2023 marks nine years since our boutique law firm, Construct Law Group, was founded. This is an exciting milestone in and of itself which we could not have achieved without the hard work of our team, and our clients.
Throughout the year, our team delivered exceptional legal services to hundreds of new and existing clients involved in both residential and commercial construction projects. Our new clients consisted of homeowners, residential builders, developers, head contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and architects.
As we look back at our new matters opened over 2023, we are happy to report that, not including homeowners (which are generally one-off matters), over 50% of our new matters were existing clients. This demonstrates the strong relationships we build with our clients and the quality of our advice and services. We can also see on analysis that approximately 60% of our new matters were related to residential projects and 38% commercial projects.
Unfortunately, many of our new matters across both the residential and commercial sectors were related to the labour and supply shortages which continue to plague the industry (although to a lesser extent than in previous years). Other advice we provided (on new files opened for 2023) included:
- Residential advice to both homeowners and builders, largely on issues related to breach of contract, delays, variations and extension of time claims;
- Residential termination advice including advice on the Queensland Building and Construction Commission’s (QBCC) Home Warranty Scheme;
- Reviews of residential contracts for homeowners to advise them on risks and required amendments prior to signing;
- Drafting of contracts or special conditions to adequately protect our clients;
- General advice on the operation of various forms of commercial contracts;
- Advice on termination of commercial building contracts;
- QBCC licensing advice to builders and building product suppliers, including advice on non-conforming building products;
- Reviews of commercial building contracts (in the form of departures tables) or drafting of contracts for various projects such as schools refurbishments, childcare facilities, hotel resorts and major infrastructure projects);
- Court litigation (in the Supreme Court, District Court and Magistrates Court);
- Representation of our clients in proceedings in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT);
- Reviews of QBCC decisions on behalf of builders and owners (both internally through QBCC and externally through QCAT);
- Adjudication or general advice under the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld) (including drafting of payment claims and payments schedules, adjudication applications and adjudication responses); and
- Preparing subcontractors’ charges.
We are excited to assist our clients in delivering new projects in 2024 and we look forward to continuing to work with our network of industry professionals.
Aleisha MacKenzie, Founder and Legal Practice Director
