Terms of use
These terms apply to sydneybuildinglawyers.com.au. Sydney Building Lawyers is an informational website about building and construction law in New South Wales. If you do not accept them, please do not use the site.
General information, not legal advice. This page sets out how the law generally applies. It does not take account of your circumstances, and you should get advice about your own situation before acting on it. The official sources this page is written from are listed on it; where they differ from anything here, they are the authority.
Last updated: 23 September 2026
Most of what follows exists to make one thing unambiguous: reading this website does not make us your lawyers, and nothing here is advice about your situation.
That is not a disclaimer written to avoid responsibility. Building outcomes turn on particulars — which contract, which clause, which dates, what was served and when — and a page written for everyone cannot know any of them.
General information, not legal advice
Legal services on this website are provided by Jameson Law.
Everything on this site is general information about building and construction law in New South Wales. It is not advice, it is not a substitute for advice about your circumstances, and it is not an offer to act for you.
Where a page states a rule, it cites the official source that rule came from at the foot of the page. Those sources are the authority and this site is not. If the two ever differ, the official source is right.
Working out how the law applies to you takes a conversation about your facts and your documents. How we work sets out what that involves, and our guides are written to help you prepare for it, not to replace it.
Never work out a deadline from this website. If a payment claim has been served, or a warranty period may be running out, the dates that matter are on your own documents.
Accuracy and currency
Building law in New South Wales changes. Statutes are amended, agencies are renamed and restructured, contract thresholds and deposit caps are adjusted, and the periods in the Security of Payment process depend on the kind of claim. A page that was accurate when it was written may not be accurate when you read it.
Where a page carries a review date, treat that date as the limit of what we are telling you. It means the page matched the official sources on that day. It does not promise the page still matches them today. Not every page carries a date, and no page here is a substitute for checking the official source it cites.
Some things are deliberately left off this site because publishing them invites reliance on a number that moves. The day counts in the Security of Payment process are the clearest example: they depend on the type of claim and on the contract, so we point you to the NSW Government’s pages rather than printing a figure that could cost you a right.
- Check current contract requirements, deposit caps and the Security of Payment periods on the NSW Government's building and construction pages.
- Check how a home building dispute is run, and what has to happen before an application, with NCAT.
- Check that anyone advising you holds a current practising certificate, on the Law Society of New South Wales register of solicitors.
Time limits in building matters are strict. A statutory warranty claim runs from completion of the work, and the periods under the Security of Payment legislation run from service. Work from the dates on your own documents rather than from anything written here.
When we become your lawyers, and when we do not
Reading this site does not create a lawyer and client relationship. Neither does sending the enquiry form, and neither does the reply you receive to it.
The relationship begins when three things have happened: a conflict check has been run and found nothing that prevents the practice acting, it has agreed to act for you, and you have signed the costs agreement sent to you. Until that last step, we are not your lawyers, whatever has been discussed in the meantime.
That costs agreement is settled in writing before work starts. It sets out the work, the basis on which costs are calculated and an estimate. Costs disclosure by a law practice in New South Wales is governed by the Legal Profession Uniform Law, and the Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner publishes fact sheets explaining what a disclosure has to contain and what you can do if you disagree with a bill.
How we work describes the sequence in more detail, including what happens if the conflict check means the practice cannot act. Conflicts come up often in construction, because one project can involve an owner, a head contractor, several subcontractors, a certifier and a developer.
What you send us before we act
Keep a first enquiry short. Tell us which side of the contract you are on, what has happened and what the dates are. That is usually enough for us to say whether we can help and what the next step would be.
Material you send before we act for you may not attract legal professional privilege. We also cannot promise to hold it in confidence if it turns out the practice already acts for someone on the other side of your matter, which is what the conflict check exists to find out. Sending a whole site file with a first enquiry does not speed anything up, and occasionally it creates a problem that did not need to exist.
How information is handled once we do hold it is set out in the privacy policy. If you would rather ask a question before sending anything at all, use the contact page.
Links to other sites
This site links to NSW legislation, tribunal, court and government agency pages, because those bodies are the authority for what they publish. We do not control them, we cannot guarantee a link still works, and we are not responsible for what sits at the other end of it.
If a link has moved, search the same body’s own site rather than relying on a copy of the page somewhere else. Building information reproduced on third-party sites goes out of date quietly, and a superseded requirement reads exactly like a current one.
A link is not an endorsement.
Copyright
Copyright in the text, layout and design of this site is owned by Jameson Law or its licensors, and is protected by the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).
You are welcome to read these pages, print them and share them for your own use, and to quote a short passage with a link back. Please do not republish a page in full, reuse the copy on another site, or present this material as someone else’s work.
Illustrations and icons may be licensed from third parties and remain subject to the licences they came with. The illustration used on this site is generated conceptual artwork; it is not documentary photography of a client, a project, a practice or an office, and no page describes it as one. Material reproduced from a NSW Government source remains subject to the terms set by the body that published it.
Availability, and what we are responsible for
We take care with what is published here and we cite a source for statements of law and procedure. We do not warrant that the site is free of error, that it is complete, or that it will be available without interruption.
To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss arising from reliance on the general information published on this site. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies a right or guarantee under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Jameson Law’s liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. A scheme of that kind caps the occupational liability of participating solicitors for the legal services they provide, on conditions that include holding professional indemnity insurance to a set standard. It is created by statute rather than by these terms, and it is about legal services, not about a website.
Which law applies, and changes to these terms
These terms are governed by the law of New South Wales, and the courts of New South Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute about them.
We may change these terms. The version on this page is the current one, and the date shown at the top is when it last changed. If any part of them cannot be enforced, the rest continues to apply.
If a part of this site is difficult or impossible for you to use, accessibility explains the standard the site is built to and how to report a barrier. We would rather hear about it than have you give up on the page.
How to reach the practice
These are the published contact details of Jameson Law, which provides the legal services offered through this website.
(02) 8806 0866
Suite 301, 67-69 Philip Street, Parramatta NSW 2150
Level 35, Tower One, International Towers, 100 Barangaroo Avenue, Sydney NSW 2000
Blacktown, Liverpool and Bankstown, by appointment
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation
Official sources
- Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
- Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) — the Australian Consumer Law is Schedule 2
- Law Society of NSW — Register of Solicitors
- Law Society of NSW — Professional Standards Scheme
- Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner — fact sheets on costs and hiring a lawyer
- NSW Government — Contracts for residential building work
- NSW Government — Security of payment for construction contractors
- NCAT — Home building
- Home Building Act 1989 (NSW)