Master Plumbers Welcomes Government’s New No-consent 'granny Flat' Policy

Master Plumbers believes the Government’s plan to allow buildings up to 60 square meters to be constructed without requiring a consent will help lower costs and reduce compliance for the construction sector.

“The policy basically enacts self-certification for plumbing and drainlaying—up to an area of 60m2,” says Master Plumbers chief executive Greg Wallace.

Self-certification is a consenting process that allows the tradesperson completing the job to sign off on their work, instead of an in-person inspector currently required by the council.

However, Mr Wallace suggests that digital recordkeeping should be required by trade professionals if the policy goes ahead. “We should be using digital record keeping for these small buildings to ensure people get a registered tradesperson doing the job. It helps to reassure people that the job has been done well and to the required standard. Tradespeople should be held to account for the work they complete, and be backed up by reasonable insurance cover.”

MBIE recently completed a digital compliance pilot project for Low-Risk Plumbing and Drainlaying Work that showed that using a digital platform to take photos and record information about specific plumbing jobs was intuitive and could be picked up with only a short training session.

Feedback from the pilot showed the potential for digital recordkeeping to be used for better project outcomes.

“We totally support less compliance and regulation, but we also think we can be smart in how we go about achieving that.

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