A statutory warranty is a promise about building work that the law puts into the contract whether or not anyone writes it down. In NSW all residential building work, renovations included, carries one, and a contract cannot exclude or override it.
General informationGeneral information, not legal advice about any home or contract. Each state’s own page, linked at the foot of this page, sets out the rule in full: for example Building Commission NSW, Consumer Affairs Victoria and SA.GOV.AU.
1The promises, in each place’s words
The wording differs, but the same few promises recur: the work is done with care and skill, the materials are good, the work follows the law and the plans, and a finished home is fit to live in. The table sets each place’s version side by side. South Australian and ACT wording is quoted from the Acts, each linked from its row; the other rows are summarised from each government’s page.
| Place | Work and care | Materials | Law and plans | The finished home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Australia | Work done “in a proper manner to accepted trade standards” | Materials the contractor supplies “will be good and proper” | In line with the agreed plans and specifications, and with “all statutory requirements” | A new house “reasonably fit for human habitation” |
| ACT | Work carried out “in a proper and skilful way” | “Good and proper materials” | In accordance with the Act and the approved plans | Fit for a purpose the owner made known, where the owner relied on the builder’s skill |
| New South Wales | Due care and skill | Suitable materials | Complies with the approved plans and the law | A home fit to live in |
| Tasmania | Care and skill, including in working out any provisional or estimated costs | Suitable, good quality and new unless the contract says otherwise | Follows the relevant laws and the contract’s plans and specifications | Suitable to live in once complete, where that applies |
| Victoria | Good workmanship | Not summarised on the page used here | Everything listed in the contract is delivered | Everything is in working order |
Victoria’s summary is the shortest because Consumer Affairs Victoria points to a separate checklist for the full list. It also explains that two laws apply at once: the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 calls these obligations warranties, and the Australian Consumer Law calls them consumer guarantees. Tasmania’s list comes from Building Standards Tasmania, which adds that the warranties also bind owner builders.
2How long they last, and from which day
Every place counts from the end of the job, but each names that day differently. The day matters as much as the number of years.
NSW Six years, or two
Proceedings for a breach of statutory warranty must start within 6 years from completion for major defects, and 2 years for all other defects. If the breach comes to light in the last 6 months of the period, there are 6 more months to start proceedings. For incomplete work, the clock runs from the day the contract ended or, if it was never ended, the day work stopped.
VIC Up to ten years
Consumer Affairs Victoria says the statutory building warranties apply “for up to 10 years after the date the occupancy permit or certificate of final inspection was issued”, through any number of sales.
SA Five years, with no extension
The Building Work Contractors Act 1995 says proceedings for breach of a statutory warranty “must be commenced within five years after completion of the building work”, and that this period “may not be extended”.
TAS Six years from practical completion
The warranties run for six years from practical completion. Where that date cannot be fixed, the period starts when the occupancy permit, or the approval for the work, was granted. A claim for a breach goes to a court within six years after practical completion.
ACT A period set by regulation
The Building Act 2004 ends the warranties at the end of a period the regulations prescribe, counted from the completion day. That day is the later of the day the work is finished and the day the contract ends, and the work counts as finished no later than the day any certificate of occupancy is issued.
WA Four months to notify, as a term of the contract
Western Australia’s Home Building Contracts Act 1991 makes it a term of every contract that the builder makes good, at the builder’s cost, defects notified in writing within 4 months from practical completion. A contract may give a longer period than that. The home indemnity fact sheet adds that, outside a relevant circumstance, the builder stays responsible for an owner’s claims during the six years after practical completion.
3They cannot be bargained away
A buyer of a new home will often be handed a long contract, so it helps to know which lines a contract cannot override. In NSW, the warranties cannot be excluded or overridden by a contract. In Victoria, Consumer Affairs Victoria says consumer guarantees and implied warranties “cannot be signed away”. In Western Australia, an agreement that tries to exclude, restrict or change the Home Building Contracts Act to an owner’s disadvantage is void to that extent, and so is a waiver of a right the Act gives.
South Australia sets out one defence instead. In proceedings for a breach, a builder may show that the problem came from instructions the building owner insisted on, against the builder’s written advice.
4Two more promise-makers
The developer, in the ACT
The ACT’s warranty sits in every contract to sell a residential building as well as every contract to build one. Where a property developer arranges the work, for any part that is residential building work under the Property Developers Act 2024 (work on a residential building in a project of 3 or more dwellings), the contract also carries the developer’s own warranty on the first four points (the Act, proper and skilful work, good materials and reasonable promptness), on top of the builder’s. The ACT guide on this site follows that thread further.
The builder’s extra promises
Some builders offer warranties of their own. The ACCC describes a warranty as an extra promise a business makes about quality or about fixing problems, which applies in addition to a consumer’s rights to a repair, replacement, refund or cancellation. A warranty cannot replace, change or take away those basic rights, and the rights can outlast the business’s warranty.