Signing an HIA or QBCC Building Contract in Queensland: The Clauses to Read Before Cooling-Off Ends

A building contract is the document every later argument comes back to: what the price includes, when a stage can be claimed, how much time the builder has, and what happens at handover. In Queensland you usually get five business days after signing to read it properly and walk away if it isn't right. After that, changing anything needs the builder to agree.

This guide walks through an HIA building contract in Queensland, or any other standard form such as the QBCC's templates, clause by clause: how the cooling-off period works, what to check in the price, stages, variations and delays, and which records to ask for before you sign. It's written for owners at tender or contract stage. It's general information, not legal advice, and a solicitor's read of the contract is worth getting before you sign.

What you're signing: regulated contracts and the documents that come with them

Most contracts for residential building work in Queensland are regulated by the QBCC Act. Any contract for work valued at more than $3,300 has to be in writing and include a notice of your right to a cooling-off period. Contracts of $20,000 or more come with more: the plans and specifications, and a copy of the QBCC's Consumer Building Guide.

• The contract itself. The general conditions, plus a schedule where the price, dates, allowances and stage percentages are filled in. Most disputes start in the schedule, not the fine print.
• Plans and specifications. They define what you're paying for. If something isn't on the plans or in the specification, assume it isn't in the price.
• The Consumer Building Guide. The QBCC's plain-English summary of your rights, given to you for contracts of $20,000 or more.

If you're building as an owner-builder, there's no head contract with a builder at all; owner-builder vs licensed builder sets out what that changes.

The cooling-off period: five business days to read it properly

You generally have five business days to withdraw from a regulated contract. The period starts the day after you receive a signed copy of the entire contract, and it runs later if the documents reach you late.

• When it doesn't apply. There's no cooling-off if you had an earlier contract with the same builder on substantially the same terms for the same work and site, or if you got formal legal advice about the contract from a practising lawyer before you signed.
• How to withdraw. Give the builder signed written notice that you're withdrawing under the cooling-off provisions (section 35 of Schedule 1B of the QBCC Act), and keep proof of when it was delivered.
• What it costs. The builder can usually keep $100 plus any out-of-pocket expenses reasonably incurred before you withdrew.

Enter the day you received the signed contract in the calculator below to see your last day to withdraw, then work down the clause checklist. Each line links to the guide that covers it in depth.

Negotiating with a builder before you sign

The time to negotiate with a builder is before the contract is signed, when every change is a conversation rather than a variation. Most builders expect questions on a few lines of the schedule, and asking them in writing keeps the answers on file.

• Allowances. Ask for every prime cost item and provisional sum to be listed with its amount, and for low allowances to be priced properly now.
• The building period. Ask how the completion date was worked out and how many wet-weather days are allowed.
• Inclusions. Get anything you've been promised verbally written into the specification, from tapware to driveways.
• Records. Ask what the builder records at frame stage and at handover, and whether you get a copy.

Price, deposit and allowances

Read what the contract price includes and what it leaves out. For contracts of $20,000 or more, the deposit can't be more than 5% of the contract price, and progress payments have to match the work actually done.

Allowances are where the final price grows. A prime cost item is an allowance for something not yet chosen, like tiles or tapware. A provisional sum is an estimate for work the builder can't price exactly yet, like rock excavation or extra piering. If either runs over, you usually pay the difference. Before the Slab explains which site allowances most often turn into variations, and the drawdown tracker keeps every stage payment on one sheet once the build starts.

Stages, variations and builder delays

Three clauses decide most of the arguments during a build.

• Stages and progress claims. The contract defines each stage, usually base, frame, enclosed, fixing and practical completion, and what has to be finished before the builder can claim it. Line the stages up with your lender's drawdowns.
• Variations. Every change to the work or price has to be in writing, with its price and its effect on time, and agreed before the work is done. Disputing a progress claim or variation covers what to do when one turns up on an invoice without that paperwork.
• Time and builder delay. Find the start date, the building period and the wet-weather allowance, then read what the builder has to do to claim more time, and by when. Check whether the contract sets delay damages, an amount per day if the builder finishes late, and that it's filled in rather than left blank or nil.

Practical completion, defects and termination

Read how practical completion is defined, how you're told it has been reached, and how defects are listed at handover. That's the point where the final payment falls due and the defect deadlines start, and our practical completion guide walks through it room by room.

Read the termination clause too, even if you never expect to use it: the grounds on which either side can end the contract, and the notices that have to be given first. Terminating a building contract explains why getting those steps right protects your home warranty cover.

Licence and home warranty

Check that the builder's name and QBCC licence number on the contract match the QBCC's online licence search, and that the licence class covers the work. For residential work over $3,300 by a licensed contractor, the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme can cover non-completion and defective work, subject to its conditions and time limits. Ask the builder to confirm the premium has been paid for your job before work starts.

Records to ask for before you sign

Two questions come up most once you've moved in: what's inside the walls, and what condition was the house in on the day it was handed over? The contract is the easiest place to settle how both will be answered.

• The frame, before plasterboard. A dated 3D record of the studs, noggings, pipes and cables in every room, captured after the frame inspection and before the walls are lined.
• The house, at practical completion. A dated, walkable record of every room at handover, before furniture goes in and before the first repair.

Some builders include both as standard, as the two stages of the Builder Assurance Bundle. If yours doesn't, ask whether they'll add it, or book the records yourself. Either way, the record sits alongside the certifier's inspections; it doesn't replace them.

Signing a building contract in Queensland: FAQs