A developer vendor who fails to attach a certificate of insurance to a contract for sale of land as required by s 96A(1) of the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) cannot rely on estoppel to defeat the purchaser's statutory power to avoid the contract under s 96A(3). The power of avoidance subsists until completion and is not lost by the purchaser's conduct short of completion. The question whether a deliberate election to affirm with knowledge of the choice could defeat the power was left open by the majority but answered affirmatively by Handley AJA in dissent.
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