WHY USE BUILDSAFE?

Each year in New Zealand tens of thousands of people start doing building or renovation projects.  Most of these projects are completed without any significant problems BUT, as we all know, sometimes a project goes hopelessly wrong leaving the owner and the builder stressed, financially stretched, and often without the work being completed.

Problems with building and renovation work seem to be linked to the fact that people build with their hearts and not their heads - this means that expectations are always high and often unrealistic. Parties typically do not talk to each other in enough detail at the early stages about what is included for the quoted cost, as they have such a clear idea in their own minds and hearts as to what the project will look like.

Often builders take large deposits from owners and are then never seen or heard from again or some builders will start a project and then stop the work part way through for easier money elsewhere. The cost of doing building work is often high compared to most other transactions, and builders and contractors are taking on jobs of great complexity and risk. So many different problems can arise as a result, often through a simple lack of communication or a misunderstanding on one side or both!

An owner may dispute the quality of work, the time taken for the work and the cost of the work done by the builder. Owners will often then pay contractor’s accounts late if at all, or may be perceived as having deducted money from a claim without reason. Alternatively owners may at times simply run out of money to pay for the work ordered when mortgage monies are used to purchase other items such as cars, boats, and holidays, or when the costs of completing the work increase because the owner has asked for more variations and more expensive fittings and finishes than originally intended.

These problems create risk for both the owner and the builder. The risk for home owners is that they may pay more than than the work is worth and if the contractor goes "bust" it is impossible to recover that money even if the home owner is right.

For contractors, the risk is in getting paid for the labour and materials they supply and fix to someone else’s property as they cannot simply remove it if they are not paid for the work.  This risk is most real at the end of the job when the builder tries to get paid the final claim under the contract.

There are so many other reasons why using BuildSafe is a good idea, to read more about why you should use BuildSafe if you are a Home Owner click here, if you are a Contractor click here, or if you are a Subcontractor click here.