Our take on the 2020 VBA Building Surveyors Conference

Last week, Visual Approvals staff members attended the 2020 VBA Building Surveyors Conference held at the Melbourne Exhibition and Conference Centre. The conference was the perfect opportunity to hear from leaders within the industry and keep abreast of forthcoming changes.

There were a number of first class presentations throughout the day, but to hear the views of the Planning Minister Mr Richard Wynne, the VBA Chief Executive Officer Ms Sue Digby,  and  Mr Andrew Cialini the new Victorian State Building Surveyor, on the current health of the industry and its future over the next 12-24 months was both interesting and reassuring.

A few notable takeaways from the presentations were:

• The Victorian Government believes PI Insurance must be dealt with at the national level
• There are only 350 building surveyors out of 695 registered surveyors issuing permits in Victoria
• The average age of new surveyors is 39, whilst the average age of all building surveyors is 50
• The VBA has formed close relationships with the NSW BPB and QBCC and are looking at the new NSW rating system currently being implemented
• Smaller building certification businesses will merge to continue to exist
• Insurers will come back into the marketplace sometime in the future with an increased focus on risk management
• Accountability needs to be distributed, documentation and the acceptability of the reliance on provided certificates must improve

It appears future audits will be focused on documentation around the issue of building and occupancy permits with a distinct spotlight on the certificates relied upon in buildings of class 2, 3 and 9. This seems to follow the audit process currently underway in NSW.

The DELWP representative mentioned that they were excited about the information being received via the BAMS system and explained how they intend to utilise that information to initiate further building regulation reform.

We look forward to the future outcomes of the conference and congratulate the VBA on their initiative. We’re encouraged by the VBA’s approach to keep their registered practitioners and suppliers to the industry informed.

Visual Approvals building surveying software integrates with BAMS and leads the industry with its risk management tools. For more information about how Visual Approvals can help strengthen your risk-based regulatory practice, please contact us.

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