The Victorian Government never named a start date for these rules. The Act started them automatically on 1 September. The standard applicants are meant to be measured against still has not been published.
From 1 September, anyone applying to become a building surveyor or a building inspector in Victoria has to pass a new test.
It does not affect surveyors who are already registered. It does not change the degree you need. What it changes is what an applicant has to prove, and who decides whether they have proved it.
For builders, none of that is really the point. The point is whether the number of surveyors and inspectors goes up or down, because permit turnaround depends on it. On that question, the answer is not in yet.
The rules started because a deadline passed
The changes come from an Act passed in November 2025. Most of that Act was the security of payment overhaul Victorian subcontractors have been working with since April.
Governments normally switch a new law on by proclamation. Someone signs, and it starts. Acts also carry an automatic start date, in case that never happens.
Nobody ever signed for the surveyor rules. They started on 1 September because that was the automatic start date written into the Act. The security of payment sections did get a proclamation, and started in April. These did not.
That difference matters. A proclamation is a decision that the system is ready to run. An automatic start date is just a deadline passing.
The regulator running the new powers is the Victorian Building Authority, which now trades as the Building and Plumbing Commission.
What an applicant has to prove now
Victoria has always required a qualification and a set number of years of experience. That part has not changed.
What is new is a second layer sitting on top. An applicant now has to demonstrate four things:
- That they can meet the professional conduct and ethics rules.
- That they have a good working knowledge of the law.
- That they know the building standards and the National Construction Code.
- That they understand the performance based framework, including how a performance solution is assessed.
Those four came in through regulations made on 25 August, a week before the Act itself started.
There is also a new second route in. If an applicant does not hold the listed qualification, the regulator can accept one it considers equivalent. So the same change opens a door and raises a bar at the same time. Which one wins depends on how the regulator uses it.
What is a prescribed competence criterion?
Under the Building Act 1993 (Vic), it is one of four things an applicant must demonstrate to register as a building surveyor or building inspector under section 171(1)(aa). The four are set out in Part 2A of Schedule 9 to the Building Regulations 2018. Section 171AA separately requires the regulator to approve a competence standard, published in the Government Gazette, setting out the skills, experience and knowledge needed to meet each one.
The qualifications did not get harder
This has been reported elsewhere as lifting the training requirements for surveyors. It did not.
The regulations changed the wording of the qualification clauses by inserting four words. The lists themselves were left alone.
A building surveyor (unlimited) still needs a Bachelor of Building Surveying from Holmesglen Institute or Victoria University, plus at least three years of practical experience. Exactly as before 1 September.
The approval the new test relies on has not been published
Here is the catch.
The Act says the regulator must approve a competence standard. That standard is what sets out the skills, experience and knowledge an applicant needs to meet each of the four criteria. It has to be published in full in the Government Gazette and on the regulator’s website.
We searched the Gazette from 23 July to 8 September 2026, every weekly issue and every special issue in between. There is no approval.
So the test is running and the yardstick it points to has not been published yet. The first route in, holding the approved qualification, has nothing to point at. The second route, equivalence, still works on its own terms.
Anyone who had already applied, or who had enrolled and started building up experience before 1 September, is covered by a transitional rule and assessed under the old system.
A proclamation is a decision that the system is ready to run. An automatic start date is just a deadline passing.
The part builders will actually see
Same regulations, different change, and this one turns up on site.
Every Class 1a job now comes with a new form. Class 1a is detached housing, along with the sheds and garages that go with it. It is the same desk that already controls the all electric requirement that starts on 1 January 2027.
Within 10 business days of applying for a building permit number, the surveyor has to give the owner a consumer information statement. It is called Form 26. Not giving it is an offence.
Form 26 tells the owner what the surveyor is not there for:
- Designing the work.
- Supervising the site.
- Enforcing the building contract.
- Workmanship, unless it connects to compliance.
It uses internal paint finishes as the example of something out of scope, and tells the owner to take that up with the builder.
It also says a builder cannot appoint the private building surveyor on a major domestic building contract. A builder can suggest a few names. The owner chooses.
That document now goes to every Class 1a owner in Victoria at permit stage. It sets expectations before the slab goes down.
Two smaller changes
Surveyors now have to send a copy of every inspection record to the council within seven days. Councils have to hand those records to the regulator on request. Inspection records were already required. What is new is that they travel.
Whether they say much is another question. An audit of 728 new house files in New South Wales found fewer than half of inspection records carried any photographic evidence. Victoria has not run that exercise. It has now built the plumbing that would let it.
Separately, the probity checks that already applied to builder registration now apply to the surveyor pathway as well.
Why it matters outside Victoria
Surveyors move between states under mutual recognition, and between Australia and New Zealand. When one jurisdiction changes what registration actually certifies, the credential crossing the border changes with it.
That is the familiar pattern in construction licensing and compliance in Australia. The same category names everywhere, meaning something slightly different in each state. Victoria has added a layer no one else expresses the same way.
The reform was pitched as lifting standards and increasing the supply of surveyors at the same time. The Act gives the regulator the powers to do both. Powers on their own do not do it. The approvals do, and they are not there yet.
Frequently asked questions
A separate registration test started for building surveyors and building inspectors. Applicants now have to demonstrate four competence criteria: professional conduct and ethics, knowledge of the law, knowledge of the building standards and the National Construction Code, and knowledge of the performance based framework. They meet them either by holding the approved qualification and the required experience, or by holding a qualification and experience the regulator accepts as equivalent.
The new test applies to new applications. It does not impose a new qualification requirement on existing registrations. Probity checks now extend to the surveyor pathway, and surveyors have a new information statement obligation on Class 1a work.
No. The qualification and experience lists were not changed. A building surveyor (unlimited) still needs a Bachelor of Building Surveying from Holmesglen Institute or Victoria University plus at least three years of practical experience. What was added is the requirement to demonstrate four competence criteria, and a new power for the regulator to accept equivalent qualifications and experience.
Form 26 is a consumer information statement introduced by the Building Amendment (Miscellaneous) Regulations 2026. The building surveyor must give it to the owner within 10 business days of applying for a building permit number, on Class 1a buildings and the Class 10 buildings that go with them. It explains the surveyor’s role and tells owners that workmanship concerns unrelated to compliance are a matter for the builder.
Not directly. It matters indirectly because surveyors and inspectors move between jurisdictions under mutual recognition, and because Victoria has added a competence layer other states express differently. Builders working across borders already treat each jurisdiction as a separate compliance problem, and this widens the gap slightly.
Related articles
- The Building Better Guide — how quality, compliance and standards fit together on residential work.
- Victoria vs the Rest: what the NCC 2025 compliance split means for builders working across state lines
Sources: Building Legislation Amendment (Fairer Payments on Jobsites and Other Matters) Act 2025 (Vic), Act No. 43 of 2025, sections 2, 55 to 65; Building Act 1993 (Vic), authorised Version 150, sections 171, 171AA, 171AAB, 171AAC and 289; Building Amendment (Miscellaneous) Regulations 2026 (Vic), S.R. No. 115 of 2026; Building Regulations 2018 (Vic), authorised Version 031, regulation 257A and Schedule 9; Victoria Government Gazette. Last updated: 8 September 2026.
General information only. This article describes legislation and regulations as published and does not constitute legal advice. Registration requirements and how they apply to an individual practitioner depend on the specific circumstances, and obligations differ between states and territories. Confirm the current position with the relevant regulator before relying on it.
Author: TGB Editorial
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