Being an owner-builder can be very satisfying, but it comes with certain risks and legal requirements. For instance, your property may become a workplace under Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) law. This means you will have obligations such as ensuring the site is safe for workers.
Owner-builders have several important duties and responsibilities. These include, but are not limited to:
obtaining and complying with a building permit
arranging for the certification of completed work and ensuring that the work is compliant with Australian standards
ensuring site and worker safety
rectifying any defective building work
ensuring appropriate insurance policies are in place if you intend to sell you home within 6 years of completing work as an owner-builder.
It is important to have a thorough understanding of these duties and responsibilities. Some of the obligations of an owner-builder last for several years after completion of the building work. For example, if you sell your home within six and a half years after you finish the work, you will need to provide a defects report to the buyer and provide certain warranties.
As an owner-builder, you will need to enter into a major domestic building contract when you use a registered building practitioner to do work on your project costing more than $10,000 (unless a single trade exemption applies).
Registered building practitioners must ensure Home Warranty cover is in place for all work over $20,000 done for an owner-builder. This provides additional protection to the registered building practitioner's contractual obligations and warranties.
You are not an owner-builder if you intend to engage one builder or tradesperson to do all the building work. Some builders or tradespeople may ask you to apply for an owner-builder certificate of consent so that you appear as an owner-builder on the building permit, even though they will be doing all the work. The person may be unregistered or trying to avoid their legal responsibilities. If you agree to this arrangement, you are responsible for the work to any subsequent owner of the property.
Working with a building surveyor
Discuss your building project with a registered building surveyor well before you are ready to build. A building surveyor is authorised to assess building plans to ensure they comply with relevant laws and Australian Standards.
A building surveyor must be appointed for the entire building project. You may choose to appoint a municipal building surveyor who works for a local council or a private building surveyor.
