The Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (the Act) has undergone significant amendments that will alter the obligations of design and building practitioners and introduce new requirements and exemptions.

What has changed?

Professional indemnity insurance requirements deferred.

The Act requires registered building practitioners to hold professional indemnity insurance for the work they carry out. However, this mandatory insurance requirement has been deferred and will now commence from 1 July 2025 instead of 1 July 2024. This 12-month extension has been introduced due to the current recognition of limited access to insurance products needed to adequately cover the work of building practitioners, providing additional time for new industry insurance products to become available.

NSW consumers will continue to be protected by statutory warranties for defective or incomplete work under the Home Building Compensation Scheme and the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW).

More time to comply with remedial work requirements (Class 3 and 9c only)

The industry will now have until 1 July 2025 (instead of 1 July 2024) to comply with the Act for altering, repairing or renovating existing Class 3 and 9c buildings (such as boarding houses and residential care buildings).

This extension will provide the design and building industry with additional time to prepare for the obligations under the Design and Building Practitioners (DBP) scheme.

The Act continues to apply to building work on new and existing Class 2 buildings, such as multi-storey, multi-unit apartment buildings, and new Class 3 and 9c buildings.

New exemption for work on hotels and motels

Certain Class 3 and 9 buildings do not require registered design and building practitioners (for example, hotels and motels).

From 1 July 2024, the following types of new low-risk Class 3 buildings and Class 9 buildings containing a minor Class 3 part will be exempt from requirements under the Act.

• Hotels and motels (if no part is subject to a residential strata scheme or contains serviced apartments).
• Class 9a or 9b buildings that include minor accommodation facilities where the Class 3 part is less than 10% of the gross floor area.

This means:

• Registered design practitioners will not be required to prepare designs and design compliance declarations for these buildings.
• A registered building practitioner will not be required to lodge declarations and work on these buildings.
• Obligations imposed on practitioners by the scheme remain proportionate to the risks associated with the work that is carried out.

If construction started on a new hotel, motel or minor accommodation facility before 1 July 2024:

• Rules and obligations will exclude these developments under the Act.
• The NSW Planning Portal will not require any further designs and design compliance declarations to be uploaded.
• A building compliance declaration does not need to be submitted.