NSW Parliament passed the Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2019 on 3 June 2020.  The Bill awaits Royal Assent.

The headline issues for those in the residential construction space are:

• The statutory duty is owed to owners (and subsequent owners) to take reasonable care to avoid economic loss caused by defects (Part 4 Duty).
• The Part 4 Duty will be completely retrospective and come into effect immediately on Royal Assent. This is a departure from what was originally proposed (for more see: Design and Building Practitioners Bill: the bare essentials).
• The Part 4 Duty extends to all who undertake residential building work (including design consultants and suppliers/manufacturers of materials/products).  This includes project managers and others who supervise or coordinate residential building work (or who have substantive control over the work).
• The requirement to be registered on the public registers of Building Practitioners and certain Engineers is deferred to 1 July 2021.

All stakeholders in the residential construction space must now grapple with exposure to claims arising from defects which extend beyond the Home Building Act limitation periods.

The Construction + Projects team at ERA Legal are and will be assisting clients to equip themselves to address the additional risk arising from this major legislative reform in NSW.

If you have any questions or want to know how you can get your business ready to soften the impact of this major legislative reform, please contact Mark Yum or Nelson Arias-Alvarez on (02) 9324 5300 or on construction@eralegal.com.au.