News

2020 Audits – COVID-19 Update – Important Notice

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CMI has received provisional approval from JAS-ANZ to remotely undertake audits that are currently affected by travel restrictions and lockdowns not only in Australia but on a global basis due to the COVID-19 Virus.

CMI will be undertaking these remote audits using the IAF mandatory standard MD 4:2018 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Auditing/Assessment Purposes.

CMI will be contacting clients who have upcoming 2020 audits to organise your remote ICT audit.

CMI is seeking our client’s assistance in facilitating this ICT remote audit when we contact you. This will ensure that we can complete your 2020 audit within the required regulatory time frames so that we do not have to place your certification in suspension due to it not being completed.

There would be limited grounds to request a postponement of this ICT audit such as:

  • The manufacturing facility being audited has suspended/stood down all production and has temporarily shut down.
  • The client’s certification staff have been temporarily suspended/stood down and the client is not operating.

In such cases, can you please advise CMI of such situations and an expected resumption date if known. This information is important as CMI may need to place a client’s certification into suspension in such cases during this period. Once the manufacturing facility and client’s certification staff have returned to normal operations, CMI will not be able to lift the suspension until the required ICT audit or actual onsite audit are completed.

ICT remote audits are a positive way for a client to maintain their product certification without the need for an actual onsite audit being carried out due to the impact of the COVID-19 Virus.
Where onsite audits can still occur normally, CMI will also be contacting our clients to organise these onsite audits.

If you have any questions regarding this notice, please contact CMI at: surveillance@certmark.org
CMI remain committed to offering the best possible service to our clients and remain positive in our outlook for the future.

NCC 2019 Amendment 1 preview released

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Please See the following Statement from the ABCB regarding the up coming NCC amendment.

Access the preview of the out-of-cycle amendment for NCC 2019.

In preparation for the expected adoption of the National Construction Code (NCC) 2019 Amendment 1 by all States and Territories from 1 July 2020, the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) has released a preview of the Amendment.

NCC 2019 Amendment 1 will include:

  • a new provision in NCC Volume One regarding egress from early childhood centres;
  • an update to the Governing Requirements for all Volumes to require labelling of aluminium composite panels in accordance with SA Technical Specification 5344;
  • clarification of the concession in NCC Volume One that permits the use of timber framing for low-rise Class 2 and 3 buildings;
  • clarification in NCC Volume Two that anti-ponding board requirements only apply to roofs where sarking is installed; and
  • correction of minor errors.

In addition to the above, the NCC 2019 Amendment 1 preview also contains the following proposed changes that are yet to be confirmed:

  • a new defined term, building complexity, that may be used in the future to identify buildings for which additional oversight is appropriate; and
  • a new provision to require that a process be followed to improve the quality of, and documentation for, Performance Solutions.

NCC 2019 Amendment 1 can be viewed or downloaded from the NCC Suite, or you can download the summary and instructions for all Volumes from the ABCB Resource Library.

Announcement of Change of Certmark International (CMI) Management

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CMI is pleased to announce that Mr Richard Donarski, CMI’s National Compliance Director Australia & New Zealand will be taking over the day to day operations and management of CMI from our CEO Mr John Thorpe. Assisting Richard, will be Ms Talissa Ireland, CMI’s General Manager.

REASONS FOR THE CHANGE

CMI is going through a period of re-organisation and growth and will be diversifying its certification activities into the areas of Fire Systems & Products, Safety Equipment, Personal Protective Equipment, Construction & Building Materials as well as continuing the expansion of our services in the areas of WaterMark and CodeMark Certification.

Mr Donarski has over 30 years’ experience at senior managerial level in all these areas of certification activities and is ideally suited to manage CMI during this period of growth. Mr Donarski will be representing CMI on a range of relevant Standards Committees, Fire Protection Association of Australia (FPAA) Committees, Working At Heights Association (WAHA) as well as representing CMI with the Joint Accreditation System of Australia & New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) and the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB).

CLIENT ACTIONS

Moving forward with this change, could you please ensure that any existing communications with John Thorpe or CMI should, in the first instance, be sent to office@certmark.org or if you have been dealing with one of our other Staff directly, the Staff member involved.

CMI is very excited about the direction it is taking and we are very confident in CMI’s abilities moving forward.

Important ruling on undue fire spread risk

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Please find below link to important ruling on undue fire spread risk for external cladding for your information.
https://www.gadens.com/legal-insights/non-compliant-cladding-extends-to-biowood-composite-cladding-used-as-an-external-attachment/1­.

The article refers to the CSIRO Guideline ‘Fire Safety Guidelines for External Walls 2016’, which has ‘been withdrawn pending revisions to incorporate current BCA, Standards and research’­­2.

References:
1. Archer, A. (17/01/2020). Non-compliant cladding extends to ‘Biowood’ composite cladding used as an external attachment. Retrieved from https://www.gadens.com/legal-insights/non-compliant-cladding-extends-to-biowood-composite-cladding-used-as-an-external-attachment/.
2. Unknown Author – CSIRO. (Updated 01/08/2019). Fire safety for external walls of buildings. Retrieved from https://www.csiro.au/en/Do-business/Services/Materials-infrastructure/Fire-safety/Facade-guideline.

Richard Donarski joins CMI

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CMI is very excited to announce the appointment of Mr Richard Donarski to the position of National Compliance Director for Australia & New Zealand.

Richard will commence his duties with CMI as of 28th of October and will be responsible for overseeing CMI’s growth into broader areas of product certification as well as enhancing our service in the Building Product and Plumbing Certification sectors.

Richard has 30 years experience in product certification has held senior positions with British Standards Institute (BSI), SAI Global and Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC).

Richard sits on various Standards Australia (SA) and International Organisational Standards (ISO) committees for a range of standards as well as Fire Protection Association of Australia (FPAA) Technical Advisory Committees (TAC).

You will be able to contact Richard on:
Australia +61 (07) 5445 2199
New Zealand +64 (09) 951 8246  
Email richard@certmark.org

Product Certification in New Zealand

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11/10/2019

Product Certification in New Zealand
CMI wishes to clarify that the lifting of the suspension relates to the JAS-ANZ accredited, CodeMark Australia, WaterMark and the CertMark Product Certification Scheme. CMI has not applied for CodeMark New Zealand to be added back onto its scope at this point in time and as such cannot offer this service.

In New Zealand CMI can offer the following accredited certification services;

  1. CertMark Product Certification Scheme. This scheme is JAS-ANZ accredited and a Type 5 scheme. The relevant standards under this scheme can be found at jas-anz.org/.
  2. WaterMark. Although this scheme is an Australian mandatory plumbing scheme it is accepted in NZ as evidence of compliance for plumbing products. Historically, this is of use to NZ manufacturers wishing to sell plumbing product into Australia.

CMI Accreditation Schedule – Issue 27 Dated 26th July 2019.pdf

NSW changes Act to exclude Cladding from Professional Indemnity Contracts

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The “Building Professionals Amendment (Insurance) Regulation 2019” Introduced 28.6.2019

14A Exclusion for accredited certifiers
(1) A professional indemnity contract may provide that the indemnity
provided by the contract does not apply to any claim made against the
insured in relation to:
(a) cladding that does not comply with the requirements of the
Building Code of Australia, an Australian Standard or an Act or
other law of the Commonwealth, this State or any other State or
Territory to the extent that it applies to cladding, or
(b) cladding that is used, installed or applied to a building in a
manner that does not comply with the requirements of the
Building Code of Australia, an Australian Standard or an Act or
other law of the Commonwealth, this State or any other State or
Territory to the extent that it applies to the use, installation or
application of cladding.
(2) This clause applies only in respect of a professional indemnity contract
providing indemnity for a period, not exceeding 12 months,
commencing on or before 30 June 2020.
(3) In this clause:
Australian Standard means a standard published by Standards
Australia.
cladding means cladding or a cladding system (including, but not
limited to, the panels, lining, attachment or finishes of any cladding or
cladding system), whether or not insulated or made of composite
materials, that is applied to any of a building’s external walls or to
another external area of a building.

Links: NSW_Building_Insurance_Regulations_1562047653.pdf
https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/

Industry at tipping point over PI insurance crisis

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Please see below statement from Troy Olds (AIBS President) and Brett Mace (Chief Executive Officer) of the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors

“The Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance crisis we have been warning governments about for almost three years has finally hit.

Over the past two weeks, AIBS has received notifications from building surveying firms all over Australia that are facing closure or have already closed because they cannot secure workable PI insurance policies.

As a result, building and construction projects in some jurisdictions are under threat now. The entire industry nationally – including consumer protection for building owners throughout Australia – is perilously close to collapse.

Despite this, our political leaders continue to make the issue into a partisan political football. Federal Minister Karen Andrews has publicly blamed Ministers in the various jurisdictions for the crisis saying it is their responsibility to administer building regulations in their own States and Territories. At the same time, the Ministers are saying they had hoped for a national solution and they have limited powers to act. As a result, State and Territory governments are developing their own solutions to what should be a uniform national approach.

AIBS expects the political blamestorming to come to a head at next month’s meeting of the Building Ministers’ Forum (BMF).

But we are not waiting for that and have continued to advocate to all levels of government for an urgent solution. From the outset we have wanted a national solution across all jurisdictions, not the piecemeal approach we now have.”

For the full statement from Australian Institute of Building Surveyors open the following link;
Member_Statement-Industry_at_tipping_point.pdf

Press Release – Certificate Withdrawals

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Update 04/03/2019:

Please see link below for response from the ABCB.

https://certmark.org/downloads/Supplementary Press Release – Certificate Withdrawals – 20190304.pdf

Update 28/02/2019:

Please note, CMI is currently liaising with the ABCB (the CodeMark Scheme Owners) regarding the status of completed and in progress projects and their reliance on the withdrawn certificates. CMI will update our press release as soon as possible and thank you for your patience.

Please see the following Press Release regarding the recent withdrawal of a number of CodeMark certificates for ACP and EPS products.

https://certmark.org/downloads/Supplementary Press Release – Certificate Withdrawals – 20190222.pdf

Withdrawn Certificates Update – 25/02/2019 https://certmark.org/articles/2019/02/withdrawn-certificates-update/