The Home Building Act 1989 requires builders and trades people to be licensed for the work that they do, and to have proper contracts and insurance in place for most jobs.
In February 2012 changes were made to the Home Building Act.
These changes:
• The statutory warranty period for residential building works has been reduced from 7 to 6 years.
• The threshold for obtaining Home Warranty Insurance has been lifted from $12,000 to $20,000.
Also to note, the changes that occurred in October 2011 were:
• A change to the definition to “developer” – now provides that an owner of land on which residential building work is carried out who owns or will own four or more of the existing or proposed dwellings, is a developer for the purposes of the legislation.
• The Dispute Resolution Service of the NSW Office of Fair Trading is now able to accept disputes initiated by building contractors in addition to home owners.
• The definition of completion of residential building work for the purposes of statutory warranty and home warranty insurance periods was amended. The legislation now provides that residential building work is complete when it s completed in accordance with the requirements of the contract. If there is no contract or the contract does not specify when the works are complete, the works will be complete when they have reached practical completion.
It is important that all home building contracts are kept up to date with the above legislative changes. Here at The Quinn Group, our experienced team of Lawyers, Accountants and Financial Planners are able to assist you with all your legal and accounting needs. If you have any further queries in relation to the changes to the Home Building Act or any other legal questions, please contact us on 1300 QUINNS (784 667) to book an appointment or submit an online enquiry.
