Home Property Australia Property Council Responds to Project Trust Amendments

Property Council Responds to Project Trust Amendments

  • February 28, 2020

PROPERTY COUNCIL RESPONDS TO PROJECT TRUST AMENDMENTS

The Property Council has lodged a submission on the amended project trust model that was recently tabled in parliament.

As a vocal opponent of the PBA framework since it was proposed in 2017, the Property Council has articulated this position throughout numerous submissions and provided practical suggestions to improve the PBA framework to make it less onerous for businesses to adopt.

The most recent framework reflects many of the suggestions that the Property Council proposed.

In the most recent submission, the Property Council acknowledged that aspects of the framework had been improved but noted concern with the following elements of the current model:

  • The new provision providing the ability to place a charge over land is redundant as this avenue is already an option for participants in the contractual chain
  • There is potential for withholding payment requests to be misused by claimants
  • The provision to change building assessment provisions may impact the viability of large-scale projects

To view the Property Council’s submission on the amended project trust bill, please click the link below.