Pub­li­ca­tions

14 May 2026

The extend­ed 6 year lim­i­ta­tion peri­od for SSMA sec­tion 106 stra­ta claims is not retrospective

In the recent deci­sion of John Goubran & Asso­ciates Pty Ltd ACN 070 974 819 v The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan 57150 [2026] NSWDC 9 (Goubran) it was held that the lim­i­ta­tion peri­od which was amend­ed from 2 years to 6 years from 1 July 2025 under s106(6), is not ret­ro­spec­tive and does not extend…

11 May 2026

Expos­ing the Con­struc­tive Dis­missal Shibboleth

This arti­cle exam­ines the Fair Work Commission’s deci­sion in Bai­ley Richens v BDO Admin­is­tra­tion Pty Ltd [2025] FWC 3699, high­light­ing the risks of pre­ma­ture res­ig­na­tion and clar­i­fy­ing why invok­ing ​“con­struc­tive dis­missal” can under­mine, rather than sup­port, a claim.The con­cept of ​“con­struc­tive dismissal”Some aggriev­ed employ­ees con­sid­er the invo­ca­tion of the words ​“con­struc­tive dis­missal” akin…

13 Apr 2026

No Appor­tion­ment for Sec­tion 37 DBP Act Claims even where the alleged con­cur­rent wrong­do­er is not a sub­con­trac­tor of the builder:

Kapi­la v Mon­u­ment Build­ing Group Pty Ltd [2025] NSWSC 1306 con­firms that builders and nom­i­nat­ed super­vi­sors can be held ful­ly liable for build­ing defects under sec­tion 37 of the Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020 (NSW), even where oth­er pro­fes­sion­als, such as engi­neers, archi­tects or cer­ti­fiers, also con­tributed to the defects…

26 Mar 2026

Tem­po­rary Dis­con­for­mi­ty in Build­ing Defects: Myth, Not Law

The ​“tem­po­rary dis­con­for­mi­ty” argu­ment in con­struc­tion dis­putes sug­gests that defec­tive work iden­ti­fied before prac­ti­cal com­ple­tion is not a breach while the builder retains a con­trac­tu­al right to rec­ti­fy. NSW courts have con­sis­tent­ly reject­ed this propo­si­tion, con­firm­ing that defec­tive work con­sti­tutes a breach at the time it is performed.The notion of ​“tem­po­rary dis­con­for­mi­ty” is some­times…

25 Mar 2026

The impor­tance of a Request for Tender

Issu­ing a request for ten­der (RFT) is more than just secur­ing the best or low­est price. An RFT is your oppor­tu­ni­ty to man­age your project risk and to ensure your project is com­plet­ed on time and with­in bud­get. Your RFT defines the rules of the game (ten­der process) and the final des­ti­na­tion (the…

24 Mar 2026

More Changes for Stra­ta — effec­tive 1 April 2026

The Fair Trad­ing and Build­ing Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Bill 2026 was passed by par­lia­ment dur­ing Feb­ru­ary 2026 with the changes effec­tive on 1 April 2026. This forms part of a broad­er reg­u­la­to­ry over­haul aimed at strength­en­ing con­sumer pro­tec­tion, tight­en­ing com­pli­ance stan­dards and improv­ing account­abil­i­ty across build­ing and real estate indus­tries. The objec­tive is to reduce…

20 Mar 2026

When can an own­er com­mence pro­ceed­ings in the 6 months after the expiry of the statu­to­ry war­ran­ty periods

When a defect claim emerges in the final six months of statu­to­ry war­ran­ty peri­ods, own­ers may still have time to act. This update explains when pro­ceed­ings can be com­menced under the Home Build­ing Act 1989 (NSW), fol­low­ing recent Supreme Court guidance.Own­ers cor­po­ra­tions often dis­cov­er defects in their build­ings in the last 6 months…

12 Mar 2026

Where is my mind? The rise of con­tentious pro­bate pro­ceed­ings sur­round­ing the issue of tes­ta­men­tary capacity

In New South Wales, fam­i­ly pro­vi­sion and con­tentious pro­bate claims under the Suc­ces­sion Act 2006 (NSW) are increas­ing­ly focused on whether a will was made with valid tes­ta­men­tary capac­i­ty. With an age­ing pop­u­la­tion and ris­ing dis­putes, courts con­tin­ue to apply the long­stand­ing Banks v Good­fel­low test to deter­mine the valid­i­ty of wills…

9 Mar 2026

Kyle and Jack­ie O: The Work­place Rela­tions Law Perspective

The rela­tion­ship between show­busi­ness duos often comes to an acri­mo­nious end. Mar­tin and Lewis split at the height of their fame, with a brief rap­proche­ment bro­kered by Frank Sina­tra after 20 years in which they did not speak to each oth­er. Simon and Gar­funkel have had a frac­tious alliance, even split­ting a first time…

9 Feb 2026

The Paper­cut Deci­sion and the Cur­rent Posi­tion on WFH

The FWC’s John­son v Paper­Cut Soft­ware deci­sion has renewed debate about the lim­its of work­ing from home rights. While some have com­pared it to Chan­dler v West­pac, the cas­es high­light that WFH out­comes depend on indi­vid­ual cir­cum­stances, con­tract terms and employ­er poli­cies. The rul­ing under­scores that no sin­gle case estab­lish­es a uni­ver­sal right…