You've heard the Building Commission is auditing design practitioners. You know there are penalties. But what does the actual process look like? What triggers an audit, what do they request, and what happens if they find something wrong?
This article walks through the audit process based on publicly available Building Commission reports and the experience of practitioners who've been through it.
How Audits Are Triggered
The Building Commission NSW conducts audits of design practitioners under the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (DBPA). Audits can be triggered by several mechanisms:
- Proactive monitoring — The Commission identifies Class 2 building projects through the NSW Planning Portal and selects practitioners for review.
- Complaints — A building practitioner, certifier, or building owner raises a concern about a design practitioner's work.
- Pattern detection — The Commission notices repeated issues across multiple projects by the same practitioner or firm.
- Random selection — As part of the Commission's broader compliance program.
The important thing to understand is that you don't need to do anything "wrong" to be audited. Proactive monitoring means any practitioner working on Class 2 buildings is a potential audit target simply by virtue of having lodged documents on the Portal.
Stage 1: The Initial Request
The first sign of an audit is a formal letter or email from the Building Commission. It typically:
- Identifies the specific project(s) under review
- Requests copies of regulated designs, declarations, and supporting documents
- Sets a deadline for your response (usually 14-28 days)
- References the relevant legislation (DBPA s.37, DBPR Sch.4)
What They Usually Ask For
Design Compliance Declarations (Parts 1 and 2), all referenced CIRD drawings with title blocks, calculation reports, evidence of registration at the time of design, PI insurance certificate, and any variation or amended declarations.
This is where preparation pays off. If your documents are organised by project with a consistent filing structure, you can respond within days. If they're scattered across email threads, shared drives, and desktop folders, you're already on the back foot.
Stage 2: Document Review
Once the Commission receives your response, their technical officers review the documentation against the Code of Practice (Schedule 4 of the Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2021). They're checking:
Registration and Insurance
- Were you registered for the relevant class of work at the time the design was prepared?
- If practising through a company, did the company hold a body corporate registration?
- Was your PI insurance current and covering the relevant work?
Declarations
- Is the DCD Part 1 complete — with a full drawing schedule (title, number, revision for each drawing)?
- Does the DCD Part 2 correctly identify all applicable performance requirements?
- Was the declaration signed, dated, and lodged on the Portal before building work commenced?
Regulated Designs (CIRDs)
- Do the designs contain sufficient detail for a competent builder to construct the building element?
- Are products specified (not just "waterproofing membrane" but the actual product and application method)?
- Are critical details shown — falls, penetrations, movement joints, interfaces between trades?
- Do the designs integrate with other disciplines (e.g., structural provisions for waterproofing)?
Stage 3: Preliminary Findings
If the Commission identifies issues, they issue a preliminary findings letter. This outlines:
- The specific non-compliance items found
- The legislative provisions contravened
- An opportunity for you to respond, provide additional information, or explain the circumstances
This is your chance to address the findings before any formal action is taken. Common responses include:
- Providing additional documents that were missing from the initial response
- Explaining the context (e.g., the project scope changed after lodgement)
- Acknowledging the gap and demonstrating corrective action already taken
Don't Ignore the Preliminary Findings
The preliminary findings stage is your best opportunity to mitigate the outcome. Practitioners who respond promptly, transparently, and with evidence of corrective action consistently receive better outcomes than those who delay, dispute, or ignore the letter.
Stage 4: Enforcement Outcomes
Based on the findings and your response, the Commission can take several actions:
No Further Action
If the issues were minor and you've demonstrated corrective measures, the audit may conclude with no formal action. This is the best-case outcome — but only available to practitioners who responded well.
Education and Guidance
For less serious findings, the Commission may issue guidance on how to improve compliance. This isn't a penalty, but it is a signal — and the expectation is that you act on it.
Conditions on Registration
The Commission can impose conditions on your practitioner registration — for example, requiring you to undertake specific CPD, submit future work for review, or limit the types of projects you can work on.
Penalty Notices
For contraventions of the Code of Practice, the Commission can issue penalty notices. The maximum penalty for an individual is $33,000 per contravention. Multiple findings on a single project can result in multiple penalties.
Suspension or Cancellation
In serious cases — particularly where there's a pattern of non-compliance, a failure to respond, or evidence of reckless disregard for the legislative requirements — the Commission can suspend or cancel your registration.
What the Commission Is Really Looking For
Having reviewed multiple Building Commission audit reports, the pattern is clear. The Commission isn't trying to catch practitioners on technicalities. They're looking for evidence that you're taking your obligations seriously. That means:
- Completeness — Every required document exists and is properly filled out.
- Sufficiency — Your regulated designs contain enough detail to actually build from.
- Traceability — There's a clear paper trail from design to declaration to Portal lodgement.
- Currency — Your registration, insurance, and CPD are up to date.
None of this is unreasonable. But it does require a system — not just good intentions.
How to Prepare Before the Letter Arrives
The best time to prepare for an audit is before you know you're being audited. Here's a practical approach:
- Run a self-audit on your last 2-3 Class 2 projects. Use a structured checklist to identify gaps.
- Organise your files so that every project has its declarations, designs, calcs, and correspondence in one retrievable location.
- Check your registrations — individual and body corporate — and set calendar reminders for renewal dates.
- Review your CIRDs against the "could a builder build from this?" standard.
- Log your CPD with dates, hours, and evidence.
Run a Self-Audit Now
38 items across 7 sections — based on real Building Commission audit criteria. Free, local, no sign-up.
Start Your Self-AuditThe Takeaway
A Building Commission audit isn't the end of the world — if you're prepared. The process is structured, the expectations are documented, and the opportunities to respond are real. But all of that depends on having your house in order before the letter arrives.
Proactiveness is your best defence. The practitioners who treat compliance as an ongoing discipline — not a one-off scramble — are the ones who come through audits cleanly. The ones who don't? They're the case studies the rest of us learn from.