Queensland Building and Construction Commission v Watkins

[2014] QCA 172

Queensland Court of Appeal

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For Australian Law.

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Professions and Trades
2. › Builders
3. › Statutory insurance scheme
4. › Recovery of payments under statutory insurance scheme
5. › Debt recovery under s 71
6. › Whether defences available in s 71 recovery proceedings
7. › Whether scope of works challenge could be raised as defence
8. › Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 (Qld), ss 71, 86(2)
1. Administrative Law
2. › Tribunals
3. › Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal
4. › Jurisdiction
5. › Time limits for review applications
6. › Whether QCAT has power to extend mandatory statutory time limit
7. › Whether time limit is substantive or procedural
8. › Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 (Qld), s 86(2)
9. › Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 (Qld), s 61
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Summary judgment
3. › Whether summary judgment should be granted
4. › Whether existence of pending tribunal proceedings justified adjournment
5. › Whether matter should be remitted or determined on appeal
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Costs of appeal
4. › Where appellant pursued appeal rather than less costly alternative
5. › Whether respondent should bear full costs of appeal

Quick Take

The 28-day time limit in s 86(2) of the Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 (Qld) for applications to QCAT to review decisions about scope of works, directions to rectify, and related matters is a mandatory substantive limitation on QCAT's jurisdiction that cannot be extended under s 61 of the QCAT Act. Building contractors who fail to apply within 28 days lose the right to review entirely. In s 71 debt recovery proceedings, the statutory right to recover is not conditioned upon the legal quality of anterior decisions by the authority, and defences challenging the authority's discretionary factual conclusions in the claims process are not available.