A Victorian builder has been disqualified for the maximum period of three years and fined $80,000 for breaches including failing to have required insurance.

The state Building and Plumbing Commission issued Essendon-based Brett William Watkins with a show cause notice after his company was found to have received money from consumers when it had no legal right to. 

One homeowner paid him more than $400,000 to build a single-storey house and garage in Kilmore, and the money was not recoverable when the company entered external administration because there was no domestic building insurance in place. 

Mr Watkins also failed to lodge a permit with Mitchell Shire Council for the Kilmore job, which made the excavation work illegal.  

All builders must take out insurance on a homeowner’s behalf for domestic work valued at more than $16,000, with claims possible – under current rules – if the builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent. 

Watkins Building Group and Watkins Building & Carpentry are in external administration. 

The Building and Plumbing Commission says Mr Watkins admitted failing to prepare or keep adequate financial records for either company, and both were trading while insolvent.

Mr Watkin is disqualified from being registered as a building practitioner for three years, and from being the nominee director of a registered building company for the same period.

“The BPC has zero tolerance for rogue practitioners and we’re doing everything we can to remove them from the industry.” commissioner Anna Cronin said.

Mr Watkins has the right to appeal against the decision at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.