Melbourne Building and Construction Lawyers

As a builder or contractor, you may need a construction lawyer to provide expert advice on the legal terms of your home or commercial construction contract. We can draft a contract for you from scratch or adapt an existing contract to your specific engineering project.

Whether the contract is for a new home construction or an existing home renovation, home construction contracts can be very complex. Our Melbourne construction lawyers have helped many clients understand their rights and responsibilities under construction contracts. Many contracts have a lot of “tricky” parts that, if not considered and addressed up front, can cost you a lot of time and money down the line. Many problems can be prevented. Before you sign a contract, we can help you understand its terms and help you think through the issues that may arise and the legal consequences of agreeing to something. If modifications are required, we can also help you negotiate special conditions of the contract to suit your specific construction project.

Our building and construction attorneys can help you with:

• When you are considering terminating a construction contract
• When you are threatened with ending a construction contract
• When your contract has been terminated.

Ending a contract is a big decision. Don't act in haste without getting legal advice first.

Often, a carefully drafted letter and notification to the other party is required prior to terminating a building and construction contract so that the other party has an opportunity to resolve the issue.

Contracts can often be terminated if the issues are not resolved, and there are indeed good reasons for terminating the contract (which requires careful consideration).

If you require advice on such a matter, our solicitors can help you with legal advice on ending a construction contract.

We help clients:

1. understand and enforce their contractual rights; and
2. where needed, limit their losses and put their position in the strongest possible light.

Our building dispute lawyers can help you negotiate and avoid going to court. If litigation is needed, we have experience representing clients in all Victorian courts and at VCAT.

If you're in a dispute and need advice from a building dispute lawyer, contact us as early as possible so we can help you resolve it quickly.

Whether you're a builder or a contractor, and whether you're providing or receiving services, it's important that your trading terms work for you and don't hide any problems.

Our Melbourne construction lawyers are experienced in drafting and reviewing trading terms, particularly payment terms and credit arrangements. Getting these right at the start can save you time, cost and disputes down the track.

If you're already in a dispute and need advice, we can act for you to resolve it as quickly as possible.

We regularly advise on setting up companies, including choosing the right business structure.

Whether you trade as a sole trader, a company or through a company and trust structure can affect your ongoing legal liability and your tax.

Your needs will also change over time. As your business grows, you may need to change its structure.

Our construction lawyers can help you set up your building and construction business with the right structure.

If you're a builder or developer buying and selling development sites, our construction lawyers can give you clear, practical legal advice.

Our property lawyers can also help with contracts for the purchase and sale of land, and the commercial and residential leases that go with them.

The relationship between contractors and subcontractors is unusual. It's business to business, and you're both in the building industry. Disputes are common, and the party that understands its legal position usually has the upper hand.

Our building dispute lawyers can advise on these contractor matters:

• Employment advice – we can help work out whether a contractor is genuinely a contractor, and assist if a dispute arises.
• Contracts between builders, contractors and subcontractors – our Melbourne construction lawyers can draft and review these contracts and advise if a dispute arises. If the matter can't be resolved amicably, our construction litigation lawyers can represent you in court.
• Disputes between builders, contractors and subcontractors – small disagreements can quickly become expensive disputes. It's wise to deal with the legal issues early and try to resolve the dispute.

If you need advice on a legal matter between builders, contractors and subcontractors, our building dispute team can help.

Our Melbourne construction lawyers can advise on:

• Building, plumbing, electrical and gas-fitting licences – including applications, suspensions and appeals
• Development applications
• Water use
• Sewerage and drainage
• Tree protection
• Fire management and fire safety
• Explosives
• Asbestos removal
• Use of public land

Our building and construction lawyers can help you prepare documents and represent you on all of these matters.

Not every builder does good work.

If building work is defective, you may be able to make a claim against the builder.

You generally can't claim on domestic building insurance unless the builder has become insolvent, can't be found or has died. So in many cases, the insurance won't respond.

Our lawyers are experienced in building defect claims. There are useful remedies that can help you get defects fixed and/or recover appropriate compensation.

We work with building consultants who can identify defects and quote for the rectification work, which helps us pursue a fair claim for you.

We aim to resolve disputes without litigation, but if needed, our building dispute lawyers will take action against the builder at VCAT or in court.

If you're in a dispute with your builder and need legal advice to negotiate with them, or you'd like us to negotiate for you, get in touch.

Recovering debts in building matters isn't simple. There may be set-offs and counterclaims, so it's important to think carefully about how to pursue the debt.

Our debt recovery team is experienced and regularly recovers unpaid amounts for clients.

We can also defend clients against payment claims.

We can give you a clear explanation of finance contracts and personal guarantees relating to:

• loan agreements with banks and financial institutions secured by a mortgage over land
• project funding
• equipment finance

Our building and construction lawyers will make sure the documents are fully explained to you and properly signed.