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Guide to understanding Form 16’s: First instalment www.firecertify.com,
01 Oct 2016BUILDING CERTIFICATION0 comments www.firecertify.com,
Following on from our last article, it’s important for everyone to understand their statutory functions and duties when they are carrying out inspections and issuing Form 16’s. This is the first instalment on how to understand, and correctly fill out this form. www.firecertify.com,
First, lets start with the NOTE at the top of the Form 16. www.firecertify.com,
You will see that is says “This form is used for the purpose of” and then goes on to recite parts of the Building Act and Building Regulation. www.firecertify.com,
What this means, is that you are issuing a certificate for the purposes of the Building Act and Building Regulation. The Form 16 is a statutory document that has specific functions under these laws, and person who issues it has certain duties. www.firecertify.com,
Before you complete this form, you should ask yourself: www.firecertify.com,
“Do I know what those functions and duties are? And “Do I appreciate how these documents are lawfully used by others in the industry like the Building Certifiers and Builders etc.?”
You should also be aware that a Form 16 does not expire, and remains a lawful inspection certificate that can be relied upon for the life of the building. Therefore, if you issue a Form 16, it is assumed that you know and understand the relevant laws as well as your responsibilities, including how this form can be used under those laws.
This NOTE at the top of the form tells everyone who reads it, that the signatory has carried out the inspection of a stage or aspects in accordance with the Building Act 1975 and/or the Building Regulation 2006
Therefore, the signatory must know that:
1.) To issue a Form 16 they have to be either: www.firecertify.com,
• A Building Certifier, www.firecertify.com,
• A person the Building Certifier has deemed a Competent Person to carry out the inspection of a Stage or Aspect, or www.firecertify.com,
• A QBCC licensee providing their QBCC licensee Aspect Certificate (See item 3 below).
2.) If they are a Competent Person, they have to carry out the inspection personally and can only rely on another Competent Person to do aspects of the inspection if the Building Certifier has first deemed the other person competent. www.firecertify.com,
3.) A QBCC licensee can only provide a QBCC Licensee Aspect Certificate if the QBCC Licensee Aspects of building works is for a single detached class 1a building or a class 10 building or structure. www.firecertify.com, A QBCC Licensee can provide a Form 16 for their relevant aspect of building works for all other classes of building, however, in these cases the QBCC Licensee has to be deemed a competent person by the building certifier and Form 16 is not completed as a QBCC Licensee Aspect Certificate, it is completed as an Aspect Certificate. How to do this is discussed in the next article. CLICK HERE www.firecertify.com,
4.) The inspection has to be carried out in accordance with the statutory guidelines to building inspections. www.firecertify.com,
5.) A stage inspection includes all aspects as detailed in that stage in the inspection guidelines. www.firecertify.com,
6.) A person giving an aspect certificate is not giving permission for works to proceed to the next stage.
7.) Only a Stage inspection certificate provides permission for works to proceed to the next stage.
8.) Only a Building Certifier can issue a Foundation Stage or Final Stage certificate for class 1 and 10 building. www.firecertify.com,
9.) That a competent person is required to issue the building certifier with their inspection certificate within 5 business days of the inspection being carried out. www.firecertify.com,
10.) The competent person is required to keep copies of their certificates for three years after the inspection. www.firecertify.com,
In the next article we will walk through how to complete the Form 16, however before we move on, I am interested in your comments, especially if you are a person who issues Form 16’s. Please get in touch and leave your comments below.
To read our final instalment on Form 16’s CLICK HERE www.firecertify.com,
Related Posts:
Guide to understanding Form 16’s: Second instalment Are Form 16’s knocking you for six? Here is everything you need to know. Competent Persons Plumbing and Drainage Approvals
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Greg Dempster www.firecertify.com,
I am a Director of Development Certification Pty Ltd and have been a Building Surveyor since 1989. I have a bachelor degree in building surveying and I am a qualified carpenter. I have been in the construction industry since 1981. I have a real passion for the building certification profession as I believe building certifiers are the general practitioners of the construction industry. Our role is not only to know building law and apply it, our role includes assisting in the development of the knowledge of all in the industry by sharing our knowledge and experience. www.firecertify.com,
Guide to understanding Form 16’s: Second instalment
01 Oct 2016 BUILDING CERTIFICATION www.firecertify.com,
After reading the last two articles we have published on form 16’s – because we are sure you have read them, you should have a clear understanding about the use of Form 16’s and what your responsibilities are under the Building Act 1975. www.firecertify.com,
We will now walk you through the form step-by-step and clearly explain each part and how to fill it out. This will ensure you only fill in the parts you need to, and therefore only certify what you actually need to certify – possibly saving you from a lawsuit in the future. See here for the previous article on this topic.
1. Indicate the type of certificate www.firecertify.com,
There are two types of certificates that can be issued using a Form 16, and each has their own specifications and requirements which we will explain. www.firecertify.com,
1. An inspection certificate
2. A QBCC Licensee Aspect Certificate (Only used for single detached class 1a buildings and class 10 buildings and structures) www.firecertify.com,
Inspection Certificate
There are also two separate types of inspection certificates that can be issued on a Form 16:
• Stage of building work, or
• Aspect of building work www.firecertify.com,
To explain the difference, I will refer to the required stage inspection checklist below for a Foundation/Excavation and/or Slab. www.firecertify.com,
Let’s imagine I am an engineer doing a slab inspection on a dwelling. I am required to use this list as the minimum standard, however I can use a more detailed list if I like. Using this list, I need to identify if I am certifying all the aspects of this checklist or only some of the aspects of this checklist. www.firecertify.com,
If I am certifying all the aspects, I will need to issue an Inspections Certificate for a Stage of building work and fill in the first two boxes to indicate the type of certificate. See below: www.firecertify.com,
However, if I am only going to check some of the aspects of the stage, I will issue an Inspection Certificate for an Aspect of building work and fill in the box indicating this as shown below. www.firecertify.com,
Please Note: This is also how a QBCC Licensee would complete the Form 16 for an aspect of building that was not for a single detached class 1a or class 10 buildings. www.firecertify.com,
QBCC Licensee Aspect Certificate (Only for single detached dwellings and shed etc)
As discussed in the previous article a QBCC licensee can only provide a QBCC Licensee Aspect Certificate if the QBCC Licensee Aspects of building works is for a single detached class 1a building or a class 10 building or structure. A QBCC Licensee can provide a Form 16 for their relevant aspect of building works for all www.firecertify.com, other classes of building, however, in these cases the QBCC Licensee has to be deemed a competent person by the building certifier and Form 16 is not completed as a QBCC Licensee Aspect Certificate, it is completed as an Aspect Certificate as discussed above.
If you have carried out aspects of building works for a class 1a building or a class 10 building or structure and you are a QBCC Licensee who is responsible for the supply and / or installation of equipment, product, system or material, then this is the part of the form you use. www.firecertify.com,
You must tick the QBCC Licensee Aspect Certificate and also state the scope of your license. Please note, this is NOT the scope of the work you are certifying, but the scope of your licence. Leave the Inspection Certificate part of the form blank as indicated below. Once this section is completed it should look similar to this: www.firecertify.com,
2. Property description www.firecertify.com,
This is obviously a simple part of the form where you have to provide the address and lot, the registered property number, as well as the local government area. Our only comment is to make sure that you are ONLY certifying work on the property where you did the work. It is critical that you ensure these details are correct. www.firecertify.com,
3. Building structure description www.firecertify.com,
In this part you need to describe the building that relates to your inspection. Firstly, be specific. There may be more than one building on the site e.g. “dwelling, unit 4, office, shed left hand rear corner”. It is good if you can include the class in the second part of the table. Click here for more about building classifications.
4. Description of components certified www.firecertify.com,
Here you must itemise the elements of the building you have inspected and are certifying. Again, be specific and limit your certificate to the actual elements you inspected. If necessary, refer to an attached schedule or inspection checklist. You need to be sure anyone and everyone understands exactly what you inspected and what you are certifying. www.firecertify.com,
5. Basis of certification www.firecertify.com,
The basis of certification is where you must specify the relevant industry tests, standards, and specifications that you used to determine that the components of section 4 comply with www.firecertify.com, those requirements. In this part, you need to list the recognised industry criteria that you used to determine compliance. You must list: any tests used, the rules applied, Australian Standards referenced, and the codes of practice used as the basis of your inspection. If you have an inspection checklist for these industry standards, you should include them in an attached schedule. www.firecertify.com,
6. Referenced Documentation www.firecertify.com,
This should be easy to complete. You must simply reference the plans and specification prepared by yourself, or other professionals, that you have relied on as compliant documentation. These would include the architectural design, as well as engineering plans and any other specifications that form part of the building approval issued by the building certifier. It may also include other certificates from other ‘Competent Persons’. www.firecertify.com,
Make sure you list the plan numbers and revisions so that it is very clear which documents you relied on as compliant documentation. www.firecertify.com,
7. Building Certifiers reference number and development approval number www.firecertify.com,
This section is self-explanatory however, it is often left blank. This is because the information is not often provided to the person completing the Form 16. For completeness, you should request a copy of the www.firecertify.com, building approval decision notice as well as any stamped plans from the builder. This ensures that you are aware of any conditions on the building approval that may affect your certification. Furthermore, it’s easy to get them as they are normally in electronic format and therefore can be emailed to you.
8. Building Certifier, Competent person or QBCC licensee details www.firecertify.com,
If you are not a Building Certifier, Competent Person, or QBCC Licensee, you cannot provide a Form 16 under the Building Act 1975. A Building Certifier, Competent Person or QBCC Licensee is a PERSON not a company. www.firecertify.com,
In the NAME part of the form, the full name of the Building Certifier, Competent Person, or QBCC Licensee must be provided. It stands to reason that the contact details of said person must also be completed in detail.
The License Class and Licence Number are generic terms used to cover many disciplines and their registration bodies. For example:
• Queensland Building Construction Commission www.firecertify.com,
• Board of Professional Engineers Queensland
• Board of Architects of Queensland www.firecertify.com,
• Electrical Contractors Licence www.firecertify.com,
Complete these two areas using the relevant terms and numbers of your registration.
The Date approval to inspection received by building certifier, relates to Competent Persons. Firstly the person, be they an engineer, architect or other professional, cannot deem themselves competent under the Building Act 1975. Only the Building Certifier can deem a person competent and that has to be done before the inspection is carried out. This information regarding the date you were approved as a ‘competent person’ must also be recorded on the Form 16 as indicated. www.firecertify.com,
9. Signature of Building Certifier, Competent Person or QBCC Licensee www.firecertify.com,
This section is pretty self-explanatory. However it is helpful to note that these forms can be electronically generated and signed by the relevant person as allowed by the Electronic Transaction (Queensland) Act 2001. www.firecertify.com,
If you have an questions or something to add, please leave your comments below or contact us by email. We are always happy to hear from you. www.firecertify.com,
Related Posts: www.firecertify.com,
Guide to understanding Form 16’s: First instalment Are Form 16’s knocking you for six? Here is everything you need to know. Competent Persons Building where to start
ASPECTSFEATUREDFORM 16GREG DEMPSTERSTAGES www.firecertify.com,
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Greg Dempster www.firecertify.com,
I am a Director of Development Certification Pty Ltd and have been a Building Surveyor since 1989. I have a bachelor degree in building surveying and I am a qualified carpenter. I have been in the construction industry since 1981. I have a real passion for the building certification profession as I believe building certifiers are the general practitioners of the construction industry. Our role is not only to know building law and apply it, our role includes assisting in the development of the knowledge of all in the industry by sharing our knowledge and experience. www.firecertify.com,