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Phase 1 of 5 — before you sign

Sign with your eyes open

The complete checklist I use with my own clients before they sign anything: 31 checks across the money, the paperwork and the builder themselves, each with the why behind it and the number that makes it stick.

Choosing a Builder

Somewhere on the Central Coast this week, someone will sign a building contract that quietly shifts tens of thousands of dollars of risk onto them, and they will not find out until the project is half built. Not because the builder is a crook. Because nobody told them what to check while they still had the leverage to change it.

I am Shea Cullen, a registered architect on the Central Coast. I read building contracts for a living, I watch what happens on site after they are signed, and I see the same handful of avoidable mistakes decide who has a good build and who has a horror story. The deposit that runs ahead of the work. The $10 a week liquidated damages. The allowance that sounded generous until it was not.

This checklist is the conversation I have with my own clients before they sign, written down. Thirty one checks across four areas: vetting the builder, the money, the contract clauses, and the government's own mandatory checklist explained question by question. Every item tells you what to check, why it matters in plain English, and what it costs you when it slips through.

Work through it with the contract in front of you. It takes about an hour, and it is the highest value hour of your whole project.

What's inside

31 checks across 4 sections, each with the why behind it and the cost of skipping it.

Before you shortlist anyone

  • Check the contractor licence with Fair Trading
  • Search their dispute history
  • Look at their reviews, age and volume of work
  • Sight the Home Building Compensation certificate
  • Sight the contract works insurance
  • Sight the public liability insurance
  • Sight the professional indemnity insurance

The money

  • Ask what the builder's margin is
  • Specify as much as possible before tender
  • Prefer a fixed price contract
  • Progress payments must track finished work
  • Hold retention until defects are fixed
  • Get excavation rates into the tender
  • Make provisional sums and PC items realistic
  • Keep an extra 20% contingency

The contract itself

  • Make liquidated damages mean something
  • Strike clauses that let the price move at their discretion
  • Understand the variations procedure
  • Check the wet weather allowance is realistic
  • Get a vesting certificate for anything you pay for before it reaches site
  • Know your cooling off rights

The government checklist, question by question

  • Is all the work covered in the contract, drawings or specifications?
  • Is the price clearly stated, and any way it can vary explained?
  • Is the deposit within the legal 10% limit?
  • Are the progress payments detailed in the contract?
  • Is it clear who obtains council and other approvals?
  • Do you understand the certifier is your choice?
  • No deposit or progress payment before the insurance certificate
  • Have you received the two consumer guides?
  • Does the contract state how it can be terminated?
  • If any answer is no, you are not ready to sign

This is for you if

  • You are about to sign with a project home builder and the contract is sitting on the kitchen bench
  • You have two or three builder quotes that do not quite compare and you cannot see why
  • You are renovating or building new and want to know what to lock down before you lose your leverage

Your investment

$29

Australian dollars, one time, instant download.

The full amount is credited toward a $220 Initial Consultation with the single use code in your delivery email, valid for 12 months.

If your download does not arrive or the checklist is not what this page describes, reply to your delivery email and I will make it right, refund included. Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply to every purchase. Terms of sale.

Questions people ask

How do I get the checklist after paying?

Instantly. The moment payment goes through you land on your download page, and the same link is emailed to you. The link works for 12 months, so you can come back to it right through the build.

Which contracts does it cover?

It is written for NSW residential building contracts: HIA, Master Builders, ABIC and the Fair Trading plain language contract, plus the government consumer checklist that must by law appear in NSW home building contracts over $20,000.

Is this legal advice?

No. It is practical guidance from a practising architect about what to check and why it matters. For advice on your specific contract, see a construction lawyer, and this checklist will make that conversation shorter and cheaper.

I have already signed. Is it still useful?

Honestly, less useful, because your leverage is mostly spent at signing. The progress payment, variation and defect items still apply, and the companion OC Inspection checklist covers the end of the build.

Is the $29 really credited back?

Yes. Your delivery email includes a single use code that takes $29 off the $220 Initial Consultation, valid for 12 months. Buy the checklist, then talk to me about your project, and the checklist has cost you nothing.

The best time to protect your build is before you sign. That is the whole point of this checklist.