The clock is running. On 1 July 2026, the NSW Design and Building Practitioners Act expands to cover remedial work on Class 3 buildings (boarding houses, hostels, student accommodation, hotels) and Class 9c buildings (aged care facilities, nursing homes).

If you manage one of these buildings and have remedial work planned, underway, or deferred — you have five weeks to get compliant. After July 1, any remedial building work performed by an unregistered contractor on your building is non-compliant, uninsurable, and puts your owners corporation at legal risk.

This isn't a theoretical change. It's a hard deadline with enforcement consequences.

We published our full explainer on the DBP Act expansion earlier this month. If you need background on what the Act is and why it exists, start there. This post assumes you already know the expansion is coming — and focuses entirely on what you need to do before July 1 to be ready.

The Compliance Deadline in Plain Language

From 1 July 2026, any remedial building work on your Class 3 or 9c building — concrete repairs, waterproofing, facade remediation, fire safety upgrades, structural strengthening — must be performed by a building practitioner registered under the DBP Act. The design work must be done by a registered design practitioner. Both must lodge declarations on the NSW Planning Portal.

Additionally, from the same date, every registered building practitioner must hold current Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance. This was previously an exemption — it becomes mandatory on July 1.

The practical effect: if your current remedial contractor isn't registered and doesn't carry PI insurance, they cannot legally perform regulated work on your building after June 30.

Week-by-Week Compliance Preparation

Week 1 (Now — 25 May to 1 June): Audit Your Current Position

This week is about understanding where you stand. You need answers to four questions:

Question 1: Do you have any remedial work currently scoped, contracted, or in progress?

Pull every active quote, contract, and work order for your Class 3 or 9c building. Include work that's been approved by the committee but not yet started. Include deferred maintenance items that have a contractor nominated but no start date.

Question 2: Is your current contractor registered under the DBP Act?

Go to the NSW Fair Trading practitioner register and search for your contractor's name or licence number. If they appear as a registered building practitioner — good. If they don't — you have a problem that needs solving in the next four weeks.

Don't rely on the contractor's word. Don't rely on their website. Verify directly through the register. Registration is binary: they're on the list or they're not.

Question 3: Does your contractor hold current Professional Indemnity insurance?

Request a Certificate of Currency for their PI insurance. Check the expiry date — if it expires before their work completes, they'll be non-compliant mid-project. The PI insurance requirement becomes mandatory on 1 July, so a contractor who currently doesn't carry PI must have a policy in force by that date.

Question 4: What remedial work is in your 10-year capital works plan for the next 12 months?

Any remedial work starting after July 1 needs a compliant contractor. If your capital works plan includes waterproofing remediation in September or concrete repairs in November, you need to be procuring from registered practitioners now — not discovering the compliance gap when the work is supposed to start.

Week 2 (1–8 June): Verify or Replace Your Contractor

Based on Week 1's audit, you're in one of three positions:

Position A: Your contractor is registered and insured. Confirm their PI insurance will remain current through the duration of your project. Confirm they're familiar with Planning Portal lodgement requirements for remedial work. Move to Week 3.

Position B: Your contractor is not registered. You need a new contractor. Start procurement immediately. A registered remedial building practitioner with Class 3/9c experience is what you're looking for. Given the tightening market (fewer registered practitioners available for more building classes), expect longer lead times than you're used to.

When seeking a replacement, verify three things upfront: DBP registration number, current PI insurance certificate, and evidence of Planning Portal lodgements on previous projects. Any contractor who can't produce all three within 24 hours of your request isn't ready for post-July-1 work.

Position C: You don't currently have a contractor nominated, but have remedial work pending. This is actually the simplest position — you just need to ensure your procurement process only evaluates registered practitioners. Add DBP registration as a mandatory tender requirement, not a nice-to-have.

For a list of what to look for in a registered remedial building services provider, check our service overview.

Week 3 (8–15 June): Update Your Documentation

Compliance isn't just about having the right contractor. Your own documentation needs to be ready for the new regime.

Update your tender templates. Every future tender document for remedial work on your Class 3 or 9c building should include mandatory requirements for:

• DBP registration number (verified against NSW Fair Trading register)
• Current PI insurance certificate of currency
• Confirmation of Planning Portal lodgement capability
• Compliance declaration commitment in the contract

Update your contract templates. Your standard building contract should now include clauses requiring the contractor to maintain DBP registration and PI insurance for the duration of the works, and to lodge all required declarations on the NSW Planning Portal. Your strata lawyer can draft these clauses — they're straightforward.

Review existing contracts. If you have a contract signed before July 1 with work starting after July 1, the contractor must still comply with the expanded Act from the commencement date. A pre-July contract doesn't create a compliance exemption. If your contracted builder isn't registered, you need to renegotiate or terminate and re-procure.

Brief your committee or board. Aged care facility boards and boarding house owners may not be aware of the DBP expansion. Prepare a one-page briefing explaining the change, the compliance requirements, and any cost implications. Get it on the next meeting agenda.

Week 4 (15–22 June): Planning Portal Readiness

The NSW Planning Portal is where regulated designs get lodged and compliance declarations get filed. If you've been managing a Class 2 building, you're already familiar with this. If your experience is exclusively Class 3 or 9c buildings, this is new territory.

Confirm your building is registered on the Portal. Not all existing Class 3 and 9c buildings will be pre-loaded. If yours isn't, you (or your contractor) will need to register it before any lodgements can occur.

Confirm your design practitioner is ready. The engineer or designer who specifies your remedial work must also be registered as a design practitioner and must lodge their designs on the Portal. If your building's consultant engineer isn't registered, this is a gap you need to close before work starts.

Understand the lodgement sequence. The process runs: regulated design lodged by design practitioner → building work commenced by registered building practitioner → compliance declaration lodged on completion. If any step is missed, the work is non-compliant.

For existing projects where design work was completed before July 1 but building work starts after, the design practitioner must still lodge the design on the Portal before the building work commences. This is a common trip-point — designs that were emailed between parties pre-July still need formal Portal lodgement. You can find more about how we approach documentation on our DBP Act compliance page.

Week 5 (22–30 June): Final Verification and Go-Live

This is your final check before the deadline:

Verify all active contractors are registered. Re-check the register — registrations can lapse. Confirm the registration is current as of July 1.

Verify PI insurance is in force. Request fresh certificates of currency dated after June 15. Insurance policies can be cancelled, so a certificate from three months ago isn't sufficient assurance.

Confirm any pending Portal lodgements are complete. If you have work starting in early July, the design should already be lodged. Don't wait until July 1 to discover a lodgement gap.

Document your compliance position. Create a simple compliance register for your building: contractor name, registration number, PI insurance expiry, Portal lodgement dates. This is your audit trail if questions arise later.

Communicate with residents. If remedial work is starting in July or August, residents should know that the work is being performed under the DBP Act's full compliance framework — registered practitioners, lodged designs, PI-insured contractors. This is a quality assurance message, not a warning.

What Happens If You're Not Ready by July 1

Let's be direct about the consequences:

Non-compliant work can't be lodged on the Planning Portal. This means no official record of the design or the compliance declaration. If defects emerge later, you have no regulatory paper trail.

Your insurance position weakens. Building insurance policies increasingly reference DBP Act compliance. Work performed outside the regulated framework may not be covered — or may give the insurer grounds to dispute a claim.

Committee members face personal liability. Owners corporation committee members who approve non-compliant remedial work expose themselves to personal liability if the work fails and causes damage or injury. The DBP Act exists to prevent exactly this scenario.

Enforcement is real. NSW Fair Trading actively audits building work on regulated buildings. The Building Commission has increased its compliance team specifically for the Class 3/9c expansion. This isn't a regulation that sits on a shelf.

You may need to redo the work. In the worst case, remedial work performed by an unregistered practitioner after July 1 may need to be audited, certified retrospectively (if possible), or in some cases demolished and redone by a registered practitioner. The cost of getting it wrong dramatically exceeds the cost of getting it right.

Buildings Most at Risk of Missing the Deadline

Based on our experience across Sydney's building stock, these building types are most likely to be caught unprepared:

Older boarding houses with deferred maintenance. These buildings often have long-standing relationships with small, unregistered builders who've handled repairs for years. The transition to registered practitioners will be disruptive.

Aged care facilities with rolling maintenance contracts. Large aged care operators often have preferred contractor panels established pre-DBP. If the panel hasn't been audited for DBP compliance, there could be a gap between what's contracted and what's required from July.

Student accommodation with summer maintenance windows. University-adjacent boarding houses typically schedule major remedial work during semester breaks. The July–August window falls exactly when the new regime takes effect. If procurement hasn't started, the window may be lost.

Mixed-use buildings where Class 3 is a small component. A building that's primarily commercial (Class 5/6) but has a boarding house component (Class 3) on upper floors may not realise the DBP expansion affects them. The Class 3 portion triggers the requirement for the entire building's remedial work. This is also relevant for buildings covered by a capital upgrade works programme — if the scope extends to Class 3 areas, DBP compliance applies.

How Atomic Projects Can Help

We've been delivering remedial building work under the DBP Act since it first applied to Class 2 buildings. Our team is registered, PI-insured, and experienced with Planning Portal lodgement for every project we deliver.

If your Class 3 or 9c building has remedial work pending and you're uncertain about compliance readiness, we can help in two ways:

Compliance review. We'll review your current contractor arrangements, verify registration status, and identify any gaps before July 1. This is a quick exercise — typically half a day — and gives you a clear compliance position.

Remedial building services. If you need a registered practitioner to deliver defect rectification, concrete repairs, waterproofing remediation, or facade works on your Class 3 or 9c building, we're ready to scope and quote. Our process starts with a building investigation report so the work is specified correctly from day one.

To request a compliance review or discuss your building's remedial work needs ahead of July 1, contact our team.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the July 1 deadline confirmed or could it be deferred again?

The 1 July 2026 date was confirmed by Building Commission NSW in June 2025 following a 12-month deferral from the original July 2025 commencement. As of May 2026, there is no indication of a further deferral. The NSW Government has published the amended regulation and the date is locked in.

What if our remedial work is minor — does the DBP Act still apply?

It depends on the nature of the work, not the cost. Structural repairs, waterproofing, fire safety upgrades, and building envelope work are regulated regardless of value. Minor cosmetic maintenance — painting, fixture replacement, cleaning — is generally exempt. The safest approach: if the work involves structure, water, or fire, treat it as regulated.

Can I start work before July 1 with an unregistered contractor to avoid the requirement?

Starting work before July 1 with an unregistered contractor is legal if the building class wasn't previously regulated. However, any work that continues past July 1 enters the regulated period. Rushing work to beat a deadline often results in poor-quality outcomes. The smarter path is to engage a registered practitioner and do the work properly under the compliance framework.

How do I find DBP-registered remedial contractors in Sydney?

Search the NSW Fair Trading practitioner register for registered building practitioners. Filter for practitioners with remedial/renovation experience on Class 3 or 9c buildings. Request registration numbers from any quoting contractor and verify directly. The pool is smaller than the general builder market — start procurement early.

What's the difference between a registered building practitioner and a licensed builder?

All registered building practitioners hold a builder's licence, but not all licensed builders are registered under the DBP Act. The DBP registration is an additional layer that requires demonstrated competency for regulated building work, mandatory PI insurance, and Planning Portal compliance. For post-July-1 work on Class 3/9c buildings, you need both: a licence AND DBP registration.