Last week the Queensland Government announced that it is proposing to ban combustible cladding on all new Queensland buildings.

The ban will apply to all aluminium composite panels with a PE (polyethylene) core of greater than 30%.

The announcement came as the Government is attempting to resolve the Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance crisis affecting the State’s 400 private certifiers.

To hold a licence, certifiers must have PI insurance without exclusions.

After horrific events like the Grenfell Tower in London in 2017 insurers have been steadily withdrawing from the market and on 2 July 2019 the last remaining insurer offering no-exclusion PI insurance also withdrew.

The proposed changes will allow private certifiers to hold PI insurance with exclusions for flammable cladding.

The QBCC has announced that it will not take enforcement action against certifiers that have current PI insurance with exclusions for flammable cladding whilst the laws are being changed.

This last announcement comes as the deadline for Part 2 of the Safer Buildings Combustible Cladding Checklist looms on 31 July 2019.

Pursuant to the checklist all owners of buildings which are class 2-9, of type A or B Construction and built or had the cladding altered after 1 January 1994 but before 1 October 2018 must have registered their buildings and completed the combustible cladding checklist by 29 March 2019 (Part 1).

Pursuant to Part 2 of the checklist owners are required to engage a building industry professional to complete a Form 34 – Building Industry Professional Statement. The owner is required to submit this form and part 2 of the checklist by 31 July 2019.

However, if a builder owner knows or suspects that they may have combustible cladding they are able to directly progress to part 3 – engaging a fire engineer (and advising the QBCC of their engagement by 31 October 2019) to provide a fire engineer statement and Building Fire Safety Risk Assessment (by 3 May 2021).

For more information see the link below to the Government’s Guidelines for assessing buildings with combustible cladding or contact Axia today for more information.

http://www.hpw.qld.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/GuidelineAccessCombustibleBuildings.pdf