New bill proposes big changes
Changes to Project Bank Accounts could have a major impact on developers. The changes are a result of proposals contained in a new bill introduced into Parliament.
The Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020 will update the:
- Project Bank Account arrangements
- Penalties to ensure compliance with the minimum financial requirements regulations
- Building certification and inspection processes and standards
- Architects and professional engineer boards
- Retirement Villages Act 1999 to maintain review rights to QCAT of transition plans beyond 2020.
Changes to Project Bank Accounts could have a major impact on developers. The changes are a result of proposals contained in a new bill introduced into Parliament.
The bill imposes significant changes to Project Bank Accounts (PBAs). These changes include:
- The ability for a head contractor to lodge a charge over land where the work took place making the head contractor a secured creditor
- It enables a service of a payment withholding request on a higher party in the contractual chain for an adjudicated amount
- Where the dispute is between a head contractor and a developer the head contractor can issue a withholding request to the developer’s financier. Requiring one project trust account for each project
Other proposed changes include:
- Replacement of the disputed funds account with new protections including a payment withholding request
- A single retention trust account per contractor where a project trust is required
- Providing the commission with the appropriate powers to take on a compliance, monitoring and oversight role.
The Institute is urgently preparing a submission on the matters and your comments are sought on the new bill. Minister de Brenni introduced the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020 into the Queensland Parliament on February 5. Submissions on the bill are required by February 26.
It will also deliver the first of three phases of Queensland’s certification reforms to strengthen building certification and inspection processes and standards arising from the Queensland Building Plan and the national Building Confidence Report. Among other things, it will things clarify a certifier’s primary duty of care is to act in the public interest.
The bill also includes amendments to provide penalties to ensure compliance with the minimum financial requirements regulations, and to ensure that excluded individuals can be prevented from becoming Site Supervisors in the Queensland construction industry. It will also permit checking of licensing cancellation or similar information with interstate or New Zealand agencies.
The changes also ensure the continuation of external review rights for decisions about transition plans for retirement village schemes. Scheme operators who propose to transition control of a retirement village to a new scheme operator must prepare a transition plan. The changes will permit plans to be reviewable by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), beyond 11 November 2020.
If you have any comments, please contact Martin Zaltron at mzaltron@udiaqld.com.au on (07) 3229 1589 for an Institute submission.