Articles

In December 2020, the Government introduced for discussion the Design and Building Practitioners Regulation 2020. This will become effective from 1 July 2021 and applies to Class 2 residential/mixed-use buildings only. We set out below the key features of the Regulation: REGISTRATION Practitioners must be registered. This applies to all principal design practitioners, design practitioners,…

WHAT IS ILLEGAL PHOENIX ACTIVITY? Kreisson is often asked by trade suppliers, professional consultants, and subcontractors in the building and construction industry to help recover unpaid debts from ‘phoenix’ operators. Illegal phoenix activity involves the creation of a new company to take over an existing business for often less than market value. After it has…

THE DESIGN AND BUILDING PRACTITIONERS ACT 2020 (NSW); and THE RESIDENTIAL APARTMENT BUILDINGS (COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT POWERS) ACT 2020 (NSW) Two significant pieces of legislation have come into effect in NSW recently which have retrospective application, which means that they apply to buildings that have already been constructed. They are: 1.   The Design and Building…

It has been conventional wisdom that a head contractor’s payment claim in NSW is invalid unless it is accompanied by a supporting statement. Those statements list all subcontractors on the project and confirms that each has been paid. However, some of NSW’s most senior judges, in a case called TFM Epping Land Pty Ltd v…

INTRODUCTION It is vital to ensure that payment schedules in the building, construction and engineering industries are as detailed and comprehensive as possible.  That is because under section 20(2B) of the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW) (the Act), a respondent to a payment claim cannot include in its adjudication response any reasons for withholding payment that were not included in its payment schedule.  In addition,…