The DBP Check

The DBP scheme, in plain English

Since 1 July 2021, remedial building work on NSW class 2 apartment buildings, including mixed-use buildings with apartments, generally needs registered designs and registered practitioners under the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020. Class 3 and 9c buildings, such as boarding houses and residential aged care, have been regulated buildings since 3 July 2023. What is deferred to 1 July 2028 is alteration, repair and renovation work on an existing class 3 or 9c building, and only where no part of the building is class 2.

In practice, work on a building element (waterproofing, structure, fire safety systems, the building enclosure or key services) usually needs a registered design practitioner to produce declared designs and a registered building practitioner to build to them, with both lodged on the NSW Planning Portal before work starts. The 60-second check above shows the likely pathway for your job.

DBP Check FAQs

Common questions about when remedial work on a strata building needs a registered design and building practitioner, and what the DBP Act does and doesn't cover.

Usually, yes. On a regulated building, repairs that touch a building element, such as waterproofing, concrete or facade work, generally need regulated designs from a registered design practitioner, and a registered building practitioner to carry them out, lodged on the NSW Planning Portal before work begins. Limited exclusions exist for low-value work, exempt development and work required by a council order or development control order. The order exclusion has one important exception: it does not apply where the order is to repair, rectify or replace external cladding, so cladding rectification stays inside the scheme.

Fire safety systems, waterproofing, internal or external load-bearing components essential to the building’s stability, components of the building enclosure such as roofs, external walls, windows and doors, and the parts of mechanical, plumbing and electrical services needed to meet the Building Code of Australia.

Work genuinely under $5,000 including labour and materials can be excluded, as long as it is not specialist trades work such as electrical or plumbing. Be careful: remedial scopes often grow once the work is opened up, and if the final cost passes $5,000 the scheme applies. Confirm any exclusion with your certifier.

Where immediate action is needed to prevent serious harm or further damage, a registered building practitioner can make the building safe before designs are prepared. The documents must then be lodged on the NSW Planning Portal within 7 days, and the permanent repair is treated as ordinary regulated work.

In general, yes. The exempt development carve-out for waterproofing only covers alterations to a bathroom, kitchen, laundry or toilet in a single dwelling, so it does not extend to strata common property.

A registered building practitioner. Projex Pro’s director Steve Evans is a registered Class 2 building practitioner under the scheme (BUP0001044), and Projex Pro Pty Ltd holds NSW contractor licence 378139C, so we can carry out the remedial work and coordinate the registered designs and Planning Portal lodgement end to end.

This page is general guidance, not legal advice, based on the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 and Regulation 2021 (NSW), current at July 2026. While you are planning: our free Building Health Check scores your building’s visible symptoms against Building Commission NSW defect data, the Defect Map shows where NSW strata buildings actually fail, the Capital Works Fund Check tests whether your strata fund could pay for the works, and the Council Approval Check shows which approval pathway a renovation needs.