Alarm Bells for Builders: A Duty of Care Owed in Respect of Commercial Buildings in NSW and Potentially Australia

Alarm Bells for Builders: A Duty of Care Owed in Respect of Commercial Buildings in NSW and Potentially Australia (NSW readership)

A builder will owe a duty to exercise reasonable care in the construction of a building to avoid causing an owner to suffer loss resulting from latent defects which are structural, constitute a danger to persons or property, or make the building uninhabitable, unless certain factors exist which militate against the existence of a duty. This article explains a recent development in tort law with respect to builder’s liability for economic loss caused by latent defects, which rings alarm bells for Builders of commercial buildings in NSW and potentially throughout all of Australia.