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SPHERES OF INFLUENCE & POWER

SCENARIO 1 Flight 321 MEL - BNE

It is late Friday, and you are about to take off from Tullamarine, returning home to your

family after three days working at Head Office in Melbourne. The flight is full, and the guy

next to you is agitated and leans over to tell you that the pilot flying this 747 borrowed his

“pilot’s license” from his mate. He only has a drone licence!

Would You? a) disembark immediately b) complain to the hostess c) put on a movie?

Common sense tells you to disembark immediately and call Air Traffic Control, CASA, and

the police. This is a severe offence and would put people’s lives at risk.

Play the same scenario, but with building practitioners lending or selling their licences; how are consumers affected by these illegal practices?

• What happens to your “building or house”?

o How do you know, is the first question?

o What is the process for consumers, and what is the time frame?

o What if it is approved?

o Do you have to demolish partially or fully what has been constructed?

o Is it covered by Builders Warranty Insurance or other insurance?

Why doesn’t the VBA warn consumers, take out an ad on TV, name the parties they have

found and the practitioners, and put out a formal “warning notice” anything less is a failure to disclose critically important information to the public?

Instead, they bury this little article on the VBA website under News.

Firstly, consumers are not expecting practitioners to be doing anything illegal let alone borrowing or buying mates’ licences, they would expect the VBA to be in control. Secondly, what consumer in this busy world will look at the VBA website under “News” for anything?

We will write and ask Mr Brockman of the VBA and the Minister for (Building) & Planning, Ms Lizzie Blandthorn for the reasons for not acting and a point-by-point response to the process questions raised above. We will happily upload their response to those questions to assist building consumers and the wider community should they be affected now or in the future.

Fiona O’Hehir, Our Team & Our Community

Having encountered many of these issues, we want to share experiences to assist others in avoiding what we did not. We are not lawyers, nor do we give advice.