warranty on building work and non payment

[Hodge]

I have a hypothetical question.

If for example you hire a tradie to renovate your bathroom, you pay the tradie several progress payments but once finished do not pay the final balance, does the tradie still need to warranty the work seeing that the balance hasn't been paid? In other words say the customer calls up the tradie a year later because the paint is flaking off does he have an obligation to repaint the wall?

Hopefully not too confusing!

 

[pinkboy]

I have a hypothetical question.

If for example you hire a tradie to renovate your bathroom, you pay the tradie several progress payments but once finished do not pay the final balance, does the tradie still need to warranty the work seeing that the balance hasn't been paid? In other words say the customer calls up the tradie a year later because the paint is flaking off does he have an obligation to repaint the wall?

Hopefully not too confusing!

I'll answer with another hypothetical:

Say you call up the tradie (who you didn't pay) and he agrees to come have a look. Would you let him inspect it?

Coz if you didn't pay me, and let me have another look in your bathroom, I'd be checking the paint flakes with a 12lb sledge hammer!

pinkboy

 

[Hodge]

Haha very funny! If I was in this situation I would use a jack hammer but sitting in a prison cell doesn't excite me.

 

[Scott No Mates]

is it hypothetically in your ip or PPOR - the answer will differ (and from state to state).

If it is an IP then the payment is covered under the security of payments legislation. The builder has a right to be paid.

If it is the PPOR, SOPL doesn't apply.

Ownership of the goods has not passed to the property owner as you haven't paid for them - they may not have provided warranties as you would receive these upon final payment.

 

[Hodge]

That's interesting Scott. Is there a reason why sopl doesn't apply to a ppor?

What if the client isn't happy with the work? Would sopl still apply?

 

[Scott No Mates]

SOPL doesn't apply to the ppor as it is covered under the home building legislation.

 

[Hodge]

Thanks Scott.

 

[Scott_Snap]

been there done that

Had a case like this about 8 years ago. I was short paid but due to the size of the amount and the effort required to continually chase the sod I never bothered. The was no allegation of faulty work till 18 months after the event. I told the bloke to stick it when he rang and hung up. 3 months later I was dragged into court. The Beak looked at the bloke asked how he could prove the workmanship was faulty. He could easily provide photos of the issue and quotes to repair but could not prove the workmanship defective. Stupidly the quotes included remedial work required to prevent it happening again which was outside the original contract. So his own "expert witness" gave the reason why it happened to the judge. I could have told him the same thing and helped him if he paid the account. Fortunately for me I could prove the debt and collection attempts and walked out the door with my costs along with settlement of the account with interest as part of the judgment.

The sad part of the story was he never paid that either and I couldn't be bothered chasing. But he may need to sell the house one day and I haven't provided the engineering computations yet and he will need them to get his C.O. they will dam expensive when he realises.

 

[property_girl]

If for example you hire a tradie to renovate your bathroom, you pay the tradie several progress payments but once finished do not pay the final balance, does the tradie still need to warranty the work seeing that the balance hasn't been paid? In other words say the customer calls up the tradie a year later because the paint is flaking off does he have an obligation to repaint the wall?

p

This doesn't make sense. Either you have paid him because you were happy with his work, in which case you would be happy to see him again. If, on the other hand, you didn't pay because you were not happy with the work, why would you call him to come back? You wouldn't want him back and neither would he want to hear from you and come back.