On Monday the state government ordered tools down for a fortnight to address concerns around poor Covid-safe practices, ballooning infection numbers at some building sites and protesting tradies.But once they are allowed to resume working again from October 5, builders and tradies will need to prove they are complying with chief health officer directions.RELATED: House builders dominate nation’s most prolific construction groupsConstruction industry shutdown: Almost $1bn in renos and home builds on holdWhat you can do in real estate right nowDeveloper market going strong during lockdownsThese include not being able to travel to regional Victoria to work, tea room closures, work shift bubbles with a Covid marshal on site, and for employees to show disclose their vaccination status — with at least one dose required to work from 11.59pm Thursday, September 23.Kalus Kenny Intelex Lawyers Partner for building and construction law Peter Lettieri said even with two weeks off the tools, many small-scale builders wouldn’t have the time to recruit, train or on-board a Covid marshal. “I expect to see sites not being opened until they can meet the requirement,” Mr Lettieri said.“I can see a small family builder really struggling for a while.“And the builder is having to pay an extra person to work all day every day.”He suggested that a modest “wind back” to allow a Covid marshall to check multiple sites throughout a day for compliance would allow for builders to share the cost and return to work with little if any compromise to compliance.After Wednesday’s earthquake the industry is still working to make sites safe prior to downing tools completely.Housing Industry Association executive director Fiona Nield said the timeline to secure some sites would have extended after the tremors.“There may be sites where scaffolding might have been dislodged, so there might be some issues with builders needing to deal with in the next couple of days if there are damages,” Ms Nield said.The industry has also flagged they will be taking extra precautions to secure materials on sites, with a supplies shortage for timber frames and other items potentially enough to tempt thieves to invade closed worksites.Metricon director Peter Langfelder said “theft of timbers is a concern”.“But there is a provision to shut down sites, so we won’t leave unsafe sites and we don’t want security to be an issue,” Mr Langfelder said.“Securing, to me, is making it more difficult for that sort of thing to go on.”He said he believed a “skeleton staff” would be allowed to check sites had not been broken into during the shutdown.Building industry sources have reported the two week shut down might have a positive impact on a construction supplies shortage, giving distributors and manufacturers for in-demand materials a chance to catch up. However, they warned if sites remained shut for more than two weeks suppliers might begin to look at shipping to unaffected areas, potentially interstate, as they would still need to make money. While larger building groups would potentially be able to leverage their volume of work to mitigate delays, smaller operators such as mum and dad builders would be at greater risk of significant delays.Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.MORE: Kilmore in middle of ‘adolescent growth spurt’ as developer pays $32m+Dozens of prime ministers’ homes at risk: Push to protect former Gillard homeBanksia La Trobe Secondary College site, Bellfield: New thinking at in-fill development
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