Designer Audit Programme 2022

Consumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS) is an output of the Department of Justice, which administer the Building Act 2016 (the Act) amongst other legislation like the Occupational Licencing Act 2005. CBOS undertakes this monitoring through a number of compliance activities including onsite inspections, audits and remote reviews.

CBOS is commencing a proactive audit program for Tasmanian Building Designers, therefore I am writing to advise you that CBOS compliance officers will be contacting a number of building designers by way of a Notice under Section 22 of the Act, with a series of questions relating to their compliance with the requirements of the Act over the coming months.

A previous CBOS audit of building surveyors identified some areas of non-compliance for designs when assessed against Schedule 1 of the “Director’s Specified List”.

This audit will request information and documentation in relation to Class 1 buildings only for completed design drawings since 1 July 2021, for no more than 10 addresses where the designer has issued a ’Certificate of the Responsible Designer’ also known as Form 35, which indicates they have complied with the Act.

The audit intends on assessing the documentation developed and submitted to building surveyors by the designers against Schedule 1 of the “Director’s Specified List”. Schedule 1 of the determination sets out the minimum requirements for design documentation for Class 1 and Class 10 buildings.

  • The audit aims to assess the documentation prepared by designers to establish the level of compliance against the minimum requirements for each design/ documentation.
  •  To minimise impact of the audit on the selected designers, CBOS is only assessing selected elements of schedule 1 as they apply to Class 1 buildings.
  •  An electronic excel template will be emailed to each designer to assist in compiling and returning the requested information and documentation.
  •  The electronic template will include up to 10 sheets, one for each address. Where a designer has more than 10 assessable addresses, they are only required to provide 10 of those addresses.

While the audit program is designed to be educational in nature, promoting compliance and offering information about the Act, information received by CBOS could be used to fulfil any of its statutory functions and as a result, if any serious non-compliance is detected, enforcement action may be considered.

If you have any queries, please send an email to PACT.CBOS@justice.tas.gov.au and one of our compliance officers will contact you to answer any questions you may have.