Building Act Amendments – Building contractors insurance and director liability

Proposed changes to the Building Act 2004 will make significant changes to pre-contract disclosure by building contractors undertaking residential works. The licensing of builders under the Licensed Building Practitioners scheme will remain voluntary; however as from 1 March 2012 building practitioners will need to be licensed to carry out restricted building work. As from that date unlicensed building practitioners will have to engage a licensed building practitioner to either carry out or supervise restricted work. Prior to entering into a construction contract a prospective building contractor will be required to provide the consumer with information of the skills, qualifications and the license status of persons who will undertake the work.

All licensed building practitioners undertaking restricted building works will therefore need to revisit the basis of their professional indemnity insurance. In particular, licensed building practitioners who are principals of small-to-medium entities should assess their risk and the scope of any professional indemnity insurance where they are providing the building service, or supervising others undertaking restricted building works.

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Many people feel that they do need to acquire the service of a real estate attorney as they think that they cannot handle the legal representation that is required when dealing with the sale and purchase of real estate property. However, what they do not understand is that sometimes avoiding legal representation in the first place and not having a real estate attorney can actually cost them a lot in the long run and can turn out to be much more expensive than avoiding them in the first place. An experienced professional is knowledgeable in his field and can help in conjuring up deal and ensuring that all the parties involved in the transaction whether it is the realtors, buyers, brokers, or the mortgage brokers, all have a smooth flowing and successful transaction. This way the importance of having a real estate attorney is very high and people need to understand that it is very important to have them.

An attorney helps in ensuring that the contract regarding your land or any of your property is reviewed before execution. This way he will review the documents and see whether they are in order and the information is correct before the client signs them. If you have an attorney, it shows that you are serious about the deal that is going to go through and this way the other party will cooperate and make the transaction easier and you will be given ample time to review all the documents that you need to. Many documents sometimes have missing figures or altered figures and also periods are changed in order to deceive the clients. These discrepancies can only be noticed by a real estate attorney, which is why the importance of having them is very high.

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