Welcome domestic building reforms for Victoria pass Parliament

The Domestic Building Contracts Amendment Bill 2025 (Vic) (Bill) has passed through both houses of the Victorian Parliament, and received Royal Assent on 16 September 2025.

The new Domestic Building Contracts Amendment Act 2025 (Vic) (amending Act) introduces significant changes to the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (Vic) (DBC Act), affecting contract rules, builder obligations and consumer protections.

This is welcome reform to modernise the DBC Act and make it more workable. Perhaps most importantly, the amending Act removes many of the consumer protection provisions in the DBC Act for contracts between developers and builders. We summarised the reforms which are most significant for developers and builders in our June update about the Bill, which you can read here. No changes were made to the Bill during its journey through Parliament.

Commencement of the domestic building reforms

The key domestic building reforms in the amending Act will come into operation on a day to be proclaimed, or 1 December 2026 at the latest. According to a Victorian Government media release, the reforms are expected to be implemented in stages. This suggests that some of the reforms will come into operation earlier than December 2026. You can read the media release here.

The reforms will only apply in relation to contracts entered into on or after commencement of the reforms. This will help to make the transition smooth for industry, providing certainty about when to begin using updated forms of domestic building contracts.

Next steps for builders and developers

When we have an implementation date to work towards, builders and developers will need to update their template domestic building contracts. For example, when they are contracting as between themselves (rather than with an end purchaser) the reforms will enable these contracts to be greatly simplified, including removing consumer protection related warnings and notices which will no longer be required. Other reforms will need to be addressed in all domestic building contracts, including changes in relation to cost escalation clauses, variations, termination and limits on deposits and progress payments. Refer to our June update for more detail about the upcoming changes.

We will provide further updates when implementation dates for key reforms are proclaimed.