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[Jimmy-T]

The DBPA, designed to protect us from dodgy builders, has exposed us to additional costs. The Building Commission explains why.

[See the full post at: Facts and faults – how the DBPA works and why]

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[Jimmy-T]

Some background:

Apartment buildings are the only building class where the remedial requirements of the DBPA currently apply.

The Act introduced requirements for remedial work in apartment buildings covering critical construction elements, such as:

• Load bearing components, like slabs, beams, columns and structural walls
• Waterproofing, like balconies, rooves, bathrooms and membranes
• Fire safety, like fire doors, cladding interfaces and passive fire protection
• Building enclosure / façade systems, like external walls and windows.

This rectification work often needs to comply with the BCA, which improves the quality of remedial work by including the latest safety requirements.

However, some of the internal and external building work generally defined as exempt development under the State Environmental Planning Policy includes:

• A doorway, wall, ceiling, or floor lining
• A bathroom or kitchen
• A built-in fixture such as vanity, cupboard, wardrobe
• An existing sanitary fixture (e.g. a grease trap or similar)
• Painting, plastering, cement rendering, cladding, attaching fittings or decorative work,
• The replacement of an external window, glazing areas or a door (other than those on bush fire prone land),
• The repair to or replacement of a non-structural wall or roof cladding,
• The installation of a security screen or grill to a door or window or a security door,
• The repair to or replacement of a balustrade.

A general guide on remedial work for apartments and information on exemptions can be found here.  For a guide on ‘exempt development’ requirements, see here.

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[Strata Ken]

So, it seems that the problem are that engineers are specifying excessive requirements, and then there aren’t enough waterproofers so they are all pushing the prices up. One quote for our remediation was half of what would be charged to build a whole new block of units.

My reading of the rules is that bathrooms are exempt unless there is more than one dwelling, in which case the paper work needs to be done. I haven’t gone through all the rules, but one difficult requirement is that waterproofing has to be done as a single sheet. Much fun because the bathrooms in mystery strata have tiles to the ceiling, resulting in a big job, to fix what is needed which is probably just the base of the shower. Or is that interpretation correct?

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[Jimmy-T]

Strata Ken wrote:

‘…bathrooms are exempt unless there is more than one dwelling,’

Which would mean that unit block bathrooms are not exempt. So how does that apply to townhouse bathrooms? We need a document like the “Who’s responsible?”guide that came out a few years ago.  My insider at the Building Commission said that one problem is that the BCA was written to apply to technologies many of which are long out of date and then the builders try to apply the letter of the law absolutely strictly.

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