Whether you are looking to complete a small or large home project this section is meant to guide you through the construction process from start to finish. Such guidance is intended to help consumers ensure that their construction projects will be carried out on schedule, in accordance with government regulations and restrictions, within their proposed budget and appointed service providers conduct themselves in a professional manner.
The steps outlined below are provided to afford consumers the ability to save time, money and stress when preparing to start construction works and to help consumers avoid many of the common consumer problems experienced when interacting with builders, plumbers or other contractors.
Before proceeding with a construction project Consumer Affairs advises consumers to ensure that they have obtained the necessary permits and permissions and have completed any required property inspections.
Once you have obtained the appropriate contractors and permissions, you may be faced with having to approach a financial service provider in order to obtain financing to support your construction project.
There are several options for financing the purchase of a new home or to renovating or refurbishing your existing home. For further guidance on financing and mortgages, please review to the Money Management and Mortgage Management pages on the Consumer Affairs website.
If you have had, or are currently under-going, construction at your home and discover a problem caused by the contractor (i.e. they have not done the work that was agreed, or the work performed is incomplete and/or poses a physical danger) Consumer Affairs advises that you notify the contractor immediately and either: (i) request to have the problem rectified at no further cost; or (ii) request a partial refund.
Contractors have a legal obligation to complete the construction work requested using “reasonable care and skill”. This means they should have performed the work requested in line with industry methods of best practice. Failure to exercise “reasonable care and skill” is considered a violation of the Consumer Protection Act 1999 and the Supply of Services (Implied Terms) Act 2003.
In circumstances where a contractor has failed to exercise “reasonable care and skill”, so long as you have not communicated acceptance of the work performed you are legally entitled to either:
If the appointed contractor does complete the work that was agreed and/or failed to exercise reasonable care and skill, under common law the service contract, whether it be a formal contract or informal verbal agreement, it is considered to be in ‘breach’ and subsequently broken. In this instance the aggrieved party is entitled to compensation.
It is at this stage that Consumer Affairs advises consumers to always request a formal contract and do not obtain the services of a contractor that is not willing to provide a formal contract or prefers to rely on verbal agreements. If you have not been provided with a formal contract and instructed the contractor to proceed, Consumer Affairs advises that you review all informal correspondence (i.e. text messages, e-mails, etc.) to confirm exactly what was agreed.
In either circumstance (i.e. formal contract or no formal contract), if you discover any issues caused by your appointed contractor’s underperformance, you will need to talk to the contractor to arrive at an agreement to resolve the issue. Before entering in any discussions with your appointed contractor, Consumer Affairs advises consumers to:
Following communication of the observed issues the contractor should fix the problem within a “reasonable amount of time” and without causing you too much inconvenience. The law doesn’t define what is meant by a “reasonable amount of time” so you will have to mutually agree on a date of completion with your contractor. As part of providing the corrective services the contractor should cover all reasonable costs; including any extra materials.
If your appointed contractor can’t or won’t fix the problem, you can ask for a partial or full refund depending on how bad the problem is. As a consumer you will have to negotiate with your contractor as to how much of a refund you should be entitled to. It is a good idea to start by suggesting a figure and explaining why you think it’s reasonable (i.e. a quote to repair provided by an alternative contractor).
If the appointed contractor refuses to resolve the issue and you have evidence indicating that reasonable care and skill was not exercised (i.e. third-party opinion of the quality of work performed and the work needed to resolve the identified issue), you may need to consider submitting a formal complaint with the contractor and/or consider initiating legal proceedings.
If following the submission of a formal complaint your appointed contractor is unwilling to acknowledge your complaint and resolve your issue, it is advised that you submit a formal complaint to Consumer Affairs and/or consider legal proceedings against the contractor in order to: (i) have the matter resolved; and/or (ii) to seek the financial compensation needed to have the issues fixed by an alternative contractor.
Appreciating the impact of climate change and the necessity to become more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, building an energy efficient home has the added the benefit of reduced monthly expenses due to the adoption of cost-efficient, energy saving appliances. Therefore, Consumer Affairs advises consumers to consider the adoption of the energy alternatives and energy efficient appliances listed below.
If you have experienced a delay in a construction project as a consumer you have an obligation to give the contractor a second chance to finish the work; unless you made it clear that it was important that the work had to be finished by a certain date.
If you anticipate starting a construction project that is time sensitive (i.e. construction of a baby room for a mother expecting a newborn within the next 9 months), Consumer Affairs advises consumers to make the time sensitivity of the construction project clear in writing (i.e. either in a formal contract or through informal correspondence) and that the work has to be finished by a certain date.
Although a construction project may be behind schedule this does not give you the right to withhold payment for work performed. If it is discovered that the delay is the fault of the appointed contractor, Consumer Affairs recommends consumers to: (i) pay their appointed contract for work performed to-date; (ii) request a discount for the cost of further work to be performed; and (iii) state that the grounds for such a request are to account for the inconvenience of the delay.
If the delay is not due to the fault of the contractor (i.e. supply shortage for materials needed to complete), your ability to seek compensation for the inconvenience of the delay will likely be restricted. In this instance it is likely that your appointed contractor will argue that the delay is due to events that are outside of their control and will likely rely on a force majeure clause contained in the mutually agreed service agreement.
If you agreed to a price with your appointed contractor but you have been charged more, your rights as a consumer will depend on whether you were given a quote or an estimate. A quote (sometimes called a ‘quotation’ or 'fixed estimate') is a promise to perform work at an agreed price. An estimate is the trader's best guess as to how much the work will cost.
If you were provided with a quote the contractor can’t charge more than they’ve quoted, unless there’s a good reason, such as:
It is important to note that a contractor is not restricted from charging their clients more if their costs for materials have gone up since they originally provided the quote. If the appointed contractor made a mistake in their quote, you have a legal right to get the work done for the price in the quote so long as the mistake wasn’t obvious at the time that you received quote (i.e. a quote to complete work for $100.00 that would normally cost $1,000.00).
If your contractor is unable to give you a good reason for raising the price specified in the quote, it is recommended that you communicate that you are only willing to pay what was specified in the quote until such an explanation is provided. When communicating your unwillingness to pay the increased price, Consumer Affairs recommends that you make such a communication orally and in writing so that you have a record you may rely on the future. When communicating orally with your contractor, do not allow your contractor to pressure you into accepting the increased price absent a formal explanation.
If you were provided with an estimate, and the final bill is a lot more than what you were expecting, you can dispute the bill if the realized price far exceeds the estimated price. Although estimated prices are not legally binding, the final price should be ‘reasonable’.
If you are subjected to an final price of services that far exceeds the price specified in the estimate provided, Consumer Affairs that you contact your contract to explicitly discuss:
