Published 27 August 2026 by the RLM Consult Certify Comply team
New South Wales has passed the largest rewrite of its building laws in a generation. The Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Bill 2026 passed Parliament on 4 August and is now an Act, commencing on dates to be proclaimed as the supporting regulations are finalised. It consolidates the building approval pathway and the regulation of building practitioners that have been spread across several Acts. At the same time, construction insolvencies remain at historically high levels and every month brings news of another builder in administration with subcontractors owed money. This article covers both, because they connect: the practitioner regime is about who is fit to build, and the checklist is about protecting yourself when the answer turns out to be no.
What the Act does
The Act brings the approvals process for building work and the registration and regulation of building practitioners into a single framework. In broad terms it establishes a clearer building approval pathway with defined roles for certifiers, sets out who must be registered to design, build or certify classes of building work, and gives the regulator, NSW Building Commission, a consolidated set of compliance and disciplinary tools. The detail of which practitioners must be registered for which work, and the transitional arrangements for existing licence holders, will come through the regulations and the proclamation timetable, so nothing changes on site yet. What it signals is that the direction set by the Design and Building Practitioners Act, with its declared designs, registered practitioners and compliance declarations, is being extended across the industry rather than wound back.
For contractors the practical implications are to watch the regulations for the classes of work that will require registration, to keep quality records that can support a compliance declaration, and to make sure the management system that produces those records is certified, because certification is the simplest evidence of a working system when a registration application asks for it.
Eight checks before you sign with a builder
Subcontractors carry a disproportionate share of the loss when a head contractor fails. The checks below take a few hours and have saved our clients from six figure losses.
- Search the company. An ASIC company extract shows directors, shareholders, charges and any recent changes. Court list searches show winding up applications and judgments. Both are cheap and take minutes.
- Check the licence and registrations. Confirm the contractor licence is current and unrestricted, and for class 2 work, that the required practitioner registrations exist.
- Ask for evidence of the head contract. A copy of the principal’s letter of award or contract front end tells you who is above the builder and whether payment is secured.
- Use the Security of Payment Act properly. Serve payment claims on time, in the right form, with the reference date right, and adjudicate the first disputed claim rather than the fourth. Late claims are unenforceable claims.
- Register on the PPSR. Materials, plant and hired equipment on site are exposed unless your interest is registered. Registration is the difference between an unsecured creditor and an owner.
- Watch retention and trust obligations. Head contracts above $20 million in New South Wales require retention money to be held in trust; ask whether yours is, and where.
- Know the Contractors Debts Act. Where a builder does not pay, New South Wales law allows an unpaid subcontractor with a judgment or adjudication certificate to seek payment directly from the principal for money owed to the builder.
- Read the termination clauses. Know what your contract says about suspension for non payment and termination on insolvency, and follow the notice provisions exactly when the time comes.
Where the management system comes in
Every item above depends on records: contracts, payment claims, delivery dockets, plant registers, correspondence. Businesses that run a certified quality management system keep those records as a matter of routine and can produce them for an adjudicator or an administrator within a day. Businesses that do not, cannot, and they lose the argument on paperwork before they lose it on the merits. The commercial management module is the least glamorous part of an ISO 9001 system and the one that pays for itself first.
Frequently asked questions
When does the Building (Approvals and Practitioners) Act 2026 commence?
The Act passed the NSW Parliament on 4 August 2026 and commences on dates to be proclaimed, with the supporting regulations to be finalised first.
What does the Act change for subcontractors?
It consolidates building approvals and practitioner regulation into one framework. The classes of work that will require practitioner registration, and the transitional arrangements for existing licence holders, will be set by regulation, so subcontractors should watch for those details.
What is the Security of Payment Act?
The Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW) gives contractors and subcontractors a statutory right to progress payments and a fast adjudication process for disputed payment claims, provided the claims are served correctly and on time.
Why register on the PPSR?
Registration on the Personal Property Securities Register protects a subcontractor’s interest in materials, plant and hired equipment supplied to a site. Without registration, those goods can be treated as the insolvent builder’s assets.