Covid Ruling Rolling Back
The 'Managing Impacts of COVID-19 on NABERS Ratings Ruling' was essential to ensuring the NABERS program could continue while restrictions were in place on how commercial properties could be used during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such restrictions have not been in place in any Australian state or territory for some time now, and there is no indication that they will be returned.
It is, therefore, now time to revoke the ‘Managing Impacts of COVID-19 on NABERS Ratings Ruling’. From 1 January 2024, this Ruling can no longer be used by Assessors in the preparation of NABERS ratings. This will coincide with the revocation of any Rulings or Guidance issued by the Commercial Building Disclosure (CBD) Program in relation to COVID-19.
The ‘Commitment Agreements during Covid-19 Guidance Document' will be retained for a further 12 months.
The NABERS National Administrator does not anticipate that this revocation will have a notable impact on how Assessors conduct ratings. Nevertheless, as always, if you have any questions or concerns please contact the team and these will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Managing impacts of COVID-19 on NABERS Ratings
In March 2020, the NABERS National Administrator (NABERS) published the document ‘Managing impacts of COVID-19 on NABERS Ratings’. This document answers questions, provides clarifications and presents time-bound rulings in response to COVID-19-related issues that may be encountered when conducting a NABERS Ratings. Since publication, this document has been updated periodically as the situation has evolved.
NABERS will continue to monitor the changing circumstances brought on by the spread of COVID-19 and will continue to make changes as is required. When changes are made NABERS will keep historical versions of the Ruling on this website.
Current version of the Ruling
The latest version of the document is Version 5.0 and changes in this update include:
- The COVID Rulings expiry has been removed, effectively allowing indefinite usage. Ultimately we will rescind the Rulings in the post-pandemic period, however we will work with Assessors to determine an appropriate transition period.
- An order of priority list has been added in Ruling #1, outlining the process for methods in lieu of site visits.
- Further clarification has been provided on Method 3 – Use of conservative inputs.
- Method 5 has been sub-divided into two methods, creating a Method 5a – OTA Hours Minus 5 (existing) and Method 5B – Use of Previous TOS (new).
- Ruling #6 is a new Ruling for the Apartment Buildings sector, providing clarification on treatment of Strata pools and gyms.
The latest version of documents
(released Friday 30 October 2020)
(released Thursday 26 August 2021)
Superseded documents
- Managing impacts of COVID-19 on NABERS ratings v4.2 (superseded - released Tuesday 23 March 2021)
- Managing impacts of COVID-19 on NABERS ratings v4.0 (superseded - released Tuesday 18 August 2020)
- COVID-19 Consultation Response (released Thursday 14 May 2020)
- Consultation Paper - Managing Impacts of COVID-19 on NABERS Ratings - editable version (superseded - released Thursday 16 April 2020)
Contact details
If you have any questions in relation to this COVID-19 and NABERS Ratings update, please contact NABERS at nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au.