CEO of Urban Taskforce Australia Tom Forrest today welcomed the Minns Government’s latest efforts to remove bad actors from the complex area of building rectification.
An entire industry of “ambulance-chasing lawyers” has recently emerged. These lawyers say that they are pro-consumer, while actually working to stop defect rectification, encouraging owners’ corporations to take matters to court for the benefit of no-one except themselves.
This has led to a growing industry of litigation around building defects that:
- drives up costs for owners, builders, developers and insurers;
- prolongs disputes instead of resolving them quickly;
- encourages adversarial claims rather than practical remediation;
- damages confidence in apartment living and higher-density housing;
- adds further risk and cost to housing delivery at a time when NSW desperately needs more homes.
The Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Bill 2026 gives the Government a head of power under the Residential Apartment Building (Compliance and Enforcement) Act 2020 (the RAB Act) that will allow it to establish a regulatory framework for a building defect dispute mediation/resolution service through the Building Commission.
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