Ross v Building Practitioners Board

In Ross v Building Practitioners Board, the court was asked to consider the implications of legislative amendments on ongoing inquiries into a building practitioner's conduct. The respondent, the Building Practitioners Board, had issued notices of inquiry into allegations against the appellant, who was a registered building practitioner. The dispute arose due to changes in the legislation governing the building industry, specifically the abolition of the Building Practitioners Board by the Building Legislation (Consumer Protection) Act 2016, which established the Building and Construction Commission, NSW, as its successor. The appellant argued that the new legislation’s transitional provisions should not apply to inquiries that had commenced before the new Act came into effect.

The court had to decide whether the transitional provisions in the new Act applied to inquiries that were already underway when the Act commenced. This involved interpreting the legislative intent behind the transitional provisions and determining whether applying them to pre-commencement inquiries would create a regulatory gap in the oversight of building practitioners' conduct. The court also had to consider whether such an interpretation would be consistent with the purpose of the amending Act, which was to enhance consumer protection in the building industry.

The court held that the transitional provisions did apply to inquiries that commenced before the new Act came into effect. It reasoned that the legislative purpose of the new Act was to ensure a smooth transition in the regulation of building practitioners and to maintain consumer protection. Applying the transitional provisions to ongoing inquiries was necessary to prevent a regulatory gap and to uphold the integrity of the legislative changes. The court found that the new Act's provisions should govern the inquiries, regardless of when they began, to ensure that the legislative intent was fully realised.

The court ordered that the Building and Construction Commission, NSW, would take over the inquiries that had been initiated by the Building Practitioners Board. This decision ensured that the transition to the new regulatory framework was complete and that the oversight of building practitioners’ conduct remained uninterrupted.