Under the Design and Building Practitioners Act, which commenced in NSW on 11 June 2020, a retrospective 10 year duty is now imposed on certain persons in the building and construction industries to exercise reasonable care to avoid economic loss caused by defects in or related to a building that they did work for or on.
The duty is owed to both the current owner of the land upon which the building is erected and any future owner.
The duty is imposed any any person who carries out “construction work” which is defined in section 36 as:
(a) building work including “residential building work” as widely defined under the Home Building Act;
(b) the preparation of designs;
(c) the manufacture and supply of building products; or
(d) the supervision, co-ordination, project managing etc. of the above works.
Persons under this new obligation will include contractors such as plumbers, carpenters and painters, builders, architects, engineers as well as building product manufacturers and suppliers.
To be clear, the right to sue for damages for breach of the duty of care applies whether the breach occurred before or after the Act commenced.
The Act is a real game changer and will substantially bolster the rights of those who had building or constructions work done for them in the last 10 years or will have it done in the future.
August 2020