Hi everyone,

In 2015 what was then Fair Trading NSW, (now Services NSW) made the decision to move away from the accredited short course for owner builders This change required owner builder candidates to complete 5 units of competency from the Certificate I in Construction to satisfy the educational requirements for the issue of a permit.

I was against the move then as I still am, believing that whilst they provide a sound platform of learning, they miss several key points of knowledge which are truly vital to owner builders.

This is becoming more and more evident whilst I field questions from our students that should be covered in any course that truly prepares you to understand your role and the responsibilities that go hand in hand with operating under an owner builder permit.

We have decided to change this by providing additional resource materials and reading which will answer each of the most frequently asked questions.
What is really exciting, is the way that we are going to present the resources and learning materials.

They will be in a format that allows easy access via your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop regardless of the operating system you use.
They information will be available from early January 2019 and the access link will be accessible from both the Learning Portal and our primary website.
It will be interactive and include review questions to allow you to self check your knowledge.

This mini course will in no way replaces the required learning, but simply and effectively allows our owner builder students to readily identify the legislative obligations of an owner builder in New South Wales.

It is our intent that the current presentation content for the 5 Units of Competency which are hosted on our Learning Management System will also be delivered on the new platform.

This is scheduled to be rolled out late first quarter, 2019.

Stay Tuned and Happy Owner Building

Hi Owner Builder Course Students,

We are working on an update to each of our resources that we make available free to our owner builder students.

Some of these resources are custom built by us, others are copied from the various state or territory regulatory bodies and are provided to make access simpler and more efficient.

With all of the third party resources we provide access to, they come with the rider that our owner builder course students must check and verify they are the latest and current versions that presents the most up to date information.

Recently there have been some changes to Home Warranty Insurance and this is always a very contentious issue so we look forward to being able to provide an update to this very soon.

In respect to our custom built templates, registers, schedules etc, we realise they are getting a bit long in the tooth and intend to refresh the look and feel of each of these items in the coming few months.

Each resource will be supported by a video tutorial which will guide our owner builder students through the process of using the forms and applying them practically.

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission has a range of contracts which cover every type of project or undertaking that an owner builder may reasonably expect to be involved with. We are working on a set of supporting video tutorials to help our owner builders understand the use of the contracts, which contract to select and how to administer works using the contract as the basis of a management system.

As we have included in previous posts, the QBCC contracts are specifically drawn for works in Queensland. This does not in our opinion render them not applicable to any other state or territory.

Owner Builder course students in New South Wales should consult the website of the Department of Fair Trading to look for the differences and apply them to the use of the contract forms.

That's all for now, but as always,

Happy Building,

Rick

We have just reviewed each of the additional resources we provide free of charge to our owner builder students and have realised it is 7 years since some of them have been revised.

As a result of this discovery and our commitment to making the owner builder course the best it can be, we are going to revise and update each of the resources over the coming months.

The resources as they currently stand are still extremely valuable to our owner builder course students and may be accessed at:

www.ownerbuildercourses.com/owner-builder-resources.html

Of particular use are the Project Management Systems and the Safety Management System. They are both .exe files and unfortunately do not work on mac based systems. We will fix this in the updated versions.

For our owner builder students who are PC users, they are accessed by downloading the .exe file and saving to your computer. You will need the following serial numbers to access the content:

HIH001 for the Project Management System and
0001 for the Safety Management System

In addition to theses resources, there are several tutorials which are also .exe files. They take the owner builder student through how to use the various forms in the Project Management Systems.

In updating these resources, we will also include access to sample specifications typically used for an owner builder domestic construction project and online tutorial videos on completing a Safe Work Method Statements and how to implement an effective Safety Management System for your owner builder project.

Of course you can email our staff with any of your questions, and we will try to develop an answer that will become available as a resource for all of our owner builder course students.

Take care out there, keep your owner builder site safe, and

Happy Building,

Rick