My New Home Has Defects and the Builder Is Ignoring Me: The Defect Letter to Send

You did the handover walk-through, signed off, moved in, and then the house started telling you what the builder didn’t. The ensuite leaks into the hallway. Render is cracking at every window corner. The garage slab has a lip you trip on. Cornices are separating, the front door swells shut every time it rains, and the “we’ll send someone next week” emails stopped after the final payment cleared.

Builders know that most owners give up after three unanswered emails. The ones who get their defects fixed are the ones who stop asking nicely and start using the statutory warranty the builder can’t contract out of.

Your rights

Every state implies warranties into residential building contracts by statute. They exist whether or not your contract mentions them, they survive handover, and the builder cannot exclude them. Across the country the warranties say substantially the same thing: the work will be done with due care and skill, in accordance with the plans and specifications, using good and suitable materials, in compliance with the Building Code and all laws, and the home will be fit to live in. Non-compliant work (a waterproofing membrane that doesn’t meet AS 3740, a balustrade below code height) is a breach on its own, even if nothing has “failed” yet.

On top of the state warranty, the Australian Consumer Law guarantees that services are supplied with due care and skill (s 60) and are fit for the purpose you made known (s 61). Building a house is a service.

The remedy is the builder’s choice only up to a point. You must give the builder a reasonable opportunity to rectify. If the builder refuses, stalls or does it badly, you are entitled to the reasonable cost of having someone else fix it, and tribunals award that figure regularly.

By state

• New South Wales. Home Building Act 1989, s 18B warranties. Time limit: 6 years for major defects, 2 years for other defects, from completion. Complain to Building Commission NSW / NSW Fair Trading first; then the NCAT Consumer and Commercial Division (home building claims).
• Victoria. Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995, s 8 warranties. Claims must be brought within 10 years of the occupancy permit or final inspection. Conciliation through the dispute resolution service of the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) is compulsory before you can file at VCAT.
• Queensland. Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, Schedule 1B warranties. Lodge a defect complaint with the QBCC: it can direct the builder to rectify within 12 months of completion for non-structural defects and 6 years 6 months for structural defects. If that fails, QCAT hears domestic building disputes.
• Western Australia. Home Building Contracts Act 1991. Lodge a building service complaint with the Building Commission (Building and Energy) under the Building Services (Complaint Resolution and Administration) Act 2011 within 6 years of completion; the Commissioner can order rectification or refer the matter to the State Administrative Tribunal.
• South Australia. Building Work Contractors Act 1995 statutory warranties, 5 years from completion. Complain to Consumer and Business Services for conciliation; money and rectification claims go to the Magistrates Court (domestic building work up to $100,000), not SACAT.
• Tasmania. Residential Building Work Contracts and Dispute Resolution Act 2016 warranties, 6 years from completion. Complain to Consumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS), which can refer the dispute to mediation or adjudication; money claims go to the Magistrates Court.
• Australian Capital Territory. Building Act 2004, s 88 warranties: 6 years for structural elements, 2 years for non-structural, from completion. Complain to Access Canberra; disputes go to ACAT.
• Northern Territory. Building Act 1993, s 54B consumer guarantees: 6 years structural, 1 year non-structural. Complain to the Commissioner of Residential Building Disputes (NT Consumer Affairs); claims up to $25,000 go to NTCAT, larger claims to the Local Court.

The Claim Done document asks your state first and drafts to that state’s Act, warranty periods, regulator and tribunal.

What to do right now

1. Build the defect schedule. One line per defect: location, what’s wrong, which warranty or code clause it breaches, a photo reference. Number them. This schedule becomes the annexure to your letter and, later, to your tribunal application.
2. Get an independent report. A licensed building inspector’s defect report costs $500–$1,500 and turns “the owner reckons” into “a licensed inspector found”. It also catches the defects you can’t see.
3. Get one rectification quote. Even if you want the builder to fix it, a quote from another builder puts a dollar figure on the claim. That figure is what the tribunal awards if the builder walks.
4. Send a formal defect notice. Not another email. A letter that lists every defect, cites the warranties, gives a fix-by date (21 to 28 days is reasonable), and states that if the work isn’t done you will accept the rectification cost instead and file with the regulator and tribunal.
5. Lodge with the regulator on the deadline. Don’t wait months. Regulator complaints are free and builders take them seriously because their licence is on the line.

Why the builder’s “that’s just settling” line doesn’t work

Every builder has a script for handover defects. Cracks are “settling”. Leaks are “you need to reseal your grout”. Sticking doors are “timber movement, it’s a natural product”. None of that is a defence. The warranty is that the work complies with the Building Code and is done with due care and skill. Cracking beyond the tolerances in the industry guides, water getting past a membrane, or a door that can’t close is outside tolerance, and the tribunals have said so thousands of times. The letter should quote the tolerance guide your state uses (New South Wales and Victoria both have a published Guide to Standards and Tolerances) so the builder knows you know.

Who to complain to

New South Wales: Building Commission NSW, then NCAT. Victoria: the BPC’s dispute resolution service, then VCAT; report licensing issues to the BPC. Queensland: QBCC, then QCAT. Western Australia: Building and Energy (Building Commission), then SAT. South Australia: Consumer and Business Services, then the Magistrates Court. Tasmania: CBOS, then the Magistrates Court. Australian Capital Territory: Access Canberra, then ACAT. Northern Territory: NT Consumer Affairs, then NTCAT or the Local Court.

Put the builder on notice — $79

Claim Done drafts a Home Building Defects Claim for your state that itemises every defect, cites the statutory warranties, sets a fix-by date, and puts the builder to an election: rectify by that date or pay the quoted rectification cost, failing which you lodge with the regulator and file at the tribunal.

Send My Builder a Defects Notice — $79 →

You review every word before it’s sent.