"They've got a $550,000 costs order awarded against them, and their own legal costs of $380,000, so they're under for nearly $1 million before they can even think about doing the actual repairs," Mr Chandler said on Monday after a building regulation parliamentary inquiry heard evidence in Newcastle last week about the Bellevue's colourful past.

"I'm just devastated for the people who live there. Many people are my age. I don't know how much it will take to fix that block," Mr Chandler said.

He visited the Bellevue as part of a program to test the extent of the state's building problems, after public outrage following evacuation of hundreds of people from the Opal and Mascot towers in Sydney in 2018 and 2019 because of structural defects.

Newcastle is "no different to other parts of the state" in having some buildings that reflect the systemic problems he was appointed to address. The Bellevue, like Charlestown's troubled Landmark building, won a building industry award shortly after it opened, prompting Mr Chandler to fire a salvo at building industry associations.

"Industry associations to some degree, they've tended to shelter lousy members. Some of these people have legitimised people who shouldn't be legitimised," he said.

In the six months since his appointment he has met, or organised to meet, with industry associations, banks, strata management associations, suppliers, manufacturers and local councils.

His job is to prioritise customers and bring accountability back into the system, he said.

"It's no longer the other person's problem," he said.

The NSW Government's Design and Building Practitioners legislation, being debated this week, which includes reforms to ban builders with bad track records, is part of a suite of reforms, Mr Chandler said.

Phoenixing and insolvencies as a way for developers and builders to avoid responsibility for defective work remain "a big issue", and he has set a target of reducing phoenixing by 30 per cent in the next two years, Mr Chandler said.

A risk-ratings tool which aggregates builder, designer, certifier and developer data to create a risk and compliance profile for each building project will identify those needing a "very very close audit", and the Building Commissioner's office will prevent the issuing of an occupation certificate if work is sub-standard.

"My message to the building industry is guys, the game has changed. I'm going to get in the way of occupation certificates," he said.

Identifying problem projects will also give banks an "undeniable line of sight to risky developers", with the message from the Building Commissioner that "loan the money at your peril".

In meetings with banks he has also pushed for a return to much greater focus on developer loan drawdowns during projects.

He is also putting a focus on manufacturers and suppliers whose responsibility for their building products ends "when the truck leaves the gate", and warranties with conditions that offer little consumer protection, and strata managers who fail apartment building owners.

He is scathing of builders who blame faulty or defective work on the quality of their tradespeople.

"I have no tolerance for anybody telling me they can't get good tradies. That's not the customer's problem."

Mr Chandler said the Opal and Mascot Tower building failures exposed a system with many problems.

"I think everybody's had their fingers in this pie," he said.

But while his plans to address the problems in future are clear, he can't fix the mess left for apartment owners left with significant repair bills in troubled buildings like Bellevue Apartments and the Landmark.

"I don't know what the answer to these buildings is," he said.