{"id":2066,"date":"2018-01-29T11:08:32","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T00:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/?p=2066"},"modified":"2018-02-25T13:39:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T02:39:28","slug":"owner-builder-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/2018\/01\/owner-builder-permits\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner Builder Permits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had occasion recently to apply for an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.service.nsw.gov.au\/transaction\/apply-owner-builder-permit\" target=\"_blank\">Owner-Builder Permit<\/a>. I\u2019ve done building work myself before, but hadn\u2019t previously required a Permit. This was due in part to the work being undertaken, but also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au\/ftw\/About_us\/Legislation\/Changes_to_legislation\/Major_changes_to_home_building_laws.page\" target=\"_blankl\">recent (2015) changes in home building laws<\/a>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Owner-builder work (requiring a Permit) is work (including supervision and coordination) involved in the construction of, or alterations, repairs or additions to, a dwelling:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top:2pt\">\n<li style=\"margin-top:2pt\">where the market value (labour and materials) exceeds $10,000, and<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top:2pt\">where development consent is required.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other overarching conditions apply, but in general an Owner-Builder Permit is designed to allow people, who have the skill or capacity, to build their own house or supervise construction by coordinating appropriate sub-contractors. While an Owner-Builder Permit is not a builder\u2019s licence, as an owner-builder you are responsible for the building work, as a fully licensed builder would be.<\/p>\n<p>Under the Permit, you become ultimately responsible for managing and coordinating the completion of the building work. You must still engage licensed contractors to complete any specialist work related to the construction unless you are licensed to do so yourself.<\/p>\n<p>If you don\u2019t want this responsibility, be wary of a builder who suggests you obtain an Owner-Builder Permit while they do all the building work for you. This may be a ploy where the builder is shirking responsibility, is unlicensed, or is unable to get necessary insurance. As an owner-builder you are guaranteeing the work that is undertaken and the next immediate owner of the property is entitled to the benefit of the statutory warranties set out in the <a href=\"https:\/\/legislation.nsw.gov.au\/#\/view\/act\/1989\/147\/historical2016-07-08\/part6\" target=\"_blank\">Home Building Act 1989<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s one more little hitch that I discovered\u2014all Owner Builder Permits are not created equal\u2026 If the value of your building work exceeds $20,000 (labour and material), you must first complete an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au\/ftw\/Tenants_and_home_owners\/Home_building_and_renovating\/Becoming_an_owner_builder\/Owner_builder_approved_education_requirement.page?\" target=\"_blank\">owner-builder training course<\/a>. This is not an insignificant task and, while the course can be completed through a number of distance education providers, it takes around 90 hours to complete.<\/p>\n<p>The course material covers work health and safety requirements (a substantial component of the material), project management, including estimating and costing, and reading and interpreting plans. Some institutions offer credit for \u2018prior experience\u2019, but I ultimately found it quicker to complete the coursework and assessment than to fill out all the paperwork required to gain credit for the prior experience.<\/p>\n<p>This is just an overview of the requirements here. If you\u2019re interested, refer to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au\/ftw\/Tenants_and_home_owners\/Home_building_and_renovating\/Becoming_an_owner_builder.page\" target=\"_blank\">NSW Fair Trading website<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had occasion recently to apply for an Owner-Builder Permit. I\u2019ve done building work myself before, but hadn\u2019t previously required a Permit. This was due in part to the work being undertaken, but also recent (2015) changes in home building laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2066"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2080,"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066\/revisions\/2080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/peteharrison.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}