“Substandard” documentation and “widespread misapplication” of regulations gave rise to the use of non-compliant cladding materials in apartment blocks in Victoria, a new report has found.

Cladding Safety Victoria says its review of more than 800 buildings confirms the prevailing view that poor building design led to the widespread specification and use of aluminium composite panels (ACP) and expanded polystyrene (EPS), and “the issue is not isolated to a particular type of practitioner or isolated to a limited pool of the industry.

“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, which is overseeing the state’s $600 million rectification program, 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.”

See the report here.