The regulations impose a set of affirmative duties on registrants and applicants and confer limited rights tied to registration. Key duties and rights in the instrument are:
Duties to register and to hold correct class of registration
- Persons carrying out prescribed building services must be registered in the relevant class; a person is prescribed for s.7 if they carry out painter work as part of a contract to carry out builder work and they engage a painting contractor (regulation 5). Carrying out prescribed services without registration is an offence subject to modified penalties (Schedule 5).
Qualification and evidence duties
- Applicants must demonstrate prescribed qualifications and experience as listed in the sets for each practitioner class (regulations 16, 28D, 28M, 31). The Board may conduct examinations to assess knowledge and skills (regulation 17). For building engineering applicants, an assessment entity approved by the Building Commissioner must certify equivalence of qualifications and experience (regulation 28M(6)).
Financial and insolvency-related duties
- Contractors and some practitioners must show capacity to meet debts when due and non‑insolvency status; the Board may consider net assets, liquid funds, loan facilities, equity and proposed scale of operation when assessing capacity (regulation 18). Specific versions of these duties are set for surveying, engineering and painting contractors (regs 28E, 28N, 33).
Insurance and professional standards duties
- Building surveying and engineering contractors must either have appropriate professional indemnity insurance sized to cover foreseeable exposures or show membership of an approved professional standards scheme that imposes insurance requirements (regs 28F, 28O).
Supervisory and staffing duties
- Contractors must have a nominated supervisor who is an eligible person in a prescribed practitioner class (regs 20, 28H, 28Q, 35). A building surveying contractor must ensure work by a building surveying practitioner technician is supervised by a level 1 or level 2 practitioner (regulation 28I).
Notification and disclosure duties
- Registrants must notify the Board of certain changes: new directors (regulation 10A specifies required information), change of address (Schedule 5 modified penalty for s.32(1)), convictions, disciplinary action under prescribed Acts (regulation 11), insolvency or financial difficulty (Schedule 5). Regulation 7A requires the register include convictions and SAT fines/orders and other Board/SAT disciplinary outcomes.
Signage and advertising duties
- Contractors and owner‑builders must display a sign on site containing prescribed particulars (regs 21, 27, 36). Advertising requirements include displaying registration numbers (Schedule 5, offence s.8).
Recordkeeping and register rights
- Applicants and registrants have a right to be registered for a fixed three‑year period if approved (regulation 7(1); Schedule 1 sets registration fees for a 3‑year term). The register must display certain items (regulation 7A). The Building Commissioner must remove certain adverse information after specified periods (regulation 7B), creating a time-limited privacy/rehabilitation right for registrants.
Fee and administrative discretions
- The Building Commissioner may reduce, waive or refund fees on the Commissioner’s own initiative or on application in an approved form (regulation 10). This is a discretionary administrative right favouring individualised relief.
Enforcement and sanctions
- Rights against enforcement are limited; the instrument prescribes modified penalties and court prosecution routes (regulation 36A; Schedule 5). The Building Commissioner may appoint authorised officers to issue infringement notices (regulation 36B). Board decisions, including cancellations under transitional provisions, trigger review rights consistent with the Act’s review provisions (e.g. regulation 50 referencing section 64(2)).
Procedural and transitional entitlements
- Transitional rules convert former registrations under repealed Acts into current classes (Part 4, regs 38, 44, 48). There are temporary registration treatments for early applicants in building engineering classes, including fee reductions and deemed registration periods where applications are not determined before certain dates (regulations 53-54).
In summary, registrants gain the right to use prescribed titles and to be entered on the register for defined periods, conditional on meeting the prescriptive qualification, financial, insurance and supervisory requirements. They incur duties to notify, display signage, maintain capacity and, for certain classes, meet continuing professional development requirements (regulation 28P). Administrative discretion sits largely with the Building Commissioner and the Board (fee waivers, equivalence determinations, examinations, register maintenance and authorised officer appointments).