Building Defects

It is extremely important for any prospective purchaser to undertake enquiries and due diligence prior to purchasing a property. Pre-purchase inspection reports are crucial to ascertain the condition of a property and can usually be commissioned at a low cost. It is frustrating for any purchaser to find out that the property they have just bought has defects present which were not noted in the pre-purchase inspection report.

A Major Management Issue of all Strata Owners

In 2012, a major study by the University of New South Wales found that 85% of strata owners had to address costly building defects. Since then the problem seems to have grown even worse, with some notorious major developments and a state-wide fire safety issue with external cladding materials.

A Response to Notoriously Defective Buildings

The Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW) is the major legislative response to public concerns regarding defective buildings in New South Wales. Major developments at Mascot Towers and Opal Towers have received notorious media attention, and residential owners have been exposed to eye-watering rectification costs.

Bannermans Lawyers’ construction team can provide tailored, commercial, effective legal advice to you in the management of building defect matters.

In a recent case, Ippolito v Cesco [2020] NSWSC 561 (“Cesco”), the Supreme Court shed further light on this question.

When faced with defective residential building works and a builder unable to satisfy a claim, focus will obviously shift to home owner warranty insurance.

However, having been intended as a last resort measure, this is subject to some significant limitations:

Regulatory Reform

On 1 September 2020 the Residential Apartments Act commences. These are the main regulatory limbs through which the NSW Government, in conjunction with the existing Home Building Act, hope to create a more consumer friendly construction industry, and thus avoid high rise defect disasters such as Opal Towers and Mascot Towers.

Reform Finally!

The strata sector has for a number of years now lived with:

Reform Finally!

After years of rising concern about declining standards of residential property construction and narrowing of options available to strata owners corporations and lot owners in defective buildings, the NSW Government has passed reform legislation, the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (“Act”). This will likely be game changing for owners corporations and lot owners in defective buildings.

The Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (“DBPA”) makes game changing provisions and will have a significant impact on the building industry and on strata schemes.

The DBPA commences in stages: