Answer

What can an owners corporation do when the builder will not fix defects?

Turn the argument into a record before turning it into a dispute. Notify every defect in writing with a photo, a date and a location; give access and record that it was given; type each item as a defect or as maintenance before the builder does; keep the contractual and statutory clocks in view, because they differ by state and the statutory one is usually the longer; and escalate to the state’s regulator or dispute body with the register rather than a folder of emails. In IssuesId the owners corporation runs the same register the builder handed over, with the committee in the client seat, residents reporting on QR cards, every item typed and issued to the builder with the email on the trail, and the post-completion list printed as a report.

ANSWERED FROM THE PRODUCT DOCS·UPDATED OCTOBER 2026

Before the tool

The builder usually did not refuse. They stopped answering.

Outright refusal is rare. What happens is quieter: the project team demobilises, the person who knew which plumber it was moves to another job, the info@ inbox gets the emails, and after a few months of forwarding, nothing comes back. The committee experiences this as refusal and the builder experiences it as nothing, because nothing has a number, a date or an owner on their side. By the time a strata manager escalates, the question the regulator asks first is “when did you notify this, and to whom”, and the honest answer is a search of three people’s sent folders. The remedy is not a more forceful letter. It is a record that makes the question unnecessary.

What to do, in order

Five steps before the tribunal

1Make every defect a dated, written notice
A phone call to the site manager who has moved to Geelong is not a notice. Each defect needs to exist as a record with a photo and its capture time, a location to the lot or the common area, a description a stranger could act on, and the date it was sent to the builder. Most of what an owners corporation loses later, it loses here.
2Give access, and record that you did
The builder’s usual answer to “you did not fix it” is “you did not let us in”. Record the access offered: the dates, the lots, the contact. On the register this is the thread on the defect, with the builder’s own replies on it.
3Separate defects from maintenance before the builder does
The builder will say the dripping mixer is wear. Type each item when it arrives, Warranty or Maintenance, with the reason, and the committee is arguing from a list that already shows which items it accepts as its own. A list where everything is the builder’s fault is a list nobody believes.
4Keep the clock in view
The contractual period and the statutory periods are different clocks and the statutory one is usually the longer. The by-state table gives each one with its source; the item notified in month eleven and the item notified in month fourteen are in different positions, and the record of the notice date decides which.
5Escalate with the record, not with the story
Every state has a regulator or a dispute body that is the first step before a tribunal, listed in the same table. What they ask for is what the register already holds: the defects, when they were notified, the builder’s responses, the access offered, the photos. A committee that arrives with an export rather than a folder of emails is a different conversation.

How it runs in IssuesId

The register the builder handed over, with the committee in it

The builder’s handover register and the building’s own register are the same product, so handover is a change of role rather than a change of system. The committee or the strata manager takes the client seat, read-only with the Client Defect Summary a click away; residents get a printed QR card that logs them into their own portal with no password, so the month-three mixer arrives as a record against the lot rather than an email. Each item carries a Type, Warranty or Maintenance, and is issued to the builder or their trade, who get it by email with a no-login link; every email the defect sends sits on its audit trail with whether it was delivered. If the builder disputes an item they do it on the record and the ruling stays on the file. The Post PC Issues report in the catalogue lists what arrived after completion, and the Issued To report shows what is sitting with the builder, oldest first. That export is what goes to the regulator.

Asked alongside this one

What can an owners corporation do when the builder will not fix defects?

Turn the argument into a record before turning it into a dispute: notify each defect in writing with a photo, a date and a location; offer access and record it; type each item as a defect or as maintenance before the builder does; keep the contractual and statutory clocks in view, because they differ by state; and escalate to the state’s regulator or dispute body with the register rather than a folder of emails. In IssuesId the committee runs the register the builder handed over, with residents on QR cards, every item typed and issued to the builder with the email on the trail.

Who does the owners corporation escalate to?

It depends on the state. Each has a regulator or dispute service that is the first step before a tribunal: the Building and Plumbing Commission in Victoria, Building Commission NSW, the QBCC, Building and Energy in WA, Consumer and Business Services in SA, CBOS in Tasmania, Access Canberra, and NT Consumer Affairs. They are listed, with the statutory periods and a source for each, on the defects liability periods by state page.

Is the dripping tap the builder’s problem or the owners corporation’s?

It depends on why it drips, which is why the record should say what it was called when it arrived. A mixer failing in month three is usually a warranty item issued to the builder’s plumber; a blocked drain from what went down it is maintenance for the building’s own contractor. Typing each item as it arrives, with the reason, gives the committee a list the builder and the regulator can believe.

How does a resident report a defect to the builder after moving in?

With the printed QR card handed over at settlement. Scanning it logs them into their own portal with no password or app; they describe the fault, attach a photo, and it lands on the register already filed against their lot with the date. The committee or building manager types it and issues it to the builder; the resident sees the status move, with cost and contractor identity stripped out.

Read on

Where this answer comes from

The docs behind this answer are trades, tenants and clients, defects (Type, disputes, emails on the trail) and reports. The periods and the regulator for each state are on defects liability periods in Australia; who holds what after completion is who is responsible for defects after practical completion? This is general information, not legal advice; the contract and your state’s legislation apply.