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An owner-builder is a person who intends to have residential building work valued at $20,000 or more performed on their property and who holds a relevant permit to do that work. If the person does not hold the necessary owner-builder permit, then that person is not recognised as an owner-builder.
It’s advisable that you contract as the builder to perform the work in any instance. If you are contracting with an owner-builder you must use a contract that complies with the Home Building Contracts Act 1991. If you are using an HIA contract, HIA recommends that you insert some special conditions to reflect your circumstances, including:
If you are approached to supervise owner-builder work then you should ensure you carry out regular and staged inspections, and require any faulty or defective work to be rectified by the contractor immediately. If defects are found, supervisors may be liable to future owners of the property for up to six years from the date the defects are discovered.
If you are not actually doing the building work then do not let your licence be used by another person to do building work (i.e. do not lend your licence). As the licensed building work contractor whose licence has been used for the work, there is a liability on you to provide this statement.
There are perceived advantages for owner-builders such as lower costs by having the flexibility to pick and choose their own building materials and contractors on the basis of a lowest price. However, there are also significant risks involved with owner-building arrangements or with arrangements where the owner seeks to directly engage a number of sub trades in the building project.
Some of the obligations that owner-builders may not be aware of include:
Where the value of residential building work under the contract with an owner-builder exceeds $20,000 (inclusive of GST), you must take out home indemnity insurance and you must give the owner-builder a certificate of currency prior to accepting, receiving or demanding any payment. So the ordinary rules apply.
This also applies if you are engaged to supervise residential building work for a fee that exceeds $20,000.
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