Does NCC 2025 apply in Tasmania?

No. Tasmania is on NCC 2022, read with Amendment 2, until 30 April 2027. A state law set that date. It is the Building Amendment Act 2026. The freeze covers all building work, not just houses.

When does the Tasmanian NCC freeze end?

On 30 April 2027. From 1 May 2027 the Building Act 2016 points at the latest code again. NCC 2025 then applies with no new law needed. You may have heard the freeze called five years. The law in force does not say that.

Do I need a 7-star energy rating for a house in Tasmania?

No. The state swaps out Part H6 for houses. In its place you use Part 2.6 of BCA 2019 Amendment 1. So 7-star NatHERS and Whole-of-Home do not apply here. That state change is older than the freeze.

My Tasmanian house was approved under NCC 2025. What now?

Section 11(5) of the Building Act 2016 may cover you. A code rule can drop out where your certificate of likely compliance came first. It can also drop out where your building surveyor puts the design progress in writing. Ask your surveyor.

Does the Tasmanian NCC freeze cover commercial work?

Yes. The Building Amendment Act 2026 changed how the Building Act 2016 names the code. That wording runs through the whole Act. So it covers every volume and every class of building. Plumbing work is in too.

Tasmania's NCC 2025 Freeze: Which Code You Build To

The requirement

Tasmania is on NCC 2022 until 30 April 2027. Read it with Amendment 2, dated 29 July 2025. NCC 2025 does not apply here. From 1 May 2027 the latest code applies on its own. A state law set this up. It is the Building Amendment Act 2026.

The freeze started on 5 June 2026. That Act changed how the Building Act 2016 names the code. The name now points at one fixed edition. So the edition does not move when the ABCB puts out a new one.

The freeze covers the whole code. House costs drove the talk at the time. The law is wider than that. It covers every volume and every class of building. Plumbing work is in there too.

NCC 2025 did apply here for a short spell. It ran from 1 May 2026 to 4 June 2026. Since 5 June 2026 the code is NCC 2022 again.

What to build to today

Design a new house to NCC 2022 Volume Two, plus the ABCB Housing Provisions. Read both at Amendment 2. Then put the state’s own changes on top. They sit in Section 9 of Volume Two.

Section 9 changes Parts A1, A4 and A5. Those cover how you read the code, the books it points at, and your paperwork. Section 9 also changes Part H4, Part H6 and Part H7. Part H7 picks up things like pool fencing.

Energy rules for houses

Tasmania swaps out Part H6 for houses. In its place you use Part 2.6 of BCA 2019 Amendment 1. That is the older 6-star rule set.

So 7-star NatHERS and Whole-of-Home do not apply to a house here. The freeze did not cause that. The state never took on the newer house energy rules. That change came in well before the freeze.

Damp and mould

Condensation rules do apply here. The state has its own version of them, called TAS H4D9. Meet Part 10.8 of the Housing Provisions and you have met H4P7. That is the performance rule for condensation. It is not the rule for damp, which sits in Part H2. The state also puts out a designers’ guide on this. It is help, not law.

Jobs already through approval

Some jobs got approved in that short NCC 2025 spell. Section 11(5) of the Building Act 2016 deals with them.

A code rule may not count for your job in two cases. The first is where your certificate of likely compliance came in before the state took that rule on. The second is where your building surveyor or permit authority puts the design progress in writing. Ask your surveyor which one fits.

You can also build to a newer rule by choice. Section 11(6) says plainly that section 11(5) does not stop you. You may still meet an NCC rule that is not an applicable one for your job.

Livable housing

Part H8 covers livable housing design. Tasmania took that part on from 1 October 2024. Section 9 makes no change to it. So you build to Part H8 as published.

When the freeze ends

The freeze ends on 30 April 2027. There is no wind-down and no grace period. From 1 May 2027 the latest code applies to new work. Either your certificate came first, or section 11(5) covers you, or the new code is yours to meet.

You may have heard this called a five year freeze. Do not plan around that. The law in force ends it on 30 April 2027.

The Act that made the freeze repeals itself on 5 June 2027. That does not undo a thing. The new wording stays put in the Building Act 2016.

Part of the NCC rule book for Australian chippies, the plain-English tour of what applies to your work.
The state page: building code requirements in Tasmania.

Sources

Building Act 2016 (Tas), s 4(1), definition of “National Construction Code” (as substituted by the Building Amendment Act 2026, s 5; in force) — paragraph (a) fixes the applicable edition until 30 April 2027 as NCC 2022 as last amended by NCC 2022 Amendment 2 on 29 July 2025; paragraph (b) applies the latest published edition, as amended from time to time, on and from 1 May 2027, with no further Act, regulation or determination needed. Read with s 11(1), which requires building work to comply with the applicable provisions of the NCC. See legislation.tas.gov.au.
Building Amendment Act 2026 (Tas), No. 6 of 2026, ss 1–5 — the freezing instrument is primary legislation, not a regulation and not a CBOS Director’s determination. Royal Assent and commencement 5 June 2026 (s 2). Section 5 substitutes the single Act-wide s 4(1) definition, so the reversion to NCC 2022 runs statewide across all NCC volumes and all building classes, including plumbing work under s 11. Section 3 repeals the amending Act on the first anniversary of commencement (5 June 2027); that is the standard repeal of a spent amending Act and does not unwind the substituted definition. The Bill (Bill 1 of 2026) passed the House of Assembly on 14 April 2026 and was amended in the Legislative Council before assent; the regulation-making mechanism in the Bill was not enacted. Cite the Act, not the Bill. As made at legislation.tas.gov.au.
Building Act 2016 (Tas), s 11(5) — an NCC provision is not an applicable provision where the certificate of likely compliance issued before the State adopted that provision, or where the building surveyor or relevant permit authority certifies in writing that substantial progress had been made in the design before adoption (and equivalently for a later-amended referenced document). There are no transitional provisions in the 2026 Act itself. Same consolidation as above.
Building Act 2016 (Tas), s 11(6) — “Nothing in subsection (5) prevents a person from complying with a provision of the National Construction Code that is not an applicable provision by virtue of that subsection.” So voluntary compliance with a non-applicable NCC provision is expressly preserved. The offence provisions in s 11 (subsections (1), (2) and (3)) each carry a penalty of a fine not exceeding 100 penalty units for a natural person and 500 penalty units for a body corporate. Same consolidation as above.
NCC 2022 Volume Two, Section 9 Tasmania — the Tasmanian variations vary Parts A1, A4, A5, H4, H6 and H7, plus TAS referenced documents and a TAS footnote. See ncc.abcb.gov.au.
NCC 2022 Volume Two, Section 9 Tasmania, TAS Part H6 (Energy efficiency) — Part H6 is replaced in Tasmania with BCA 2019 Amendment 1 Part 2.6, so a Class 1 house is designed to the 6-star-era energy provisions rather than to NCC 2022 Part H6 (7-star NatHERS plus Whole-of-Home). Tasmania adopted NCC 2022 generally on 1 May 2023, condensation management on 1 October 2023 and livable housing design on 1 October 2024; the housing energy efficiency provisions were never adopted. See ncc.abcb.gov.au and ncc.abcb.gov.au.
NCC 2022 Volume Two, Section 9 Tasmania, TAS H4D9 (Health and amenity) — the national clause H4D9 is deleted and replaced, so that compliance with Part 10.8 of the ABCB Housing Provisions satisfies the condensation management performance requirement. An explanatory note points to the “Condensation in Buildings Tasmanian Designers’ Guide”, which is guidance only. See ncc.abcb.gov.au. The clause satisfies Performance Requirement H4P7 (condensation management); it does not touch Part H2 (damp and weatherproofing), which keeps its own performance requirements.
NCC 2022 Part H8 (Livable housing design) in Tasmania — the ABCB adoption table records Tasmania as adopting the livable housing design provisions on 1 October 2024, with no qualification. Section 9 Tasmania contains no variation to Part H8 (its variations are A1, A4, A5, H4, H6 and H7, plus TAS referenced documents and a TAS footnote), so Part H8 applies as published. See ncc.abcb.gov.au and ncc.abcb.gov.au.
Not verified here. Trade reporting of a “five-year” freeze does not match the enacted 30 April 2027 end date. Confirm the current position with CBOS at cbos.tas.gov.au as well.