I’m after people’s opinions, from a general and diverse community.
First the background as to why the question:
My wife and I built a house a few years ago, we went to many builders, big companies and individuals, in the end we settled on one we thought would be good. During the vetting process we contacted all manner of departments, government and private, before making a decision. Not even before the build was finished we were having problems with the builder, the quality of the build, and items different to agreements and specifications.
We involved Fair Trading and then NCAT (NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal) for assistance, in the end the builder was found negligent on 24 out of the 28 of our allegations. On a side note, the process of Fair Trading and NCAT is not for the faint hearted, it took so much work, some costs, and many sleepless nights. During the process of getting evidence, finding out if the builder had done the wrong thing, we contacted other companies. When we contacted these various companies and when we mentioned the builder their general response was, “oh, that builder”, from that we got the idea that we’d not chosen well.
Later after our matter had been decided by NCAT I thought I’d call them for extra information and to see why we’d not found out this extra information in the first round of checking. I called as if I was inquiring about the builder we used but as a new customer, asking questions about any findings or penalties against the builder, this was done around four months after the matter had been finalised. What I found out was that once the builder has paid the penalty, fine or compensation as directed by NCAT, the matter becomes private and NCAT will no longer disclose that there were the matters when anyone inquires.
When you engage a builder you are employing them, and in my mind they become a “trusted advisor” to you, the builder has the experience of building a number of houses, maybe many, where the average person may only build one or two houses in their life. If problems do arise the builder is in a position of power as any changes or delays can cause the costs to go up.
Other areas, industries and professions where negligence and malpractice are publicly available:
-Driving history, up to 7 years in some states and in many states forever.
-Criminal history, police report etc, as an employment requirement, many years.
-Medical cases for some time, research would suggest that once the matter has been to court it may stay on a publicly accessible register forever.
-Lawyers, some states the records are removed after 5 years, others are there for over 20 years, or if struck off can be forever.
Now the question, should the records of where a builder has had one or more matters decided against them in their states Civil and Administrative Tribunals, or other governing bodies, be inaccessible to all after it has been finalised?
I agree the history for the builder should be available. Did he provide you with references and did you contact other people he had done work for?
We tend to get our builders through the Master Builders website. So far we have had good builders. They have a dispute resolution process so you have a first port of call that isn't going to NCAT, ir VCAT in our case.
The problem is even if you get a resolution out of NCAT he might just declare bankrupt and phoenix another company. Also once you have got into a dispute process you really don't want to have to deal with the builder again and would prefer someone else to remedy the situation.
We had a friend who got their architect to recommend a builder. The builder wasn't registered and was completely useless. He even didn't connect the plumbing from their sink into the sewerage; which they found out when they had a very wet patch in the lawn. Walls fell down, the painting was terrible and it was a nightmare to resolve because the architect was on the builders side. They had a similar experience where they had to ask a very specific question to find out whether the builder was registered properly; they thought they had covered themselves but whatever "registration" he had it was the wrong type for building a house.