The Court held that a property owner who banned the builder's nominated supervisor from the construction site committed a repudiatory breach of the building contract, and could not then rely on the builder's consequent suspension of works to terminate the contract for delay. The prevention principle precluded the owner from insisting on the builder's performance when the owner's own actions prevented that performance, and the contractual notice requirement in clause 24 did not require the builder to notify the owner of reasons for suspension that the owner already knew and had caused. On defects, the Court preferred the more modest rectification approach (rendering at $1,611.96) over demolition and rebuilding ($75,975), applying the Bellgrove v Eldridge reasonableness standard, noting the owner had itself elected to leave the defects unremedied after engaging replacement builders.
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