Your builder must satisfy you as the Owner and the party with whom they have entered into a legally binding Building Contract with, that all of the items that we have identified on your behalf and detailed within the following Schedule of Building Defects for you, have been fully rectified and/or otherwise justified as complying with the requirements of the National Construction Code/Building Code of Australia (NCC/BCA), the relevant Australian Standards, your plans, both engineering and architectural, your specification and to within the limits of the Victorian Building Authority’s Guide to Standards & Tolerances, for them to meet their obligations under their Building Contract and the Domestic Building Contracts Act, for which they rely on for you as the Owner to pay them their contract price. Via both your Building Contract and the Domestic Building Contracts Act your builder gives you a number of warranties (promises), which in part state: the builder warrants that the work will be carried out in a proper and workmanlike manner and in accordance with the plans and specifications set out in the contract; and ii. the builder warrants that the work will be carried out in accordance with, and will comply with, all laws and legal requirements including, without limiting the generality of this warranty, the Building Act and the regulations made under that Act. iii. the builder warrants that the work will be carried out with reasonable care and skill and will be completed by the date (or within the period) specified by the contract. These warranties mean that your builder has a contractual obligation to rectify or otherwise fully/further justify all of the identified items that breach any of your plans, your specification, the NCC/BCA and all of the Australian Standards adopted by being referenced within it; and must do so in a proper workmanlike manner with reasonable care and skill. Further, in determining if rectification of any other defect is required, any item that is not covered by the above documents should also be addressed if its breach is covered by the Victorian Building Authority’s Guide to Standards & Tolerances or any other Australian Standards guide.
Please note that if you give the builder more than two working days’ notice of your requirement to enter the home, the builder MUST open the dwelling under the “Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995”, part 2 section 19 (Victoria). You can lodge a complaint with the DBDRV if they refuse. In other words, if the builder has been notified, then he or she must open the dwelling.
Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 Act No. 91/1995 Part 2—Provisions that Apply to all Domestic Building Contracts Access to building site (1) A builder must permit the building owner (or a person authorised by the building owner) to have reasonable access to the building site and to view any part of the building works. Penalty: 20 penalty units.