A written contract — the builder must provide it
Residential building work over $5,000 including GST needs a written contract, and it’s the builder’s legal duty to give you one. Starting without one is an offence by them, and can stop them suing you for payment.
Over $20,000 the contract must also include the insurance details, a proper schedule of progress payments, and a 5 business day cooling-off period. A quote and a handshake isn’t a contract.
A licence that covers this work
Check it in a minute at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au. Make sure it’s current and covers the type of work you’re asking for. A licence for one trade doesn’t cover everything on your site.
The home warranty insurance certificate — before any money
For residential building work over $20,000 including GST, your builder can’t legally take any money — not the deposit, not a materials payment, nothing — until they’ve given you the certificate. It must name your address.
It pays you if they die, disappear or go broke before the job is finished or defects are fixed. Without it, if they vanish with your deposit, you’re just one of their unpaid creditors. Check it yourself at hbccheck.nsw.gov.au.
“The certificate’s coming, just pay the deposit so we can order materials” is how owners lose money. HBCF explained →
A deposit of 10% or less
The maximum deposit for residential building work in NSW is 10% of the contract price, for small and large jobs alike. A builder asking for 20%, or a third up front, is asking for more than the law allows.
Progress payments must match the work done
Each payment should follow the build — slab, frame, lock-up, fit-out, completion — not the calendar or the builder’s cash flow. If you’ve paid 60% for 30% of a house, you’re at risk. Read the payment schedule before you sign, and ask what the house will look like at each stage.
Owners corporations and strata managers
All of this applies to you too — an owners corporation hiring a builder is an owner, and repairs or upgrades to residential common property are residential building work. For strata managers →
Then collect the paperwork as you go
These documents are what you rely on if something goes wrong, and what a buyer’s solicitor asks for when you sell. Ask for each one when it’s produced, not at the end:
- Compliance certificates — waterproofing, electrical, plumbing, glazing, termite protection, and engineering certificates where needed.
- The certifier’s inspections, and at the end the Occupation Certificate — the date most of your later rights are counted from.
- Every change in writing, signed by both of you, before the work is done.
- Product warranties — roofing, membranes, appliances.
Ask while the builder is still on site and waiting for the next payment. Afterwards you’re asking a stranger for a favour.
Know this before the first payment
If your builder sends a payment claim — an invoice or progress claim that says it’s made under the Security of Payment Act — you have 10 business days to reply in writing, and your contract may give you fewer. If you say nothing, you owe the full amount, with no chance to dispute the work. Work out that deadline free →
Every change in writing, before it’s built
eSiteOffice writes up each change the way your contract requires, sends it with proof, and reminds you of every date your contract sets. Opens October.
Register to be one of the first to use it and keep the launch price for as long as you stay.