The document was an email to me from Building Confidence Response a.k.a. the Building and Construction Policy Team which is apparently the organ of the NSW government responsible for championing the D+BP Act:
I appreciate the concerns you have raised around the application of the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (DBP Act) in relation to remedial building work. The Department is currently working with representatives of the remedial industry to provide information and guidance in relation to the application of the DBP reforms and address issues with implementation. Your feedback will inform this work.
In the meantime, I’d like to highlight that there is some building work which is exempt from the application of the DBP Act. This means that the work can be undertaken and the obligations requiring registered design practitioners and registered building practitioners to do the work and make compliance declarations do not apply. The full list of exemptions can be found in clause 13 of the DBP Regulation. Apart from the waterproofing exemption, which only applies to work on a single unit in an apartment building, not to the common areas and not to work involving multiple units in the building, there is also an exemption where the work involved is valued under $5,000. In the example you’ve provided, if the value of the work is $3,000, then the DBP Act does not apply. The work may be carried out without triggering the obligations under the DBP Act.
For building work where the exemptions do not apply, and practitioners you’ve previously engaged are not registered under the DBP Act and authorised to make declarations, it may be necessary to engage other consultants who are registered. There is a searchable public register that includes registered design and building practitioners.
I emailed them asking where the $5000 exemption was but have not had a reply.
Could there have been a ministerial order separate from the regulation?