A review of more than 800 buildings in Victoria has found “substandard” documentation and “widespread misapplication” of regulations contributed to the use of non-compliant cladding materials in apartment blocks.

Cladding Safety Victoria, the government agency overseeing the state’s $600 million rectification program, says it has anecdotally understood for some time that poor building design led to the widespread specification and use of aluminium composite panels (ACP) and expanded polystyrene (EPS).

“CSV’s review has confirmed this was indeed the case, and that the issue is not isolated to a particular type of practitioner or isolated to a limited pool of the industry,” the agency says in a report detailing its findings.

“Documentation reviewed by CSV demonstrates that responsibility for the specification of dangerous cladding is shared between consultants and building surveyors and is widespread across each discipline.”

The report says the agency reviewed original plans and permits for 1000 referred buildings and was able to gather adequate information to draw “robust conclusions” for 804 of them.

“An analysis of this data reveals widespread misapplication of Victoria’s regulatory requirements for external wall cladding by the key professionals responsible for the design and permitting of buildings, namely the architects, draftspersons, fire safety engineers and building surveyors,” the report says.

“It is apparent that both architects and draftspersons involved in the preparation of building designs routinely specified combustible cladding for use in construction.”

Architects and draftspersons specified combustible cladding in 75% of the 804 cases. Fire safety engineers prepared reports for 71% of buildings where ACP or EPS was specified in plans but assessed the cladding for suitability in only 15% of buildings.

It was also found that relevant building surveyors issued construction permits in circumstances where ACP or EPS was specified in the building plans without determining a performance solution to address the combustible cladding.

“CSV’s findings confirm that in a large number of cases, substandard building design documentation contributed to the installation of combustible cladding on residential apartment buildings, necessitating state intervention,” the report says.

It adds: “CSV’s review of building documentation has revealed that the design and permit decisions were an early and causative factor leading to the installation of dangerous combustible cladding on apartment buildings.”

CSV says its review has revealed several compliance failures among the various professionals and “a considerable need” to work on gaps identified in the report. 

Its recommendations for the government and industry stakeholders include legislation to hold industry participants accountable for safety, quality and professionalism; and requiring architects, draftspersons and engineers to certify that their designs are complete and comply with the Building Code of Australia.

See the report here.