When building a new home, it’s important to differentiate between the mandatory building inspections as required under the Building Act 1993 and the essential building inspections which should be arranged by the homeowners privately should they wish to protect their investment. There are four mandatory inspections which include, the pre-slab footings, steel reinforcement, frame and final. Whilst all of these inspections are important, they are performed by the relevant Building Surveyor who issued the building permit. Sadly, the Building Surveyor holds little to no liability in the event something goes wrong post handover. The issue typically falls onto the builder, that is presuming it falls within their 10 year warranty period. 

You may be aware that the builder takes out a domestic building insurance policy on behalf of the homeowners, before commencing the construction of their home. Now typically, having insurance is great as it protects you and your investment in the event something goes wrong. Unfortunately, when it comes to domestic building insurance, there’s a catch. Domestic building insurance provides the homeowners with insurance up to a maximum claim of $300,000 on structural items for up to 6 years and non-structural items for up to a period of 2 years. You would think that would be great but in reality, if your builder goes broke before finishing your home, and it cost’s more than $300,000 to finish, you’ll be stuck with the shortfall. There’s also another downside to domestic building insurance. The Victorian Managed Insurance Authority will only pay out on a claim, in the event the builder has disappeared, became insolvent or died. So what does that mean and how does it effect you? Well, if you’ve taken possession of your new home, then find out you have issues arising from defects or non-compliant works, structural or otherwise, the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority will not help you in the event a builder refuses to rectify issues.

So what now? The Victorian Building Authority is unlikely to help. Do you go straight to a lawyer? You could but to be honest, that will cost a lot and unless you’ve got money to burn and are willing to fight it out in court, it’s sometimes not worth it. Your best bet is to engage the Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria which is a service provided by the Victorian Government that attempts to resolve disputes between homeowners and their builders. The service is free, but before you cannot commence it, until you have to tried to resolve the dispute privately. 

The DBDRV will not enforce the rectification of building works, rather they will attempt to help you and your builder come to an agreement. If an agreement cannot be made, the DBBRV will issue a letter or Certificate of Conciliation which is required should you wish to take your builder to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. In the event the dispute isn’t resolved and VCAT make a final decision on the case, they can’t actually enforce an order. The only recourse you have to enforce a VCAT order is by taking your builder to  the Magistrates Court of Victoria. 

This entire process is long, stressful and at times, very expensive. The best thing a homeowner can do to mitigate the risks associated with building a new home is to engage a home building consultant to provide you and your home with complete protection prior to and throughout the build process. Home building consultants offer support with Contract Adminstration, Project Management and Building Inspections. They can even assist with Dispute Resolution, but typically engaging them before signing a contract avoids that situation from occuring.

A home building consultant is the expert you need who can conduct the essential building inspections. These inspections include, Pre-Slab, Pre-Pour, Frame, Lock Up, Pre-Plaster, Fixing, Waterproofing and Practical Completion. Below is a brief summary of what is included in these building inspections.