PERTHNotice of Completion: the BA7 that closes out a build
The WA Notice of Completion (form BA7) under section 33 of the Building Act: the seven-day rule, the $10,000 penalty, the builder's continuing liability
When a build finishes in Western Australia, one more thing has to happen that most owners never think about: the builder has to formally tell the council the work is complete, on a specific form, within a specific window. It is called a Notice of Completion, and its absence is a quiet sign worth noticing on a recently built or renovated home.
What it is
A Notice of Completion is form BA7, given under section 33 of the Building Act 2011. The responsible person — the builder or demolition contractor named on the permit — must give it to the permit authority within seven days of completing the work, or the stage of work, for which the permit was granted.
It does real legal work. It establishes the end date of the permit for compliance and record-keeping, and it must be accompanied by a copy of the certificate for each inspection or test that applied to the permit — the pool barrier inspection certificate, for instance, on a job that included a pool. It is the official record that the permitted work is done and was inspected where required.
Why the builder cares
Because their liability runs until it is lodged. The person named as builder on a permit remains liable for the building complying with the Building Act until a notice of completion, or a notice of cessation, is issued. Building and Energy published Industry Bulletin 119 specifically to remind registered builders of the importance of lodging the BA7 within the prescribed time and the consequences of not doing so — and failure to submit it can attract a penalty of up to $10,000.
Occupancy is a separate question
Worth clearing up, because people conflate them. For a house (Class 1), the notice of completion records that the permitted work is finished. For commercial and multi-unit buildings (Class 2 to 9), lodging the BA7 does not by itself authorise occupation — those buildings need a separate occupancy permit before anyone can move in. So on an apartment or a mixed-use building, completion and permission-to-occupy are two different milestones.
What this means for a buyer
On a home built or substantially altered in the last few years, the BA7 is part of the paper trail that should exist. Its presence tells you the permitted work was formally completed and the required inspection certificates were handed over. Its absence does not automatically mean something is wrong, but it is a thread worth pulling, because a builder who never lodged the notice of completion may also have left other loose ends — and their liability technically never closed out.
Ask for the completion documentation as part of the purchase, alongside the home indemnity insurance certificate. Together they tell you whether the build was properly closed off. A pre-purchase inspection assesses the physical work; the paperwork tells you whether it was signed off the way the Act requires. On a newer home, you want both.
Where the BA7 sits in the completion sequence
The notice of completion, the BA7, is one document in a sequence that closes out a building project, and it is easy to confuse with the others, so it is worth placing it precisely. During construction the work proceeds under a building permit. When the work is finished, the builder is required to lodge a notice of completion with the permit authority within a set period, formally recording that the permitted work is complete. That is the BA7. It is a statement to the authority that the job is done, and it starts and stops certain clocks: it closes out the permit and it has consequences for the builder's obligations and for the record attached to the property.
What the BA7 is not is a statement that the work is free of defects, or that it is fit to occupy, or that it complies in every respect with the standards. It records completion, not quality. A house can have its notice of completion lodged and still carry the ordinary crop of finishing defects that a practical completion inspection would pick up, because the two documents are answering different questions: the BA7 says the builder considers the permitted work finished, while a defects inspection says whether it was finished well.
Occupancy, and why it is a separate track
For certain classes of building an occupancy permit is required before the building can lawfully be occupied, and this runs on a separate track from the notice of completion. For a standard single house, the ordinary Class 1a dwelling most buyers are dealing with, an occupancy permit is generally not the mechanism, and completion is recorded through the notice of completion rather than through an occupancy permit. For other classes of building the occupancy permit is the gate that has to be passed before people can move in. The distinction matters because people hear "occupancy permit" and assume it applies to their house purchase when it may not, and conversely assume the notice of completion carries an occupancy assurance it does not.
The practical point for anyone buying a recently built or recently renovated home is not to take any single one of these documents as a guarantee of quality or compliance. Each records a particular administrative fact. None of them is a substitute for having the actual condition of the building assessed, which is what an inspection does, and which is the only thing that tells you whether the completed, notice-lodged house is actually in the condition you are paying for.
What a buyer should actually check
If you are buying a home that has been built or substantially altered in recent years, the completion paperwork is worth understanding but it is the building itself that decides your risk. Confirm, through your settlement agent or conveyancer, that the appropriate completion documentation exists for the work that was done, because a gap in the paper trail can be a sign of unpermitted work, which brings its own problems. But do not let the presence of a tidy set of documents lull you into skipping the inspection. A house with every form correctly lodged can still have a waterproofing failure behind a new bathroom, a structural detail that was not done to plan, or a crop of finishing defects that were never rectified. The forms tell you the administrative story; the inspection tells you the physical one, and it is the physical one you will be living with.
Paperwork is not condition
If there is one thing to take from all of this, it is that the completion paperwork and the condition of the building are two separate things, and only one of them determines what you will actually live with. A correctly lodged notice of completion tells you the builder considers the permitted work finished and the administrative record is in order. It tells you nothing about whether the waterproofing was done properly, whether the frame matches the plans, or whether the house carries a crop of finishing defects that were never rectified. Buyers who take a tidy set of documents as reassurance about quality are conflating the two, and it is an easy mistake to make because the paperwork feels official and final. The document trail is worth confirming, because gaps in it can signal unpermitted work. But it is the inspection, not the forms, that tells you the physical condition of the house, and the physical condition is the part that costs money to put right.
Common questions
What is a Notice of Completion?
Form BA7, given under section 33 of the Building Act 2011. The builder or demolition contractor named on the permit must give it to the permit authority within seven days of completing the work, with copies of any required inspection certificates.
What happens if a builder doesn't lodge the BA7?
The builder remains liable for the building complying with the Building Act until it is lodged, and failure to submit it can attract a penalty of up to $10,000. Building and Energy set this out in Industry Bulletin 119.
Does the BA7 allow occupation?
For a house it records completion. For commercial and multi-unit buildings (Class 2 to 9), lodging the BA7 does not authorise occupation — those need a separate occupancy permit first.
This comes up on every pre-purchase building inspection and practical completion (pci) inspection we carry out.
Read next: home indemnity insurance: your protection if the builder fails and building permits in WA: BA1, BA2, and when you need one.
Sources
Read rather than recalled. Summarised here; the documents themselves are Crown copyright and are linked rather than reproduced.