The Contract

The single most major hurdle that a customer will have in seeking to bring a claim against a builder is their lack of knowledge of contract law.  Building contracts are a pure form of contract law.  This means that a contract will contain express terms (i.e. they are stated) and implied terms (i.e. they are not stated but are deemed to be in there anyway).  Implied terms are also overruled by anything expressly dealing with the issue in the contract.

Customers often shy away from having a lengthy contract. You may think that there is no contract if nothing has been signed. However, if you have employed a builder to do work for you then a contract has been formed.  This may either be verbal, in which case it may be very hard to prove what was agreed, or in writing.  If it is in writing it may range from 1 line on a page to over 100 pages.

Whether there is a written contract or not, there are almost always term allowing the builder to enter the customer's property, requiring the customer to allow the builder to proceed without interference and allowing the builder to do the whole job. If you act in contravention of these, by (for example) throwing the builder off site for doing a bad job you may find that you are automatically in breach of the contract.

The contracts themselves are normally whole contracts.  This means that the builder is entitled to do the whole job and you cannot decide part-way through that you wish someone else to do some of it.

If the builder quoted for the job then you should have a fixed price, although this can vary if things change. If you only received an estimate the builder may be entitled to charge as much or as little as they like.

If all else fails you should revert to the Protocol for guidance on how to conduct yourself.  

Click here to go to the next step in the guide.