The Design & Building Practitioners Act, Explained for Owners
Most building legislation is written for the industry, not for the people who live in the buildings. The Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 is different, because a great deal of it exists specifically to protect owners, and one part of it in particular gives owners corporations a legal right that many committees do not realise they have.
If you own an apartment or sit on a strata committee in NSW, there are two things in this Act worth understanding. The first is that anyone who carries out construction work owes you a duty of care, and that duty reaches back roughly a decade, applies even where you never had a contract with them, and cannot be signed away. The second is that the people who design work on your building are now required to be registered, which gives you a straightforward way to check whether the professional you are about to engage is actually qualified to do the work.
This guide explains both in plain English, along with what the Act requires when your building has work done, and how to use it.
This guide is general information about the Design and Building Practitioners Act. It is not legal advice, and duty of care claims in particular turn on the specific facts, the building and applicable time limits. For anything approaching a claim, speak with a construction lawyer.
Why the Act exists
The DBP Act was the NSW Government's response to a period that badly damaged public confidence in apartment buildings. High profile failures, widespread defects in newly built strata schemes, and the combustible cladding crisis all pointed to the same underlying problem: buildings were being designed and built without a reliable chain of accountability, and when things went wrong, owners often found they had no practical way to hold anyone responsible.
Two things made that worse for owners specifically. Design documentation was frequently inadequate or changed on site without record, so nobody could establish what was supposed to have been built. And the law on recovering pure economic loss, the cost of fixing defects, had developed in a way that left many owners corporations without a remedy against builders and designers they had no contract with.
The Act attacks both problems. It creates a documented, declared chain of design accountability for regulated building work, and it establishes a statutory duty of care that owners can actually enforce.
The part that matters most to owners: the statutory duty of care
This is the provision worth knowing about, and it is unusually favourable to owners.
Section 37 of the Act provides that a person who carries out construction work has a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid economic loss caused by defects in or related to the building. Several features of that duty make it powerful in practice.
It is owed directly to you. The duty is owed to the owner of the land and to each subsequent owner. That means a current owners corporation can rely on it even though the building was completed and sold long before, and even though it never contracted with the builder, designer or engineer concerned.
No contract is required. This is the change that matters most. Previously an owners corporation frequently had no contractual relationship with the parties actually responsible for a defect, and the common law made recovering pure economic loss difficult. The statutory duty removes that barrier.
It cannot be contracted out of or delegated. Nobody can sign away this duty or push it onto someone else.
It applies retrospectively, for about ten years. Owners can enforce the duty for economic loss that first became apparent in the ten years immediately before the section commenced on 11 June 2020, or that becomes apparent after that. In practical terms, defects connected to construction work from around mid 2010 onwards may be within reach, subject to the applicable limitation periods.
It applies broadly across building types. The NSW Court of Appeal confirmed in Roberts v Goodwin Street Developments in 2023 that the duty applies to buildings generally as defined in the planning legislation, not only to class 2 residential apartment buildings. That decision significantly widened who can rely on it.
Economic loss includes what it costs you to fix things. An owners corporation is taken to suffer economic loss where it bears the cost of rectifying defects and the damage those defects have caused, and that can extend to reasonable costs such as alternative accommodation where residents need to be relocated.
It sits alongside your other rights. The duty is cumulative. It does not replace statutory warranties under the Home Building Act or any contractual rights; it is an additional avenue.
For a committee, the practical significance is this. If your building has defects and you were told years ago that nothing could be done because the warranty period had expired or because the owners corporation had no contract with the responsible party, that advice may no longer reflect the position. It is worth revisiting with a construction lawyer.
What the Act requires when work is designed
The second half of the Act is about accountability going forward, and it changes who is allowed to design work on your building.
For regulated building work, designs must be prepared by a registered design practitioner, who then provides a design compliance declaration stating that the design complies with the Building Code of Australia and other applicable requirements. Those declarations are lodged through the NSW Planning Portal, creating a documented record. Builders similarly provide building compliance declarations confirming the work was built in accordance with the declared designs.
Two points matter for owners.
Registration is class based. Practitioners are registered in specific classes matched to the work they do, and the classes relevant to most building problems include structural, civil, facade and waterproofing. A practitioner registered in one class is not thereby qualified, in the eyes of the scheme, to declare designs in another. When you engage someone to design remedial work on your building, the class of their registration is the thing to check.
It covers repairs, not just new buildings. This is the point most owners miss. The regime applies to the construction of new class 2 buildings and mixed use buildings with class 2 parts, and also to alterations and to the repair, renovation and protective treatment of those buildings. So remedial work on an existing apartment building, replacing a waterproofing membrane, remediating a facade, repairing concrete, is regulated work that requires appropriately registered practitioners and declared designs.
The elements the regime treats as regulated are the ones that cause the most expensive failures, including the building enclosure, which covers the external walls, roof systems, windows and doors that separate inside from outside, along with waterproofing, fire safety systems and load bearing components. That list maps almost exactly onto the problems covered in our guides to water ingress, facade inspections and combustible cladding.
What this means when you engage a consultant
The Act gives owners a practical screening tool, and it is worth using.
Before engaging anyone to assess or design work on your building, ask whether they are registered as a design practitioner and in which classes, and check that those classes cover the work you actually need. Registration is publicly verifiable, and a practitioner who is registered has met qualification, experience, insurance and continuing professional development requirements.
The consequences of getting this wrong are practical rather than theoretical. If you commission an assessment and remedial design from someone not registered in the relevant class, and the work is regulated building work, you may find the design cannot be declared and lodged, which means starting again with someone who can. That is wasted money and lost time, and it usually surfaces at the worst possible moment, when the scheme is ready to proceed.
It also matters for accountability. A registered practitioner making a compliance declaration is putting their registration behind the design. That is a meaningful commitment, and it is part of what the Act was built to create.
How the Act interacts with your other options
Owners often ask which pathway to use when a building has defects. The honest answer is that they overlap, and the right combination depends on the building's age and circumstances. Broadly:
Statutory warranties under the Home Building Act generally run six years for major defects and two years for other defects from completion.
The building bond scheme applies to new residential strata buildings of four or more storeys and runs its inspection process in the first couple of years, as covered in our guide to building defect reports.
The statutory duty of care under the DBP Act reaches back around ten years, applies without a contract, and covers a broader range of buildings.
Because these operate on different timeframes and against different parties, an owners corporation with defects should get advice on all of them rather than assuming one closed door means no options. What every pathway has in common is that it depends on evidence. A well documented defect report that identifies each defect, diagnoses its cause, and references the standards or code provisions breached is the foundation for any of them.
What owners should actually do
Check whether your building has documented defects. If problems keep recurring, get them properly investigated and recorded while your options remain open.
Do not assume you are out of time. The duty of care's retrospective reach means buildings completed years ago may still have avenues, subject to limitation periods.
Verify registration before you engage anyone for assessment or remedial design, and confirm the classes match the work.
Keep your documentation. Design compliance declarations, building compliance declarations, product certifications and reports are the evidence base for any future claim, and they belong in the owners corporation's records.
Get legal advice early where a claim looks possible, because limitation periods and the identification of the right respondents are specialised questions.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Design and Building Practitioners Act? It is NSW legislation introduced in 2020 to improve accountability in building design and construction. It requires designs for regulated building work to be prepared by registered practitioners who declare compliance, and it creates a statutory duty of care that building owners, including owners corporations, can enforce against those who carried out construction work.
What is the statutory duty of care under section 37? It is a duty on anyone carrying out construction work to exercise reasonable care to avoid economic loss caused by defects. It is owed to the owner and to each subsequent owner, does not require a contract, cannot be contracted out of, and applies retrospectively for economic loss that became apparent in the ten years before 11 June 2020 or afterwards, subject to limitation periods.
Does the duty of care apply to older buildings? It can. The duty applies retrospectively, so defects connected with construction work from around mid 2010 onwards may be within reach. The Court of Appeal has also confirmed it applies to buildings generally, not only class 2 apartment buildings. Whether it applies to your building is a legal question worth getting advice on.
Does the Act apply to repairs and remedial work? Yes. For class 2 buildings and mixed use buildings with class 2 parts, the regime covers not just new construction but alterations and the repair, renovation and protective treatment of the building. Remedial work such as facade remediation, waterproofing replacement and concrete repair is regulated work requiring registered practitioners and declared designs.
What is a registered design practitioner? A professional registered under the Act in specific classes matched to the work they design, such as structural, civil, facade or waterproofing. Registration requires qualifications, experience, insurance and ongoing professional development, and registered practitioners provide design compliance declarations for regulated building work.
How do I check whether a consultant is registered? Registration is publicly verifiable through NSW Government records. Ask any prospective consultant for their registration details and the classes they hold, and confirm those classes cover the work your building needs.
Work with a registered practitioner from the start
The Design and Building Practitioners Act was written because owners were being left with defective buildings and no practical way to hold anyone to account. For owners corporations, it has two genuinely useful consequences: a duty of care that reaches back about a decade and does not depend on a contract, and a registration system that lets you verify, before you spend anything, that the professional assessing your building is qualified to design the work that follows.
Assentra is a registered design practitioner in Civil, Structural, Facade and Waterproofing, the classes that cover the building enclosure, waterproofing and structural problems most strata schemes face. That means we can investigate a defect, document it to a standard that supports a claim, and design compliant remedial work without handing you between consultants. Learn more about our building defect reports or get in touch to discuss your building.