Ensuring Electronic Signature Lawfulness for Construction Industry in Australia

How to eSign a document: electronic signature lawfulness for Construction Industry in Australia

foreign welcome to law help Australia where we keep you safe and informed with tips and updates my name is Dinesh virakodi today we are going to talk about domestic building contracts and we've got an experienced panel The Young and the Beautiful Olivia so Olivia tell us a bit about yourself I started my practice Boutique laws in 2012. predominantly we practice in the area of domestic building contracts we wanted to change the way that the legal industry Opera operates so we offer fixed fee billing to clients also provides a client with some certainty and being a person who's been through my own domestic building dispute I really have a passion for this area how long have you been practicing in this area only for about three years but I have been practicing this solicitor for over five and we have The Young and the Beautiful to Emily too Emily tell us a bit about yourself Dinesh I studied law at Latrobe University I finished in 2013 and now I'm with dear legal thank you and we've got Phil smallman I should say not young and beautiful but handsome and good looking thank you very much tell us a bit about yourself I've been around the building industry most of my adult life between that management and training I now have a role with the Jim's building inspection team which operates all around Australia now with some 50 building inspectors in our organization and you have about 30 years under your bed yeah just just on 30 years experience in the industry very good let me ask a question from Olivia Oliver most often when we as purchasers or as lay people get into building contracts we feel that we're at a disadvantaged position is that the feeling you get from your clients or are we really disadvantaged the is at a disadvantage because they don't enter into a building contract every day the Builder does it's their profession they're experienced with building contracts and they're aware of their rights and what should be included in the contract and what shouldn't so how does how should we make this a Level Playing Field what should a purchaser or a person who's getting into a contract be familiar with most Builders have got good intentions they actually set out to build a good home along the way they reliant on trades and supervisors who not necessarily have the right skill set or for whatever reason don't deliver the quality product that the owner would expect so I think it's important to recognize when you need to have some insights some expertise that can actually clarify or look at a situation to get a best outcome can I ask when should you get into a domestic building contract when should you sign one um any Works any domestic domestic building works that are to the value above five thousand dollars the law requires you to enter into a domestic building contract that is by law you have to Yes um I'll let Phil exclamator domestic yeah it's really important too that the person is doing the work should be a registered Builder if they're doing works over the value of five thousand dollars that's absolutely critical so it's incumbent on someone who's looking to enter into a contract to ensure they've checked to make sure that person is registered with a Victorian building authority here in Victoria so pay to do your homework so what that means is we cannot just rely on a handyman or do do it ourselves it is too risky is that what you're saying or is it risky well it's risky to the point that you need to do your due diligence you should always be checking making the inquiries there are several ways to go about that the Victorian building Authority has a website you can go on and you can check the Builder by name to see if he's actually registered and you can also find out if there's been any penalties or there's been any judgments against the Builder what are the things you should know before you get into a domestic building contract contract I think the important thing is to know and understand is that you actually have quite a few rights and those rights are actually protected under legislation under the domestic building contracts Act