Building and Construction Disputes
Building projects are complex, and require precise coordination and a huge amount of skill to execute without hiccup. Even with the best planning and careful selection of your project team, things can go wrong and lead you into a dispute. If not managed expertly, even small building disputes can have a domino effect and ultimately derail a project.
Whether you are a developer, a building professional, a subcontractor, supplier or a consultant to the building industry, or a homeowner building your dream home, we can help you stop things getting out of control when a dispute is brewing.
Our lawyers are specialists in building and construction projects, and many of them are involved in guiding the next generation of building professionals through the legal aspects of their building qualifications at the Canberra Institute of Technology and the University of Canberra. Our first step in dispute management for building projects is to assess whether you in fact need a lawyer, or if you need technical advice instead, or a bit of both. Using our connections within the industry, we will assemble the best team of professionals to advise you so you do not waste your time, or money, on the wrong kind of expert.
At MV Law, our lawyers have a proven track record in resolving building and construction disputes early and with minimal legal fees and are recognised as leading litigation lawyers by our clients and peers.
We can also help with:
The MV difference
At MV Law, we have litigators with specialist qualifications in building and construction law, who are recognised as leaders in their field by their clients and peers.
Our team can help with:
- Acting for developers, home owners, owners’ corporations, builders, subcontractors, suppliers, project managers, architects, engineers and other consultants
- Advising you on your contractual obligations and liabilities
- Advising you on issuing or responding to contentious contractual notices, including:
- Claims for latent conditions, variations or extensions of time
- Notices of default/breach
- Notices of dispute to activate a contractual dispute resolution mechanism
- Notices to suspend works
- Notices to take the works out of the hands of the contractor
- Notices of termination of the contract
- Defects and warranty issues
- Delay claims
- Drafting and issuing payment claims and payment schedules under the security of payment legislation, acting for you in any resulting adjudication, and enforcing or appealing adjudication determinations
- Representing you in, or assisting you with, alternative dispute resolution, including:
- Settlement conferences
- Mediations and conciliations
- Neutral evaluations
- Expert determinations
- Arbitrations
- Pursuing your claim, or defending a claim against you, in a court or tribunal (whether in the ACT or elsewhere), including under the Security of Payment legislation.
- Dealing with the relevant regulator to pursue, or respond to, a disciplinary complaint or rectification order.
Most building contracts require some form of notice to be issued in order to pursue a claim or entitlement. These notices are highly technical, and they will come under intense scrutiny if you ultimately end up in litigation or some form of alternative dispute resolution.
A minor misstep in issuing, or responding to, a contractual notice can be the difference between ultimately winning or losing your case. We prefer to help as early as possible to ensure we do not have to give you bad news later on.
You may wish to engage our building dispute lawyers to completely take over all communications with the builder. In other cases, you may be comfortable running the dispute resolution process yourself and simply calling on our assistance for ‘behind the scenes’ support when you need it. Whatever you decide, we are happy to tailor our approach to your needs.
Be empowered to move forward with advice and services from our award-winning disputes law team.
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