Every domestic builder will have great clients; difficult clients; and sometimes impossible clients. To reduce the risk of building claims, our Building and Construction lawyers in Melbourne recommend the following 7 steps when a dispute arises based on Melissa Henderson’s personal experience as the CEO of a large domestic home extension company for over five years.
- Check the Building Contract, the Specifications and the Plans. Make sure you identify which part of the works is in dispute, what your documents say about how those works should have been carried out and who is responsible for those works ie you or the Owner.
- Check any Extension of Time Claims and Variations. Make sure all EOT claims and Variations have been agreed and signed by the Owner on every occasion and that your onsite staff or sub-contractors have been properly briefed about the changes.
- Respond to client telephone calls and emails quickly. Clients with building problems can get angry and frustrated if they feel that their concerns are being ignored. Make it a firm policy to contact clients by phone or email on the same day of their complaint. If you can answer the problem straight away, then do so. If you can’t, still talk to/email the client anyway to let them know that you are aware of their problem and that you are taking immediate action to solve it for them.
- Find out exactly what has happened. If necessary, make it a priority to conduct an on-site inspection or have your senior building staff do so as quickly as possible. You will have to work out the specific details of the problem and how it can be fixed. Getting the facts straight from staff and sub-contractors is not always easy but only once that is done will you be in a position to work out a proper response to the problem.
- Record any site visits as well as any discussions with your staff, sub-contractors and the client. Keep file notes of all relevant conversations including the date and time of the discussion and the person involved. If the dispute escalates, you may be trying to remember these discussions many months later or possibly longer. The notes and written recording of events that you make at the relevant time will be invaluable in that event.
- If the problem is significant or complex, consider engaging a building expert to consider how it should be solved. The worst mistake is to proceed when you are not sure what to do. You may then find yourself incurring costs in carrying out work that needs to be undone and replaced by another solution. Your contract completion date may also creep up on you if the problem isn’t solved properly and as quickly as possible.
- Is litigation worth it? If you are in conflict with the Owner about who is responsible for solving the problem, weigh up the cost of the rectification and the loss of your client’s goodwill against the delays to completion; the costs of litigation; and the time and distraction to your business of being involved in a formal complaint to the Victorian Building Authority or VCAT.
Above all, don’t let your opinion of your client get in the way of dealing with the contractual and commercial realities of what has gone wrong with the building works. If there is a problem and you are responsible, then you have to fix it. If you have a building and construction dispute or building claims that are not resolving, please call our experienced Building and Construction Lawyers on 03 9629 2211 for practical legal advice to end the conflict.
This content is intended as commentary and should not be construed as legal advice.
For more information call Melissa Henderson on 03 9629 2211.
