Most people think handover is the finish line. We hand over the keys, you walk through your new home, and that’s the build done.
It isn’t, really. Handover is where one part of the job ends and another one starts. That next part is called the defect liability period, and it’s the bit hardly anyone asks about until they need it.
So before you need it, here’s how the defect liability period works.
The 12-month defect liability period
From the day we hand over, you’ve got a 12-month defect liability period on the home.
A defect is anything that isn’t working, isn’t finished, or isn’t up to standard. That covers the small stuff people imagine — a paint touch-up, a fixture that’s playing up, an appliance not behaving the way it should. None of it is unusual. A new home has a lot of moving parts, and some of them settle in over the first few months of being lived in.
The defect period is there so that if something does crop up, it gets put right.
Why we come back at set points
Here’s the bit that actually matters, and it’s where we do things a little deliberately.
Rather than have you chase us every time something small turns up, we come back at three set points: around six weeks, around six months, and again around twelve months.
There’s a practical reason for it. If we sent a trade out every single time one minor thing appeared, you’d have someone knocking on your door ten times in a year, and half of those visits would be for jobs that could’ve waited a fortnight and gone in with three others. Batching it up means the trades come back once, do a proper run through the list, and it all gets sorted in one go instead of in dribs and drabs.
The six-week visit catches the early settling. Six months picks up anything that’s shown itself over a season of living in the place. And twelve months is the final tidy-up before the defect period closes — one last look to make sure everything’s where it should be.
It’s a calmer way to do it for everyone. You’re not living with a running list of “I should call the builder about that,” and we’re not interrupting your year for one-off call-outs.
Structural defects sit under a much longer window
The 12-month period covers the everyday stuff. The bigger structural elements sit under a much longer window.
Framing, roofing, waterproofing — the things holding the house up and keeping the weather out — fall under a six-year-and-six-month notification period. If something structural ever isn’t right, you’ve got that long to let us know.
You’re not likely to need it. But it’s there, and it’s worth knowing it’s there, because it tells you something about how a home is meant to stand behind itself long after the keys change hands.
The build ends. We don’t disappear.
We build homes here in North Queensland, and we build them to last in this climate — but no build is a one-and-done transaction in our eyes. The defect process is part of making sure the home ends up exactly how it should be, not just on handover day, but over the year that follows and well beyond.
It’s also, honestly, the part of the job that says the most about a builder. Anyone can hand over a set of keys. What happens in the months after is where you find out whether the relationship was ever real.
For us, it is. The build ends. We don’t.