Home For consumers Accredited certifiers

Accredited certifiers

Accredited certifiers, together with councils, are able to check that development proposals comply with required technical standards (such as the Building Code of Australia) and regulations.

Accredited certifiers are accredited by the Building Professionals Board under the Building Professionals Act 2005 (BP Act) to issue construction, occupation, subdivision and compliance certificates and complying development certificates under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) and strata certificates under the strata legislation.

Recent changes to the EP&A Act will, from 3 November 2008, allow both individual practitioners and companies to be accredited to do this work (before this date, only individuals can be accredited).

Individual accredited certifiers need to be accredited under the accreditation scheme administered by the Board under the Act.

The Building Professionals Regulation 2007 (BP Regulation) identifies the categories of accreditation in which individual applicants can seek accreditation. The 21 different categories are listed here.

The certificates and work that an individual accredited certifier can do depend on the terms of their accreditation. A certifier's certificate of accreditation shows:

• their category of accreditation,
• the extent of their authorisation,
• the types of certificates they can issue, and
• whether the certifier can operate as a principal certifying authority (PCA) for building or subdivision work.

Companies who are accredited are known as accredited bodies corporate and they must meet the requirements of the BP Act and the BP Regulation to be accredited.

NB: Legislative amendments to allow the accreditation of bodies corporate are expected to commence on 3 November 2008.

Each certificate of accreditation issued to an individual or a company is given a unique number, which is used on all documents to identify the accredited certifier. An accredited certifier (individual or company) must also have their accreditation renewed each year.