The Victorian Building Authority has fined Aycon Constructions and its nominee director Seyit Ayranci $250,000 after the business was found to have carried out building work with falsified insurance certificates.  

The regulator discovered Aycon had supported more than 150 building permit applications with false records of domestic building insurance (DBI) and carried out works without any valid policy in place.  

Victorian law requires builders to take out DBI for building work over $16,000.   

Aycon’s operations were suspended in April after the VBA executed search warrants across several of its sites in Melbourne and found that it had been operating without the appropriate insurance.  

The Victorian Managed Insurance Authority confirmed the builder had not obtained insurance for some of its projects and that the false certificates included unauthentic imagery of VMIA’s logo.  

The VBA has also cancelled Mr Ayranci’s registration and disqualified him for three years – the maximum amount – after determining that he was “not a fit and proper person and that he engaged in unprofessional conduct”.  

VBA Commissioner and CEO Anna Cronin said the regulator held “zero tolerance for rogue practitioners” and will continue to penalise those who do not follow the law.   

“This record penalty shows the VBA won’t hesitate to use its full range of enforcement powers to protect consumers from unprofessional conduct and non-compliant building work,” Ms Cronin said.  

“Consumers should always ensure their builder is registered and has proof of a valid domestic building insurance policy which is required by law.”  

The VBA says it is actively working to support affected Aycon customers after noting a “relatively small” number of complaints in May.