Responsibility for building supervision and quality

The owner is responsible for ensuring building approval has been issued and any mandatory inspections have been completed.

The contractor and owner share the responsibility for ensuring building work meets an acceptable standard of quality and finish. Some owners may engage an architect or designer to supervise these aspects of the work.

The building contractor has statutory and contractual obligations for the approval and inspection process. Some builders offer a complete design, approval and construction package. If the builder is to arrange the building approval and inspections, those details should be in a contract.

The builder must comply with any legal requirement relating to the building work on behalf of the owner. Under the building contract, the builder must rectify any building work that doesn't comply with the building legislation.

The party responsible for the cost of rectifying the work depends on the reason for the mistake. More than one party may be responsible for costs.

Contact Queensland Building and Construction Commission about dispute resolution facilities.