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NSW · Updated 25 July 2026
What your builder owes you before you pay a cent
Four things, and every one of them comes before money changes hands. A written contract. A current licence covering this work. For work over $20,000, an insurance certificate in your hands. And a deposit that does not exceed 10% of the contract price, whatever they ask for. These are the builder’s obligations to satisfy — not favours to you — and the moment to insist is now, while the money is still yours.
1. A written contract — and it's their job to give it to you
Any residential building work over $5,000 including GST requires a written contract, and the law puts that obligation on the contractor. Starting without one is an offence on them, and it can leave them unable to sue you for payment.
Over $20,000 the contract must do more: carry the insurance details, set out a proper schedule of progress payments, and give you a 5 business day cooling-off period. If what you have is a quote and a handshake, you don’t have a contract — you have an expensive misunderstanding waiting to happen.
2. A licence that actually covers this work
One minute at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au. Check it is current, and that its class covers what you’re asking for. A licence for one trade is not a licence for everything happening on your site.
3. The HBCF certificate — before a single dollar, deposit included
Where residential building work is over $20,000 including GST, your builder cannot legally take any money from you — not the deposit, not a materials advance, nothing — until they have handed you the Home Building Compensation certificate. It must name your site address.
That certificate is the insurance that pays you if they die, disappear or go broke before the job is finished or the defects are fixed. If they vanish having taken your deposit and no certificate ever existed, you are simply an unsecured creditor. Check any certificate yourself at hbccheck.nsw.gov.au — the same register the government uses.
“The certificate’s coming, just pay the deposit so we can order materials” is the single most common way owners lose money in NSW. HBCF explained in full →
4. A deposit of 10% or less
The maximum deposit for residential building work in NSW is 10% of the contract price — the same cap for small jobs and large ones. A builder asking for 20%, or a third up front, is asking for something the law does not allow. And if they fold, that money is gone.
Then collect the paper as it's produced
The documents a build generates are not admin. They are what you hold up if something goes wrong, and what a buyer’s solicitor asks for when you sell. Ask for each one as it happens, not at the end:
- The compliance certificates — waterproofing, electrical (CCEW), plumbing, glazing, termite management, and the engineer’s certificates where the design was engineered.
- The certifier’s inspections, and at the end the Occupation Certificate — which is also the date most of your later rights are counted from.
- Every variation in writing, agreed before the work happens.
- Warranties — roof covering, membranes, appliances.
Chase them while the builder is still on site and still wants the next payment. Afterwards you are asking a stranger for a favour.
This is general information about NSW requirements as at July 2026, not advice about your project. Confirm current requirements before you rely on them, and get advice if real money is at stake.
Your builder does this every day. You'll do it once.
That asymmetry is the whole problem. They know which document comes before which payment, and what happens if one is skipped; you are learning it in the middle of the most expensive thing you will ever buy. eSiteOffice writes what the contract requires, chases what you’re owed, and watches the dates — from either side of the table. It opens in September.