The Strata Building Bond Scheme, which was introduced by the Strata Management Act 2015 (the Act), provides that in situations where the Act applies (See New strata law and building bond regime are set to commence), the developer must give a security (“building bond”) to the Secretary of the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation …
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Introduction It is common for a contractor to provide an indemnity and/or a guarantee to a principal under a construction contract. However, contractors must know that the two are fundamentally different. They should not take on additional obligations/risks than what is agreed between the parties under the construction contract. For ease of understanding, we shall …
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In All Seasons Air Pty Ltd v Regal Consulting Services Pty Ltd [2017] NSWCA 289, the Court of Appeal held that a payment claim served before a reference date will be invalid under the Act despite a provision in a contract deeming that the service of the payment claim is taken to have been made …
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A bill has recently passed through both Houses of the NSW Parliament entitled the State Revenue Legislation Amendment (Surcharge) Bill 2017 (NSW) (Bill) which targets Australian-based developers that are foreign persons (Foreign Developer). It has received assent but is to commence on a date to be proclaimed. We await the proclamation, which is yet to …
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Following the Lacrosse Apartments fire in Melbourne, the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) began to develop a comprehensive package of fire safety measures for high rise buildings which was to be incorporated into the next version of the National Construction Code (NCC). However, following the Grenfell Tower fire in London, the Building Ministers’ Forum …
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The Federal Government has reduced the threshold at which a vendor is required to provide a Foreign Resident Capital Gains Clearance Certificate (FRCGCC) to purchasers of real property. The new rules apply to all contracts for sale with a market value over $750,000 (previously $2,000,000) entered into from 1 July 2017. If an Australian resident …
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The Electronic Transactions Legislation Amendment (Government Transactions) Act 2017 (Act) passed into law in the last week of June 2017. It amended a number of Acts including the Strata Management Scheme Act 2015 NSW delaying the commencement of the new defects bond scheme until January 2018. Email Allowed Whilst it did not create much fanfare the …
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The commencement of the strata building bond regime has been deferred from 1 July 2017 to 1 January 2018. This means that the regime will not apply if the construction contract (to carry out residential building work associated with a new strata scheme) was signed before 1 January 2018. The regime will apply if the …
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In February of this year, the Society of Construction Law (“SOCL”) published the 2nd Edition of the Delay and Disruption Protocol (“the Protocol”) – the first update to the Protocol since the release of the first edition in 2002. The Protocol is prepared for the UK market, but has found application around the world, …
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The NSW Budget Statement (released on 20 June 2017) has provided further details on how the increased stamp duty and land tax surcharges will affect foreign owned developers. To recap, on 1 June 2017, the NSW Government announced its intention to increase the surcharges as such: Summary Foreign owned purchasers of residential property will be …
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In the 2017-2018 Federal Budget the Government announced several changes aimed at reducing pressure on housing affordability, some of which affect foreign ownership of Australian residential property. The biggest change is the introduction of a cap on foreign ownership in new developments, through a condition on New Dwelling Exemption Certificates applied for after 7:30PM (AEST) …
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On 5 April 2017, the New South Wales Government signed and sealed a Commencement Proclamation which will bring into effect the Retail Leases Amendment (Review) Act 2017 (NSW) (Act) on 1 July 2017 as the day on which that Act commences. Among other things, the Act will introduce tighter obligations on the lessor by way …
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In The Trustee for the Whitby Trust v Commissioner of taxation [2017] AATA 343 (20 March 2017), the AAT has held that an option fee paid by a developer do not form part of the consideration for acquiring the property for the purposes of calculating GST under the margin scheme in accordance with Div …
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These statistics on Building from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) published in February 2017 show some very interesting trends. The salient figures worth noting is that, at the time of publication, there has been a slightly downwards trend for all building by 0.1% for the last 7 months but the ride down is bumpy …
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The first question clients ask when obtaining a favourable judgment is “how will we enforce this judgment against the debtor?”. The quickest and most effective way to enforce a judgment debt is to obtain a garnishee order from the Court. This article sets out the key elements of garnishee orders so that you can enforce …
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Introduction During the process of obtaining payment under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW) (SOP Act), a Contractor (or Subcontractor) may, after obtaining an adjudication certificate and filing the certificate in the court of competent jurisdiction, serve a statutory demand on the Principal (or Contractor) demanding payment. In the matter …
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In our June 2016 issue of Construction, Property & Projects Insights (Issue 4), we discussed the first instance decision of Probuild Constructions (Aust) Pty Ltd v Shade Systems Pty Ltd [2016] NSWSC 770, in which the Supreme Court of NSW held that adjudication determinations were subject to judicial review for non-jurisdictional errors of law on …
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Legal Issue A recent decision in the Victorian Supreme Court examined whether the Plaintiffs, Tan and Lo, validly exercised their cooling off rights to terminate a contract for sale in circumstances where the notice was served on the vendor’s selling agent. Practical Effect of Decision The case illustrates the importance of knowing, prior to entering …
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Introduction In our November 2016 Construction, Property & Projects Insights (Issue 5), we noted that the High Court was soon to release judgment in Southern Han Breakfast Point Pty Ltd (In Liquidation) v Lewence Construction Pty Ltd [2016] HCA 52 (Southern Han Decision), which would be the first time the High Court had given judgment …
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