Legal

NATSPEC’s National Construction Products Register

THE NATIONAL SPECIFICATION ORGANISATION HAS LAUNCHED A NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS REGISTER IN RESPONSE TO CONCERNS REGARDING NON-CONFORMING PRODUCTS IN AUSTRALIA

As a, if not the most, important player in the building product supply chain, builders need to reduce their risks if they wish to remain viable in our turbulent industry. Recently the issue of noncompliant building cladding has claimed the scalp of a builder which was placed into voluntary administration. They are not the first and are unlikely to be the last. According to the Senior Officers’ Group of Australian Governments, ‘builders and other specialist tradespersons do the work of installing and building with products and materials. They are not the only people responsible for ensuring that conforming and complying products and materials are used, but much of the risk and responsibility falls to them because they are the ones that ultimately do the building work. They are also the ones most likely to have to do the work rectifying or remedying problems that arise from using products badly, or using bad products. Before a product or material is used, they should be satisfied with its suitability.’ Ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law. The industry, as a whole, is now fully aware there are issues regarding non-conforming and non-complying building products. Builders are obligated to use products in compliance with the building regulations and the construction specification. This is both legislated and contracted. Testing laboratories and conformity assessment bodies (CABs) have advised that they have witnessed many false and doctored certifications in the marketplace. An unintended consequence of digital technology and good photocopiers. Builders now have to take appropriate preliminary steps to show that they have checked the certificates they have received for authenticity and exclusion clauses. Good construction specifications assist the builder as they will state which standards the products need to conform to. The NATSPEC NCPR provides an economy of scale so that builders do not have to contact all the CABs. NATSPEC was started by the MBA (with the AIA, Consult Australia, and AIQS) as a not-for-profit organisation to As a, if not the most, important player in the building product supply chain, builders need to reduce their risks if they wish to remain viable in our turbulent industry. Recently the issue of non-compliant building cladding has claimed the scalp of a builder which was placed into voluntary administration. They are not the first and are unlikely to be the last. According to the Senior Officers’ Group of Australian Governments, ‘builders and other specialist tradespersons do the work of installing and building with products and materials. They are not the only people responsible for ensuring that conforming and complying products and materials are used, but much of the risk and responsibility falls to them because they are the ones that ultimately do the building work. They are also the ones most likely to have to do the work rectifying or remedying problems that

arise from using products badly, or using bad products. Before a product or material is used, they should be satisfied with its suitability.’ Ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law. The industry, as a whole, is now fully aware there are issues regarding non-conforming and non-complying building products. Builders are obligated to use products in compliance with the building regulations and the construction specification. This is both legislated and contracted. Testing laboratories and conformity assessment bodies (CABs) have advised that they have witnessed many false and doctored certifications in the marketplace. An unintended consequence of digital technology and good photocopiers. Builders now have to take appropriate preliminary steps to show that they have checked the certificates they have received for authenticity and exclusion clauses. Good construction specifications assist the builder as they will state which standards the products need to conform to. The NATSPEC NCPR provides an economy of scale so that builders do not have to contact all the CABs. NATSPEC was started by the MBA (with the AIA, Consult Australia, and AIQS) as a not-for-profit organisation to improve the construction quality of the built environment in Australia. It is trusted by the industry. Richard Choy, CEO of NATSPEC says that all players in the supply chain have a shared responsibility and that by providing a centralised source of information ‘we can assist those trying to do the right thing’. The NCPR was created predominantly to raise awareness of the issues but it is now a tool for all industry parties for verification of authenticity of product conformance certificates. Although the database is in its infancy, there are around a thousand products listed with further verifications underway. If a builder cannot find the product they wish to use, they should encourage the manufacturer to submit their evidence to the NCPR for verification, or chose another product. When you check the NCPR, print off the product report and keep it with the project documents as evidence that you have taken reasonable steps regarding to verify the certificate of conformity. Unfortunately this does not guarantee that the same product will be delivered to site. An NCPR product listing is not an endorsement or certification of that product by NATSPEC. It does not provide information or recommendations on the suitability or use of any product for any particular application, situation or project. The evidence of conformity submitted by a manufacturer may support the use of a product or material in general terms only, and may not provide information on manufacturing controls, limitations on the use of a product and maintenance requirements. That is, the authenticated documentation is evidence of product conformity, not verification of compliance with the National Construction Code (NCC). The Australian Building Codes Board has made it possible for builders to lodge a query or report a suspected non-conforming building product at www.abcb.gov.au/NCBP/ Non-conforming-building-products/Lodge-aquery-or-report-a-suspected-NCBP. Plumbing (WaterMark) and electrical (EESS) product databases are not duplicated by the NCPR. The NCPR indicates the certification types and it hosts the main product certification documents (CodeMark, WaterMark etc.) under the consent of NCPR participating manufacturers. It also links to JAS-ANZ recognised industry schemes.