Building & Construction Law
Building & Construction Lawyer
Building and construction law advice across Australia for owners, builders and architects, from a solicitor who spent decades as a practising architect first
Building and construction law is where a contract meets a building site. The document sets out who carries which risk; the site decides which of those risks actually arrive.
That gap is where most disputes live. A payment structure that reads sensibly can be unworkable once trades overlap. A variation procedure can be perfectly drafted and impossible to comply with in the middle of a job. A delay clause can allocate risk to the party least able to see the delay coming. These problems are visible in the contract before anyone signs it, and far cheaper to fix at that point than to argue about eighteen months later.
Christopher Larcos advises owners, builders, subcontractors, developers and architects on building and construction matters across every Australian state and territory. He is a solicitor and a registered architect with more than forty years in the industry, and a registered adjudicator in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT. The work spans the front end, choosing, drafting and reviewing contracts, through to payment disputes, adjudication and dispute resolution when things go wrong.
What a building and construction lawyer handles
Building contracts, reviewed and drafted
Review of the contract you have been given and drafting of the terms you need, across the ABIC, Master Builders, HIA and Australian Standard forms as well as bespoke agreements. What to accept, what to question and what to negotiate, while there is still time.
Payment and security of payment
Deposits, progress payment structures, certification and retention, and the security of payment legislation that sits behind them. Payment claims and payment schedules prepared and responded to within the statutory timetable.
Variations, delay and extensions of time
The claims that decide whether a project is profitable: valuing and instructing variations, delay and disruption, extension of time entitlements, and liquidated damages, assessed against what the contract actually requires.
Defects, termination and disputes
Defects allegations, statutory warranties, threatened and actual termination, and disputes heading toward adjudication, expert determination or proceedings, with a clear view of the commercial destination.
Residential building work
Home building legislation across the states, including the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW), the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (Vic) and the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (WA): mandatory terms, deposit and progress payment limits, and warranty obligations.
Advice for architects
Client Architect Agreements, appointments and novation, copyright and moral rights, and the contract administrator role under architect-administered building contracts, advised on by someone who has held it.
The cheapest legal advice on a building project is the earliest
Construction contracts are signed before the work begins, and disputes emerge long afterwards. By the time a dispute is live, the decisions that determine its outcome have usually already been made: what the contract said, whether a notice was served in time, what was recorded in writing, how a claim was framed. A lawyer brought in at that point is working with a position that is largely fixed.
The same money spent before signing buys something different. It buys a payment structure that matches how the job will be built and financed, a variation and delay regime the parties can realistically comply with, risk allocation that reflects what was actually agreed commercially, and compliance with the residential building legislation of the relevant state where that applies.
Where a dispute is already running, the priority shifts to the statutory clocks. Security of payment legislation moves in business days and generally does not forgive a missed deadline, however strong the underlying claim. If a payment has been withheld or a payment schedule needs to be served, that is a matter of days, not weeks.
Common questions
What does a building and construction lawyer do?
A building and construction lawyer deals with the legal side of building work: the contract that governs it, the money that moves under it, and the disputes that arise from it. That covers reviewing and drafting building contracts before they are signed, advising on progress payments and security of payment, handling variations, extensions of time and delay claims, and dealing with defects, termination and disputes when the relationship breaks down.
Is there a difference between a building lawyer and a construction lawyer?
In practice the terms are used interchangeably, and the area is generally called building and construction law. Where a distinction is drawn, “building” tends to signal residential and smaller commercial work governed by home building legislation, and “construction” tends to signal larger commercial and infrastructure projects. The underlying skills are the same, though the legislation and the standard-form contracts differ.
When should I engage a building and construction lawyer?
Before signing is the cheapest and most useful point. Most building disputes trace back to terms that were plainly visible in the contract, and fixing a clause before work starts costs a fraction of arguing about it later. The other times to engage quickly are when a payment is withheld, because security of payment deadlines are short and counted in business days, and when a variation, delay claim or defects allegation is first raised.
Why does it matter that the lawyer is also a registered architect?
Because construction disputes usually originate in how a project was built, not only in how the contract was written. A dual-qualified adviser understands the sequence of construction, the contract administrator role, how progress claims are assessed, and how design decisions create contractual risk. That means advice that is workable on a real site, and a contract review that catches payment structures and variation procedures that will not survive contact with the job.
Do you act for owners, builders or both?
Both, though not on opposite sides of the same matter. The practice advises owners and developers, builders and subcontractors, and architects in their own right. Which perspective you are advising from changes the strategy but not the underlying analysis of the contract and the legislation.
What building contracts do you work with?
The ABIC suite, the Master Builders and HIA residential forms, the Australian Standard contracts including AS 4000, AS 2124, AS 4300 and AS 4902, and bespoke and heavily amended contracts prepared by developers and head contractors. Special conditions drafted to amend a standard form are a substantial part of the work.
Which states do you work across?
All Australian states and territories, with contract work spanning New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory. Christopher is a registered adjudicator in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT. Residential building legislation and security of payment legislation differ by jurisdiction, so advice is always framed against the Act applying where the work is carried out.
Keep reading
Building Contract Review
Review of construction contracts before you sign, across all Australian jurisdictions.
ContinueConstruction Lawyer by Location
Construction law advice by state, capital city and region across Australia.
ContinueSecurity of Payment
Payment claims, payment schedules and adjudication under each state's security of payment Act.
ContinueCredentials
- Dual-qualified solicitor and registered architect
- Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects (FRAIA)
- 40+ years in the construction industry
- Adjudicator across five Australian jurisdictions
- Former NSW & Queensland Editor, Building & Construction Law Journal