Beyond Minimum: Proposition for Building Surveyors to Exceed the Minimum Standards of the Construction Code

Abstract

The Australian National Construction Code lays out the minimum necessary standards for buildings. As building regulations have grown more onerous, the cost of construction has also become more expensive. Building surveyors in Australia, mostly operating in private capacity, are thus thrust in the unenviable position of ensuring compliance to these ever-increasing minimum requirements. Building surveyors have a statutory role of issuing building permits, conducting mandatory inspections, and issuing occupancy permits. Conversely, there is a perverse incentive to lower their standards in order to run a viable business. The emerging high-rise combustible cladding crisis in Australia and professional indemnity insurance crisis reveal that building surveyors have been assuming more risk than what insurers were prepared to underwrite. This made it evident that one could meet the minimum standards of the construction code yet fall foul of the building legislation of being fit for purpose. This paper uncovers the changing expectation in the profession by reviewing the building-related legislation in Victoria, recent court rulings, conflicts between building surveyor and building authority, a new code of conduct, and the professional indemnity insurance crisis facing the profession. These seismic shifts reveal how the role of a building surveyor in the near future will have to be redefined in terms of exceeding minimum standards that were previously assumed to be sufficient.

Part of CIRS Nexus · Curated by Lauren Lowenstein, The Biotoxin Lady