Last week I was involved in VCAT mediation for one of my clients (one of many) whose home is ruined by slab heave. Builder(one of the top tier builders) who did nothing for months but blame the owners (unfairly in my view) for not maintaining the property has now offered to yet again engage another (supposedly independent) engineer for assessment as to what should be done. Unfortunately my client fell for that and we are now again on merry go round waiting for “Jack Daniels ” (do nothing) solution that can only be crafted by engineer who does not want to bite the hand that feeds it.

Notwithstanding all that what transpired was that even if you have rights under warranty they are virtually worthless unless you have some very good evidence to back up your claims. The problem with my client is that I became involved well after problems started appearing and there were no systematic inspections, photos or other evidence that can clearly prove that the builder did the wrong thing. So what is the state of play?

My client has right of claim under structural warranty! The structural defect has been established and conceded by the (first) structural engineer. You would think that is enough. NO! Not only does the engineer not attribute the fault to the builder but also has no idea how to fix the home, instead he offers cosmetic fix, and Jack Daniels.

So what do we have? We have a young couple whose home is ruined with big mortgage and no spare money up against incredibly wealthy builder with the biggest legal guns he can buy.

Stay tuned, this story is developing.