Does an agreement ‘to manage and arrange the construction of two townhouses’ constitute a ‘domestic building contract’ for the purposes of the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (‘the Act’)? Are owners entitled to recover amounts paid to a ‘construction manager’ allegedly in excess of ‘maximum amount’ that he was entitled to under s40(2) of the Act? What is

The recent High Court decision of Price v Spoor [2021] HCA 20, although not a construction case, is worth consideration for two reasons. First, because of its nod to the principle of freedom of contract and second, because of the “direction” it provides on the continually vexed question of how to approach the interpretation of commercial contracts.

The conversion of the Chevron Hotel to apartments and the construction of a nine storey apartment building contiguously were carried out in stages. Four staged occupancy permits were issued over an eight month period. The OC issued proceedings in VCAT in respect of defects in the louvre system exterior of the new apartment building. The

In this case the Applicant (Winslow) succeeded in an arbitration brought by it against the Respondent (the Department) under the Commercial Arbitration Act 2011 (Vic). Winslow sought enforcement of the Award by the Court pursuant to S.35 of the Act, and Judgment was duly entered against the Department. The issue before the Court was Winslow’s application for indemnity costs of

In Middlemount South Pty Ltd v Anglo American Metallurgical Coal Assets Pty Ltd & Anor [2020] QCA 132, the Queensland Court of Appeal allowed an appeal and found that part of an expert determination was not valid because the expert erred in its application of the contract clause governing the preparation of final completion accounts in

In Bensons Property Group Pty Ltd v Key Infrastructure Australia Pty Ltd & Ors [2021] VSCA 69 the Victorian Court of Appeal considered whether the prevention principle must arise as result of a breach of the contract/implied duty to cooperate or operates independently as a concept removed from the contract. Background In early 2015, Key Infrastructure Australia