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The Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Bill 2026 (the Bill) passed through Parliament on Tuesday afternoon 4 August 2026. The Bill is awaiting assent from the Governor and will commence on a date set by proclamation.
Much of the practical operation and implication for those affected by the passing of this Bill will be determined by the regulations which are yet to be made and published. These regulations, when made, will provide the details on the operation of the Bill and how and who it will affect. The timing for the making of the regulations is not known.
The Bill will:
- introduce a new Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Act 2026;
- repeal the Building and Development Certifiers Act 2018;
- repeal of the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020;
- repeal of the Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021; and
- make significant changes to Part 6 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979(the EP&A Act).
The Bill provides a new, consolidated framework for building approvals, practitioner registration, enforcement and accountability, replacing and consolidating existing certification and practitioner regimes.
The Bill also, for the first time, recognises and provides for regulation of prefabricated and modular construction. Off-site modular construction is stated by the NSW Government as a key to boosting housing supply on NSW with the stated potential of reducing building costs and improving the rate of supply of homes being built.
The Bill:
- recognises modern methods of construction in law by defining ‘prefabricated buildings’;
- integrates prefabricated buildings into the building approval system; and
- provides regulations for the manufacture, supply transport. delivery and installation of prefabricated buildings including the introduction of ‘prefabricated building declarations’ and ‘prefabricated building instructions’ to be to be provided by the prefab manufacturer.
Other features of the Bill:
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Consolidates existing building approval, certification and practitioner regulation requirements into a single, consolidated approvals and compliance framework.
References to construction certificates (CC’s) and occupation certificates (OC’s) will be removed from the EP&A Act and will be replaced in the Bill by building approvals and completion approvals issued by an ‘approval authority’.
Building approvals will replace construction certificates.
Completion approvals will replace occupation certificates.
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Amends the Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Act 2020 to provide establishing of a new scheme for the resolution of disputes involving building work by Building Commission NSW. The regulations establishing this dispute resolution scheme must be established by 31 December 2026.
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Retains the statutory duty of care imposed on persons carrying out construction work to take reasonable care to avoid economic loss caused by defects.
Despite amendments sought by the NSW opposition to restore the proportionate liability defences to claims for breach of this statutory duty following the High Court’s decision in Pafburn and the NSW Supreme Court’s decision in Kapila v Monument Building Group such a claim remains unable to be apportioned between multiple concurrent wrongdoers.
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Contemplates that the regulations may modify how the Bill and the Home Building Act 1989 apply to prefabricated buildings.
To what extent (if at all) will the regulations address the interaction between the statutory warranties implied into every contract to do residential building work and the statutory reliance on a prefabricated building declaration afforded by the Bill to a person carrying out building work involving prefabricated building on a prefabricated building declaration
- Provides for savings and transitional provisions to be made by the regulations upon the enactment of the Bill.
As always, the regulations will be keenly awaiting to provide the finer detail. The Swaab Construction and Strata team will keep you updated on the timing of the commencement of this Bill and the making of the all-important regulations.
For further information please contact:
Mark Glynn, Partner
Phone: +61 2 9777 8342
Email: mcg@swaab.com.au
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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