Making, selling, using and/or installing Dam Buster fakes - whether you know about it or not, exposes everyone involved to the potential for substantial legal action against them, which almost certainly won't be covered by any standard business insurance and can also easily leave owners and directors of companies personally liable - including financially. 

Apart from this, Regulators, Building Surveyors, Inspectors and Forensic Plumbing experts will all defect fakes because they simply don't meet the mandatory conformance requirements of the National Construction Code (NCC).  Fakes also come with no supporting technical documentation, plus you also can't use any of our copyrighted Dam Buster technical information or other Intellectual Property to support a fake product. 

If you are a manufacturer and someone approaches you asking to copy our products, please get in touch with us immediately, because our simple licencing arrangement (see more information on this page) can enable you to manufacture them yourself very easily and legally.  

If you are a buyer such as a plumber or builder, make sure you avoid being left holding the baby with a fake product and having to redo the work at your own substantial cost and also being made to answer to a regulator such as the VBA, or maybe even worse - a very unhappy home owner who has just given you the worst Google review in history after their pride and joy flooded out in a storm. 

You can easily avoid any problems by ensuring you are buying the real deal from one of our authorised suppliers.  All genuine Dam Buster products can be individually traced.  They also carry a range of security features including physical product name plates, long life serialized stickers and unique, laser cut physical markers, so if you are ever in doubt, please Contact Us Immediately.

If you've already purchased fakes, you should return them, demand your money back and never buy from that business again.  

HOW HOME OWNERS AND INSTALLERS CAN AVOID BEING RIPPED OFF

First off, you should ask to see the MANUFACTURER's National Construction Code (NCC) documentary EVIDENCE OF SUITABILITY for the products they want you to buy and/or have installed.  It's an absolutely critical but killer question.

Evidence of Suitability should be a significant document, explaining and proving beyond doubt how that makers product has been tested and fully complies with all  NCC requirements. Be warned that "She'll be right mate" or "We've been doing this for 20 years" or "I've got a mate who certifies these for me" does not remotely amount to Evidence of Suitability.  If you ever hear anything like this, the alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear. For fake copies of Dam Buster products, Evidence of Suitability simply won't exist and your buying decision should end right there.  Dam Buster's extensive and fully NCC conforming Evidence of Suitability can of course be downloaded any time from the Technical Downloads Page.

If someone also tries to hand (or even worse, sell) you a Performance Solution from some supposed expert instead, claiming this will somehow solve the problem another way, that's also not acceptable as Evidence of Suitability under the NCC or by regulators because (for pretty obvious reasons) all fake copies of building products are prohibited nation wide.  See https://ncc.abcb.gov.au/ncbp for more information.   Also don't forget that no Performance Solution, no matter who its from or how much it's dressed up or looks to be filled with impressive information, can ever provide authority for a breach of someone's Intellectual Property - no matter what they might claim, any person or business who is involved with such a deceptive practice is also jointly liable for any breach.  

Home owners in particular should be extremely cautious if presented with any Performance Solution that is attempting to justify products that look like copies of Dam Buster products.  Often owners under pressure to get their new homes built are pressured by the plumber or the builder to sign these documents.  But those documents invariably will not be from reputable experts.  Some of these supposed experts are not even licenced.  Some key warnings to look out for: 

• No marked up plans for the specific site in question

• No calculations for each and every box gutter and outlet device e.g rainhead

• Does the Performance Solution even list the site address?  Some don't because it's just been photocopied!!

• No photographs of the supposed physical testing carried out, probably because it was never even done. 

• No photographs of the products actually supposedly tested.  Surely a single photo or two isn't difficult??  Apparently its impossible for some of these alleged experts!!

• No calibration or identification of the measurement devices supposedly used to check flow rates etc.  Maybe they just guessed??   A real expert will detail all of this in considerable detail. 

• "Made Up" post nominals.  Just because someone is a member of an apparently reputable industry related organization does not mean they can suddenly use that to produce a non-sensical post nominal.  Hence beware of anybody who claims a qualification like "M.1234" where "M" means "Member" and 1234 is the industry organization.  Just being a member of 1234 because you paid the $50 annual fee does not entitle you to fabricate post nominals and in most cases, organizations like 1234 don't even have post nominals like that.  Its as meaningless as saying something like "M.RACV" or "M.NRMA" when you have roadside emergency assistance with the RACV or NRMA or you've got your Home Insurance with them.  Beware: sadly there's no shortage of people out there who make this stuff up to make their qualifications and CV's look more impressive. 

• Supposed experts who are not even licenced in the relevant field of expertise.  In Victoria for example, only licenced plumbers who are licenced in the appropriate category and class e.g Roof Drainage, are legally allowed to certify plumbing design work and that includes writing Performance Solutions.  Any unlicenced practitioner should be treated with complete contempt and any Performance Solution they provide rejected out of hand. You can easily check on this - for example in Victoria you can search a practitioner to see if they are even licenced by going to https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/tools/find-practitioner 

• Training courses attended which provide the so called expert with no further qualification or experience to be issuing the Performance Solution that it would for you or any random member of the public to be issuing that document.   A law degree from Oxford University for example is maybe impressive, but it certainly does not qualify you to write Plumbing Performance Solutions. 

Often the Building Surveyor (or Building Certifier) is not even told a Performance Solution is being used, but the existence of any Performance Solution must be approved by the Surveyor/Certifier as part of the permit and must also form part of the Occupancy documentation.  Some dodgy builders and plumbers try to get around this by only having the owner sign the documentation (often under pressure), and they then keep it hidden from the building surveyor or certifier until the job is all handed over and paid for. 

Who loses here?  Everyone except the dodgy supplier and installer.  The owner is then left with a Non-Compliant home fitted with Non-Conforming Building Products, but by the time that's discovered it could be some years down the track and all those involved have disappeared into the sunset leaving the owner holding the baby.  By that time the house may also have suffered a catastrophic failure like being flooded out in a storm or else been plagued by ongoing leaks and mould.  If the Home insurer discovered this (and they all have their own consultants these days), your claim for water damage would likely be denied in full and they may also refuse to ever reinsure you.

Selling a house covered in Non-Conforming Building Products? That's also not easy - they are a simple 'free kick' for any capable pre purchase inspector working for a lender or the new potential purchaser.  It could cost you tens of thousands on any potential sale. 

Anybody who tries to con you with any of this is simply trying to rip you off.  They don't care about you or anybody else apart from themselves.  All they want is the sale.  In the case of plumbers being sold this rubbish - even in some cases by apparently reputable suppliers, they are also risking their licence and potentially substantial fines, apart from legal action for breach of Intellectual Property.  Those who sell such rubbish products also obviously don't care about Dam Buster either, nor all the time, money and hard work we have put into developing the products - they just steal the ideas instead and leave the problems for others to sort out.  Very simply, these people are rogues who do not deserve your business.  They should be shunned by all reputable purchasers and home owners must also be absolutely alert. 

Reports of any potential infringements of our Intellectual Property are encouraged, will be immediately acted upon by our capable team, and may also attract a financial reward if the information is confirmed by independent investigation.  

If you suspect the roof drainage products you have been offered are not genuine Dam Buster products but look like them, please contact us immediately - confidentiality is assured. We can also easily confirm for you whether or not any product or seller is genuine or not. 

Any queries or details about Intellectual Property issues should be emailed to enquiries@dambuster.com.au