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.
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.
Free sample
Five checks you can use today
Here are five of the checks in full, free, with nothing to enter and nothing to sign up for. Take them to your next site visit or meeting. If they earn their keep, the rest of the checklist is below.
Before you shortlist anyone
Check the contractor licence with Fair Trading
Look the builder up on the NSW Fair Trading licence check before anything else.
Before you shortlist anyone
Search their dispute history
Check the builder and the company for past disputes and complaints.
Before you shortlist anyone
Sight the Home Building Compensation certificate
Required for residential work over $20,000. It protects you if the builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent.
The money
Progress payments must track finished work
Money follows completed stages: deposit, slab, frame, lock up, fixing, completion. Never dates.
The money
Keep an extra 20% contingency
Set aside 20% of the contract price on top of the contract, and try not to touch it early.
That is five of 31. The other 26 checks are in the complete edition, each one with the why behind it, what it costs you when it slips, and my professional figures.
What else is inside
31 checks across 4 sections, each with the why behind it and the cost of skipping it.
- Before you shortlist anyone (7 checks)
- The money (8 checks)
- The contract itself (6 checks)
- The government checklist, question by question (10 checks)
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.