If you’ve been apartment hunting in Melbourne, there’s a piece of news worth knowing about before you sign anything: the Victorian Government’s Cladding Safety Victoria Repeal Act 2026 passed Parliament in May this year, formally winding down the state’s combustible cladding rectification program. It’s genuinely good news for the building industry, but it also changes what buyers need to check before purchasing into an apartment building, particularly one built or clad in the 2000s and 2010s.
What Cladding Safety Victoria actually was
After combustible aluminium composite cladding was linked to a series of high-profile apartment fires, the Victorian Government established Cladding Safety Victoria (CSV) in 2020 to fund and manage the rectification of the state’s highest-risk buildings. It’s been one of the more significant residential building safety programs in the country, and according to the Government, it’s now remediated more than 99 per cent of Victoria’s highest-risk buildings.
With that work largely done, the associated cladding levy, a charge added to building permit costs to help fund the program, is now being wound back, with reductions expected to be somewhere between 47 and 66 per cent depending on the project. For future developments, that’s a genuine cost saving. For existing owners and buyers, it raises a different, more immediate question.
The question every Melbourne apartment buyer should be asking now
If the state-led program is closing, what happens to any building that hasn’t yet completed its remediation, or that never made it onto the highest-risk register in the first place but still has combustible cladding installed?
This is exactly the kind of detail that doesn’t show up on a walk-through inspection, and it’s precisely what a proper review of an owners corporation’s records is designed to surface. Before buying into any Melbourne apartment building, especially anything built between the early 2000s and roughly 2018, when combustible cladding use was most common, it’s worth knowing:
- Was this specific building ever assessed or registered under the Cladding Safety Victoria program?
- If remediation was planned, has it actually been completed and fully paid for?
- If it hasn’t been completed, is government funding still available, or will the cost now fall to owners through a special levy?
- Has the building’s insurer flagged the cladding status, and has this affected premiums?
None of this is visible from the street. It’s sitting in the owners corporation’s meeting minutes, correspondence, and financial records, exactly what a proper pre-purchase report reviews.
It’s not just cladding, cost recovery is shifting too
Separately from the cladding wind-down, recent case law is also reshaping how Victorian owners corporations recover costs from individual owners. Decisions like Owners Corporation v Buckley are giving owners corporations clearer pathways to pursue owners for unpaid levies and cost-recovery claims. Put simply: if a special levy is raised, whether for cladding, another defect, or general capital works, Victorian owners corporations are on increasingly solid legal footing to enforce payment. That makes it even more important to know about a potential levy before you become the owner liable for it, rather than after.
What this means practically
None of this is a reason to avoid apartment living in Melbourne, the vast majority of buildings have straightforward, well-managed records with nothing alarming in them. But given how directly this affects the two things buyers care about most (money and safety), it’s worth having someone independent actually look at the paperwork rather than relying on general reassurance from an agent or the seller.
A proper owners corporation report reviews exactly the areas this situation touches on:
- AGM and EGM minutes for any cladding-related discussion, motions, or resolutions
- Special levies raised, proposed, or discussed, cladding-related or otherwise
- The adequacy of the capital works (sinking) fund relative to the building’s age and any known works
- Current building insurance details and whether cladding status has affected the policy
- Any disputes or cost-recovery action either brought by or against the owners corporation
A note on coverage
It’s worth checking this directly with any provider you’re considering: a number of well-known strata and pre-purchase report services in Australia only operate in New South Wales and Queensland, and simply don’t cover Victoria at all. If you’re buying in Melbourne, make sure whoever you engage actually services the Victorian market and understands owners corporation terminology specifically, not just generic “strata” language borrowed from interstate.
Frequently asked questions
Does the end of Cladding Safety Victoria mean all cladding issues in Victoria are now resolved?
No. The program achieved remediation on the highest-risk buildings identified through its assessment process, but that doesn’t mean every building with combustible cladding has been captured or fixed. Buildings outside the highest-risk category, or those not yet assessed, may still have outstanding cladding to address, potentially without ongoing state funding support going forward.
How would I know if a building was part of the Cladding Safety Victoria program?
This isn’t always obvious from public sources. A review of the owners corporation’s records, meeting minutes, correspondence, and any funding agreements, is the most reliable way to establish this before you buy.
Is this only relevant to high-rise apartments?
Combustible cladding issues have primarily affected multi-storey apartment buildings, but any owners corporation report should also review general building condition and maintenance matters regardless of building height.
Considering an apartment purchase in Melbourne? Order your owners corporation report and get a clear, independent picture of the building’s cladding, financial and legal position before you sign.
