How to check building defect orders in NSW

The register, in plain terms

Since the Residential Apartment Buildings Act 2020 (the RAB Act), Building Commission NSW can inspect apartment buildings and issue binding orders when it finds, or reasonably suspects, a serious defect: waterproofing failures, structural problems, fire safety defects and failures in key services. The orders, the buildings and the responsible parties are public, on the register of building work orders on nsw.gov.au.

The register currently holds 132 orders across all of NSW (snapshot 2026-08-14). That number is worth pausing on: it is small because the bar is high. An order means the regulator itself considered the defect serious enough to force rectification, which is exactly why a register hit matters so much for a buyer, and why an empty result means much less than it seems.

How to search it yourself, free

Go to the NSW Government website and search for "register of building work orders". The register page lets you filter by order type and search by suburb or address. Each entry shows the building address, the order type and date, and the parties it binds. There is no signup and no fee.

Three practical tips. First, search the suburb, not just the exact address: entries are sometimes recorded under a different street front of the same building. Second, if the building is strata titled, note its strata plan number (SP number) from the contract and compare it against the entry. Third, the register changes slowly but it does change: check it once when you shortlist and again before exchange.

What it does not cover

The register is not a general defect history. It covers apartment buildings under the RAB Act, only serious defects, and only where the regulator acted. Houses are outside it entirely. Most building problems, including most of the ones that end up in strata disputes, never reach it. For an apartment, the strata report and recent strata minutes remain the primary due diligence documents; asking the agent for recent minutes is a fair and normal request.

Nearby buildings matter too, in a limited way: an order in force on another building by the same developer or builder era says nothing legally about the one you are buying, but it is a useful question to raise, and the order pages name the parties.

The 60 second version

A PropertyFlags report runs this check automatically for any NSW address: the register is matched by location and, where a strata plan is identified, by SP number, alongside flood and bushfire mapping, zoning, EPA contamination records, development applications within 500 m, noise exposure and more. Every finding names the register it came from and the snapshot date. An order on the building is a red flag with the order named; the report never presents an empty register as proof the building is free of defects.

Run a free flag count on an address → · See a full sample report · Our analysis of the full register · The full due diligence checklist · Guide: how flood risk really works in NSW

Common questions

Source: Building Commission NSW register of building work orders under the Residential Apartment Buildings Act 2020, snapshot 2026-08-14. Order counts change as orders are issued and complied with; the free official register is always the current record.