Botros v Freedom Homes P/L

[1999] QCA 150

Queensland Court of Appeal

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Contract
2. › Repudiation
3. › Conduct amounting to repudiation
4. › Unilateral imposition of conditions not warranted by contract
5. › Whether insistence on extra-contractual conditions constituted repudiation
1. Contract
2. › Termination
3. › Justification for termination
4. › Whether termination may be justified on grounds not relied upon at time of termination
1. Contract
2. › Termination
3. › Contractual termination clause
4. › Preservation of general law rights
5. › Whether contractual termination procedure exclusive of general law right to terminate for repudiation
1. Building and Construction
2. › Building contracts
3. › Statutory requirements
4. › Failure to comply with s 58(1)(a)
5. › Whether contract invalidated by failure of consumer to sign
6. › Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 (Qld), ss 58(1)(a), 58(4)

Quick Take

A building owner who unilaterally insists on conditions not warranted by the contract as prerequisites to making progress payments engages in repudiatory conduct entitling the builder to terminate. Section 58(1)(a) of the Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 does not invalidate a building contract merely because one of two consumers failed to sign it; the penalty in s 58(4) is the sole consequence. A party who has been held out as a contracting party throughout proceedings cannot raise the issue of their non-party status for the first time on appeal.