Namour v Queensland Building Services Authority

[2014] QCA 72

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 by authority from building contractor and directors
5. › Whether liability under first limb of s 71(1) requires fault
6. › Whether correctness of licence cancellation justiciable in recovery proceedings
7. › Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 (Qld), ss 71(1), 111C(3), 111C(6)
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Summary judgment
3. › Whether real prospect of successfully defending claim
4. › Whether quantum of debt proved to necessary degree of assurance
5. › Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld), r 292
1. Statutory Interpretation
2. › Construction of statutory debt recovery provision
3. › Whether qualifying clause applies to both limbs of provision
4. › Punctuation as aid to construction
5. › Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 (Qld), s 71(1)

Quick Take

A director of a building company is strictly liable under ss 71(1) and 111C(6) of the Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 for debts arising from QBSA payments under the statutory insurance scheme, without any requirement of fault. The correctness of the QBSA's decision to cancel the company's licence cannot be challenged in debt recovery proceedings; such challenges must be made by way of tribunal review within the statutory timeframe before the QBSA pays the claim. Neither the reasonableness of the QBSA's payment nor the amount owing under the building contract is a criterion of liability under s 71(1).