Engaging a Builder: Quotes, Contracts and Defects in Plain English

Every builder has a service area, and a display home an hour from your block does not mean they build in your suburb. Start with builders active in your area and on your kind of block, and check what their past clients say. On Dudils, every plan shows which builder it comes from, with their Google rating and review count beside it, so the shortlist builds itself while you look for a floor plan that fits.

A display home shows a plan on a flat block, with ideal orientation, wearing every upgrade in the catalogue. None of those three things will be true of your build. The questions that matter are: what is in the standard inclusions and what is the upgrade I am standing in, and how does this plan sit on my block, with my orientation and my driveway side.

That second question is one you can answer before you ever visit the display village. Enter your block and see the plan drawn on your land, with north up, so you know whether the sunny living room you walked through will still be sunny at your address.

Two quotes for the same home can be tens of thousands apart and still mean the same final price, because they draw the line between included and excluded in different places. Before you compare numbers, translate the jargon. A provisional sum is an allowance for work the builder cannot price yet, like excavation, and if the real cost comes in higher you pay the difference. A prime cost item is an allowance for a product not chosen yet, like tapware or tiles, and the same rule applies. Site costs cover getting your particular block ready, and they are where flat display village pricing meets your real slope, soil and access.

So the comparison is never just the bottom line, it is the bottom line plus the allowances. A low quote carrying large provisional sums has moved the price into the part that can grow. Ask each builder for the same list: the fixed price items, every allowance and its amount, and what is excluded entirely. If a builder will not put that in writing, treat it as a warning.

Most new homes in New South Wales are built under a standard industry contract from the HIA or Master Builders. Standard does not mean non negotiable, and it does not mean read it later. The parts to understand before signing: the progress payment schedule, which should track work completed on site rather than the calendar; the allowances carried in from the quote; the liquidated damages clause, which sets what the builder owes you per week if the build runs late, and is often a token amount unless you negotiate it; and the variations process, because every change you make mid build gets priced under it.

Before you sign anything, check the builder holds a current NSW contractor licence using the state's licence check service, and ask for the certificate of home building compensation cover for your job. Then have your solicitor read the contract. That review costs a fraction of what any single clause can cost you, and it is the one piece of professional advice I would never skip.

There is more to compare between builders than the contract: the builder's margin on variable costs, the excavation rates for soil and rock, the rain day allowance, and what past clients say when you visit their finished homes. The full checklist I use is the Good Architect guide on how to select a builder, which walks through all eleven checks one by one.

The certifier who inspects the build at the mandatory stages is checking compliance with the approval, not the quality of the finish. Nobody in the standard process is checking workmanship on your behalf, which is why independent stage inspections are worth paying for: at frame, before the linings close the walls up, and at practical completion.

Keep everything in writing. A defect you raise by email has a date attached, and a conversation on site does not. At handover, walk the home with a list and agree the defects before final payment, because your leverage is strongest while money is still owed. In New South Wales the Home Building Act adds statutory warranties on top of the contract, running for years after completion, so a defect that appears later is not automatically your problem.