Author: Brian January 24, 2024

The most important document you sign is the ‘New Home Contract’.

This document describes the house to be constructed and provides remedies to deal with any defaults by the builder or the house owner.

The more you understand the contents of this document the better you can sleep at night.

This post will briefly describe the contents of a typical ‘New House Contract’ . Other posts go into more detail about the individual parts of the contract.

Bound into a single package you should see.

• A New Homes Standard Contract. This is most likely to be either; a Housing Industry Association (HIA) Contract or a Master Builders Association Contract. In my opinion both these documents are reasonably fair to the Owner. However if a different contract is offered; or the contract has been heavily amended beware.
• Various Schedules and Attachments. These describe things like specific details of payments, naming legal entities legal rights etc.
• Conditions of Contract.
• Copies of Builders documentation. That is Registration, Structural Guarantee and Insurances Check these are up to date, especially Insurances.
• Contract Estimate This should show how the price has been calculated including any variations in cost from the initial cost.
• Copy of the Site Investigation (Geo-technical Investigation)
• Specification, describing the construction, type of fittings, and finishes, of various aspects of the house in words.
• List of the builders standard inclusions. (NB this will be less than you have seen in the Display Home!)
• Full set of contract drawings including plans, elevations and structural details.

Make sure you read the whole contract before you sign.

If any of the above are missing ask for them to be included before you sign.

Remember if problems arise the first thing you should to do is go back and read the contract.

For similar posts see Contract Documents