations finalised


	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Average days to close dispute	226	252	428	344	300
Investigations finalised within 3 months (%)	44	56	51	39	56
Investigations finalised within 6 months (%)	54	63	66	52	63
Investigations finalised within 12 months (%)	64	74	74	67	71
Investigations finalised within 18 months (%)	84	82	76	76	78

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Last modified: Friday, September 1, 2023 - 14:03

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Compliance reports

Building disputes

Building disputes monthly reports

Disputes (building service or home building work contract complaints)

Dispute resolution process

Table 1: Disputes lodged

Table 2: Disputes lodged – service provider type

Table 3: Finalised disputes – outcomes

Table 4: Finalised disputes – timeliness

Enforcement

Enforcement (investigations into statutory offences and disciplinary complaints)

Table 1: Investigations received – complaint type

Table 2: Investigations received – building service

Table 3: Disciplinary matters finalised – outcomes

Table 4: Statutory offence complaints finalised – outcomes

Table 5: Investigations finalised

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