10 Tips For Stra­ta Reme­di­al Con­struc­tion Contracts

Are you won­der­ing why your stra­ta work to repair or main­tain your stra­ta build­ing is over bud­get, rid­dled with delays, plagued with costs over­runs and vari­a­tions at every turn?

It is impor­tant to con­sid­er and fol­low these steps:

1. Before ten­der­ing for the work to be done, have your build­ing con­tract, con­sul­tan­cy agree­ment and/​or sep­a­rate super­in­ten­dent con­tract, pre­pared or reviewed by an expe­ri­ence stra­ta and con­struc­tion lawyer
2. Select the appro­pri­ate type of con­struc­tion con­tract for your project such as a minor works con­struct only con­tract, or a design and con­struct con­tract and under­stand which par­ty is respon­si­ble for the prepa­ra­tion of all nec­es­sary designs for the con­tract works 
3. Search for a builder or trades­per­son cur­rent con­trac­tor or trades­per­son licence , build­ing prac­ti­tion­ers licence and/​or design prac­ti­tion­er licence (if rel­e­vant) Ver­i­fy licence — the place to look up and ver­i­fy NSW licence and reg­is­tra­tion infor­ma­tion, and review an ASIC search to check for any com­pli­ance transgressions 
4. Appoint a sep­a­rate super­in­ten­dent to over­see and assess the builder’s work, and assist with the con­tract admin­is­tra­tion dur­ing the project 
5. Request and ensure your con­tract price is actu­al­ly a lump sum price and con­tract ie no adjust­ments for things like: delay caused by the builder, rise and fall or bad weath­er. This means lim­it­ing vari­a­tions and ensur­ing all vari­a­tions are approved by the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion or own­ers association
6. Include con­trac­tu­al and statu­to­ry war­ranties hold­ing the builder account­able for defects and rec­ti­fy­ing defects. This can include shift­ing risk, analysing and con­sid­er­ing the inter­play between the ordi­nary con­trac­tu­al claus­es, indem­ni­ties, war­ranties (either statu­to­ry or con­trac­tu­al) and rep­re­sen­ta­tions [insert link to arti­cle on con­trac­tu­al clauses]
7. Ensure the builder has the cor­rect and appro­pri­ate insur­ances eg: site/​building works insur­ance, vehi­cle insur­ance, work­ers com­pen­sa­tion insur­ance, pro­fes­sion­al indem­ni­ty insur­ance (for any design). Check the con­tract does not jeop­ar­dise your stra­ta insur­ance poli­cies; con­sid­er send­ing the con­tract to be checked by your insur­ance bro­ker or insur­er; your stra­ta man­ag­er can assist with facil­i­tat­ing this
8. Include pro­vi­sions for access to com­mon prop­er­ty and lots, stor­age of mate­r­i­al and work areas, park­ing, clean­ing and repairs to prop­er­ty dam­aged dur­ing the works 
9. Ensure all laws spe­cif­ic to stra­ta and res­i­den­tial build­ing work have been includ­ed such as: the Home Build­ing Act 1989 (NSW), Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020 (NSW), Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015 (NSW), Build­ing and Con­struc­tion Indus­try (Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ments) Act 1999, Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning and Assess­ment Act 1979, Work Health and Safe­ty Act 2011 (NSW), Nation­al Con­struc­tion Code
10. Con­sid­er if the pro­posed con­tract has any Unfair Con­tract­ing Terms which are pro­hib­it­ed by the Aus­tralian Con­sumer Law, refer arti­cles, Own­ers Cor­po­ra­tions / Asso­ci­a­tions now sub­ject to Unfair Con­tract Terms and Unfair con­tract terms in out­dat­ed stan­dard form con­tracts could cost you a fine of $50 mil­lion (Com­pa­nies) or $2.5 mil­lion (Indi­vid­u­als)