HOME BUILDING ACT 1989 - SECT 127
Power to obtain information
HOME BUILDING ACT 1989 - SECT 127
Power to obtain information
127 Power to obtain information
(1) In this section--
"authorised person" means--
(a) a person authorised in writing by the
Secretary for the purposes of this section and holding a certificate issued by
the Secretary as to that authority, or
(c) a person authorised in
writing by the Authority for the purposes of this section and holding a
certificate issued by the Authority as to that authority.
"relevant information" means information about--
(a) a possible offence
against this Act or the regulations, or against another Act if the offence
relates to specialist work, or
(b) a complaint under this Act, or
(c) an
investigation by the Secretary into a matter that is or may be the subject of
disciplinary proceedings under this Act, or
(d) an application for, or for
the renewal or restoration of, a contractor licence or a supervisor or
tradesperson certificate, or
(e) the financial solvency of an applicant for,
or holder of, a contractor licence or of a supervisor or tradesperson
certificate or a close associate of such an applicant or holder, or
(f) an
application for a licence under Part 6C, or
(g) an investigation by the
Authority into a matter that is or may be the subject of action against an
insurer or provider of an alternative indemnity product under this Act or a
licence under Part 6C.
(2) The Secretary or Authority may, by notice in
writing served on a person, require the person--
(a) to give to an
authorised person, in writing signed by the person (or, in the case of a body
corporate, by a competent officer of the body corporate) and within the time
and in the manner specified in the notice, any relevant information of which
the person has knowledge, or
(c) to appear before an authorised person at a time and place specified in the
notice and then and there to give (either orally or in writing)
relevant information or to answer any questions reasonably related to giving
relevant information or producing documents containing such information.
(2A)
Notice under this section may be served on a person--
(a) personally or by
post, or
(b) by email to an email address specified by the person for the
service of notices of that kind, or
(c) by any other method authorised by the
regulations for the service of notices of that kind.
(3) An authorised person
may inspect a document produced in response to such a notice and may make
copies of, or take extracts or notes from, the document.
(4) A person must
not--
(a) fail to comply with such a notice to the extent that the person is
capable of complying with it, or
(b) in purported compliance with such a
notice, knowingly give information or an answer to a question, or produce a
document, that is false or misleading.
: Maximum penalty--1,000 penalty units
in the case of a corporation and 200 penalty units in any other case.
(5) A
person is not excused from giving information, answering questions or
producing documents under this section on the ground that the information,
answers or documents may tend to incriminate the person.
(6) Any information
or document obtained from a person under this section is inadmissible against
the person in criminal proceedings other than proceedings for an offence under
this section.
(7) An authorised person exercising any function under this
section must, if requested to do so, produce the certificate of authority
issued to the authorised person to a person served with a notice under this
section.
