Building Practitioners Board Cancels Builder’s Licence

• Building Practitioners Board has cancelled builder Matthew Biddle’s licence.
• Decision means that he is no longer authorised to carry out restricted building work.
• Consumers urged to check LBP register when hiring building practitioners.

The Building Practitioners Board (the Board) has cancelled Licenced Building Practitioner (LBP) Matthew Biddle’s licence after finding Mr Biddle to be in breach of the Building Act 2004.

The cancellation of his Design Class 1 licence means that Mr Biddle will no longer be authorised to carry out or supervise restricted building and design work and is unable to reapply to be licensed under the LBP scheme for a period of two years.

A public register with the names of all LBPs is available and the practitioners should be able to show their licence card when asked. Anyone who is engaging a builder to carry out restricted building work is encouraged to check if they hold a licence by looking them up on the LBP public register.

Details of decision:

The defendant was in breach of section 317(1)(a) of the Building Act 2004 and discipled under section 318 of the Act:

• In February 2022, Mr Biddle pleaded guilty to two charges of using a forged document laid under section 257(1) of the Crimes Act 1961.
• The Board found that the criminal offending was serious and was directly related to the work for which Mr Biddle held a licence.
• The Board decided that there was an unacceptable risk of future offending or conduct that would be outside of the Licensed Building Practitioners Code of Ethics and that reflected adversely on his fitness to carry out or supervise building work.
• As a result of the finding, the Board decided that it would cancel the Mr Biddle’s licence and order that he may not reapply to be licensed for a period of two years.
• The full decision of the Board is available on the BPB website.

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