Clause 17

Where the Commissioner of Building Control receives, on or after the date of commencement of section 17 of the Building Control (Amendment) Act 2020, a trigger application relating to a relevant building, the Commissioner of Building Control may, by written notice, require the owner of the relevant building (who may or may not be the applicant of a trigger application relating to the same relevant building) to do the following:

to prepare and submit for approval the plans of relevant building works specified by the Commissioner of Building Control in the notice in relation to that relevant building;

where the plans of the relevant building works mentioned in paragraph (a) are approved, to complete those relevant building works in relation to the relevant building within the time specified in the notice.(2) An owner of a relevant building given a notice under subsection (1) who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with the notice —

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —

to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to both; and

to a further fine not exceeding $250 for each day or part of a day the owner fails to comply with the notice; and

in the case of a continuing failure to comply with the notice after conviction, shall be guilty of a further offence and shall be liable on conviction to a further fine not exceeding $500 for each day or part of a day during which the failure to comply continues after conviction.(3) In this section —“factory” means any building that is used or allowed to be used —

for handling, sorting, packing, storing, altering, repairing, constructing, processing or manufacturing any goods;

for the repair, construction or manufacturing of any vessel or vehicle; or

for any building operation or work of engineering construction,and includes any building associated with a building used or allowed to be used for a purpose in paragraph (a), (b) or (c);“relevant building” means a building —

the gross floor area of which is more than 500 square metres, or such other smaller minimum area prescribed in substitution;

to which members of the public have access as of right or by virtue of express or implied permission, whether or not on payment of a fee, and whether or not access to the building may be restricted at particular times or for particular purposes; and

that is not comprised in any development which is used or allowed to be used solely for residential purposes or as a factory;“relevant building works”, in relation to a relevant building, means building works to erect any physical feature —

in any corridor, lobby, washroom or other common area in the relevant building to which occupiers of the relevant building have general access; and

towards satisfying the relevant performance requirement for the purposes of this Part;“trigger application” means an application for approval of the plans of any building works under section 5(1) for the alteration, addition or repair of a relevant building.”.