As the Licensed Building Practitioner Scheme is quite new we thought we would include a bit about it in our blog this week. 

From 1 March 2012 changes to the Building Act 2004 mean that building work (including design work) that relates to either the structure (load-bearing walls; foundations etc) or moisture penetration (roofs; cladding etc) of homes including small to medium sized apartments will be classified as ‘Restricted Building Work’ (RBW).

Restricted Building work is deemed to be building work critical to the integrity of a building and therefore required to be carried out by competent, appropriately licensed building practitioners.  Hence in November 2007 The Department of Building and Housing established the Licensed Building Practitioner Scheme.

This scheme sets out a regulated process where skilled and/or qualified building practitioners are required to demonstrate their ability to meet industry consulted competencies in order to obtain the status of being a Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP).

The Licensed Building Practitioner logo confirms for consumers that the building practitioners they are engaging have been assessed as technically competent in their licensed field.

To retain their licence, an LBP is also to provide the Department with a record of training and activities such as reading industry publications or attending seminars they have undertaken as a means to ensure that their knowledge of their trade stays current in order to retain their licence.