AIBS criticises Victorian Government amendments that place building levy responsibility on surveyors

The Australian Institute of Building Surveyors (AIBS) has criticised recent amendments to Victoria’s Building Act 1993, introduced through the State Taxation Further Amendment Bill 2025, which came into effect on 26 November 2025.

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The changes introduce a new method for calculating the building permit levy, a tax paid by applicants and assign building surveyors the responsibility of confirming project costs. AIBS argues that the amendments are flawed, impose an excessive administrative burden and do not reflect the professional role of surveyors.

“The role of a building surveyor is to ensure compliance, life-safety and regulatory oversight, not to act as a tax collector or cost estimator,” AIBS president Wayne Liddy says.

“These amendments place surveyors in the impossible position of policing project costs they are not trained or qualified to verify, particularly for large-scale, complex projects such as shopping centres, hospitals, data centres, apartment buildings and mixed-use developments.”

The AIBS warns that requiring surveyors to calculate and confirm construction costs could worsen workforce pressures, create additional liability for practitioners and lead to dysfunctional outcomes in the building approval process.

“This is not about opposing the levy itself; the government is entitled to collect revenue, but it is about ensuring it is collected in the right way. Levy collection must remain a function of the State Revenue Office, not a statutory responsibility forced onto surveyors,” Wayne says.

The Institute is calling on the Victorian Government to amend the legislation to remove this administrative and regulatory burden, allowing surveyors to focus on their core work of maintaining building safety and compliance.

Image courtesy of Bermix Studio, Unsplash.

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