Victorian Building Authority

The VBA is a safe haven for dodgy builders. Does nothing for the building industry except make excuses and protect the dodgy licensed and unlicensed operators within it. The whole industry needs a Royal Commission into its operations, enquiring into the way the consumer is a sitting duck without any rights and the inadequacy of the warranty insurance. The builders walk away Scott free whilst the home builder loses hundreds of thousands. The VBA is a toothless tiger. Either that, or corrupt!

The purpose of the VBA is to ensure that builders and plumbers work is compliant. When I advised them of non-compliant plumbing and building work, with building and plumbing inspector reports they refused to hold the plumber and builder accountable. Even though they were clear breaches of the legislation the VBA is meant to enforce, they brushed it of as “contractual”. Exhaust fans discharging into an unventilated roof space? The VBA will do nothing… the plumber couldn’t fit the fixtures because breaches too far back so they removed flanges and backing plates to “make it fit” but now it leaks into the wall… the VBA will do nothing.

This organisation is an absolute joke. Complete waste of taxpayers money. They have no interest in holding practitioners account for dodgy workmanship. If I could give zero stars I would.

The employees of VBA dont know what they are doing. Such an incompetent organisation. All employees of this organisation need some serious training; at least to interpret simple clauses in an act or code or regulation.

There are some great staff in the VBA but my experience is overall the VBA seek to NOT investigate significant building law issues - until you cite the legal obligations back to them - and then when forced to do so have covert processes that take FOI’s, then FOI reviews from OVIC to get to the bottom of. Their actions mean that building law continues to be overlooked by authorities who don’t issue temporary occupancy permits for events because the VBA offered immunity to them. It happens at the expense of public safety….it’s baffling. The VBA need reform or to be dissolved as this is just one issue - waterproofing should be by registered practitioners and there’s so much evidence for it - but the unions complain and the VBA just lets building crumble. It’s just not working.

No fall in drain, leaking gutter, non compliant plumbing works, etc. Plumber wont return and no plumber will take over. Vba taken no action

laughable joke i remember in 2020 my friend called the VBA to check if the building company was registered or had a license. On the building contract the license was invalid or expired and the answer from the VBA - that had foriegn backpackers answering the phone with UK accents was the building doenst have a license on our system. You ask them are you going to do anything about it and they say its up to you to do something about it.... So in other words Australian regualtors do nothing and get paid to do nothing... you can be a builder in Australia you dont need to speak english you dont need insurance you dont need registration or any skills or show anything, just any con man or sammer can build a fake house for someone and then leave the country the VBA wont even investigate it... This was pretty offensive as this building company was very big in Melbourne and had the business of relocation homes, yet the hole time all they are is dodgy commision people using dodgy contracts with no building license whatsoever, they didnt even include insulation in the house walls which your supposed to do in every Australian home, but who is going to make a builder do it , NOBODY . They build houses in Australia now to the same quality as China and INdonesia, cheapest material , do whatever you can get away with and make it so its not worth fixing up latter just knock it down and build a new one in 10 years. The faults you find will be an a4 piece of paper long making renovations a waste of time later .

After watching the 60 minutes report on the vba i was so angry innocent people lossing the dream and the hard earned money because of these corupt and incompetent clowns, heads need to roll, absolute disgrace, not to mention the stress its putting on the inspectors and their families who were trying to do their job correctly.

VBA is only a body corporate that's only interested in collecting money for corruptionAnybody who works for the VBA how do you sleep at night

The VBA don't enforce their own standards. VBA approved a plumbing performance solution on 5 Townhouses. VBA regulations state that a plumbing performance solution must ensure compliance. A performance solution must be on a certificate of occupancy (OC) and the plumbing compliance certificate. If this does not happen, VBA regulations state that if the OC or Compliance Certificate does not show them, they they will automatically be deemed non-compliant. VBA allowed this to happen, will not address that they allowed seriously defective properties to be occupied 5 years ago. If you have built or are building, check for plumbing performance solutions and check your OC and Compliance Certificates. I will be starting a social media education campaign, with links and evidence, as to why VBA are useless and lack knowledge. I will be publishing their communication to me in this and naming the practitioners, they continue to allow to operate, despite them having performed seriously dangerous work. I collapsed on the phone from Atrial Fibrillation struggling to breathe and they left me there to die. They did not call an ambulance. I was lucky, that after a few minutes, I was able to make a last call. VBA believe and I have it in writing, that they acted appropriately.