Guide to standards and tolerances, what is wrong with it?

The first thing wrong with Guide to Standards and Tolerances is its title, it should be ” Standards and Tolerances for Dummies“. If it were so it would be a perfect document and a full credit to the Building Commission. As a reference it would take homeowner with no knowledge of building to come into the ball park of the required knowledge and give reasonable understanding of the common issues.

However the guide and its application is misrepresented by BC and has enabled builders to hijack it and make it their God sent Bible “the book of excuses for poor workmanship”

So how can the application of the guide be misrepresented? Simple, consider what BC says:

The Guide to Standards and Tolerances is only a guide and an advisory document. It is not a regulated standard and is not part of this hierarchy.

and

Where there is any contradiction or difference between the Guide and an Act, a regulation, the Building Code of Australia or a building contract, all of these take precedence over the Guide. The Guide does not replace the requirements of these other documents.

however then it says inexplicably:

This document may be used as a guide to determine whether or not an item is defective.

 

So what’s wrong with that? Plenty! The fact is that the implied warranties of Domestic Building Contract Act 1995 section 8 state :

(a) (1) The builder warrants that the work will be carried out in a proper and workmanlike manner.

and

(d) (1)The builder warrants that the work will be carried out with reasonable care and skill

means that the warranty blanket overrides all of builders work and Guide to Standards and tolerances has no function to play in determination of building defects. It’s only good enough to be guide for dummies.

The warranty test is the only legal and proper test as to whether builder’s work is defective, forget about the guide.

When you see builder reaching for the guide he is only reaching for excuses, don’t believe it.

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