Standard Building Contract or ‘Owner Builder Contract’

Author: Brian November 16, 2022

Some small builders may suggest they can package build a house cheaper for you if you become an ‘Owner Builder’*.

* Not be confused with True ‘Owner Building’ where you have the skills and propose doing a lot of the work yourself

Here are 8 reasons why you should think very hard about doing this:

You remove the protection of the standard building contracts.
The whole exercise is about removing responsibility from the builder if this is their attitude at the start how confident are you they are going to take responsibility for any problems during the build..
Do you fully understand the responsibilities and risks which can include extra costs that can blow your budget.
Do you have all the knowledge, skills and time to manage the build properly.
You will have to take a course (May be available on line) which is going to take time. This will only give you the most basic understanding of the process.
Most banks are very reluctant to lend to owner builders so finance is going to be an issue.
You won’t have the advantage of any of the standard builders guarantees which means that if problems arise later you will have to meet the full cost.
When you want to sell many people can be reluctant to buy an Owner Built House without guarantees.

I have heard of several cases where this type of job went wrong but it may be successful for you.