Owners of new strata apartments regularly find defects, some minor, some major.
The new Strata Schemes laws in NSW will make it compulsory for a defects survey to be carried out within a year, and will provide a retention fund of 2% of the building cost to cover repairs.
But often, it takes several years before major defects come to light, such as foundation subsidence resulting in walls cracking, cladding on facades falling off, water penetration via faulty roofing or waterproofing, flooding, and so forth.
The question is - how long do you have to make a defects claim against the builder?
The answer is - 6 years after the building work was finished, not 6 years after the the building defect was first discovered.
Determining the exact date the building work was finished can be vital, as a recent case decided in the Supreme Court of NSW demonstrates. This is a link to my article