Penalties for failing to give copies of Building Act Notices and Orders

A range of amendments to the Building Act 1993 came into force during 2017, including changes to service of notices and orders that will be of interest to owners corporations.

The new section 236(4C) states:

If a notice or order under Part 8 or Part 12A is to be served on an owner of a lot affected by an owners corporation, the notice or order may be served on the owners corporation and if so served is taken to be served on the owner.

Part 8 of the Act relates to building orders, including emergency orders and Part 12A of the Act relates to plumbing work.

The new section 236(4D) states:

An owners corporation on whom a notice or order is served in accordance with subsection (4C) must not fail to provide a copy of the notice or order to each lot owner affected by the notice or order within a reasonable time of receiving the notice or order.

Penalty: 60 penalty units.

The combined effect of these provisions is that where building notices or orders, including emergency orders are issued on a lot owner, they can be given instead to the owners corporation. The owners corporation then has an obligation to give a copy of the notice or order to the lot owner within a reasonable time. If the owners corporation fails to provide a copy to the lot owner it can be penalised.

The penalty unit rate increases each year. As at November 2017, each penalty unit is $158.57. Therefore the maximum penalty for the owners corproation failing to provide a copy of the notice or order to the lot owner is $9514.20 at the date of writing.

More information about changes to the Building Act 1993 can be found on the Victorian Building Authority Website.

The original post can be found here on Tiphanie's BLOG - https://ownerscorporationlaw.com.au/2017/11/01/penalties-for-failing-to-give-copies-of-building-act-notices-and-orders/