Pennisi v Queensland Building and Construction Commission

[2026] QCAT 101

Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

1. Building and Construction
2. › Domestic Building Contracts
3. › Termination — validity of owner's termination
1. Building and Construction
2. › Domestic Building Contracts
3. › Substantial breach — meaning and application in standard-form contracts
1. Building and Construction
2. › Domestic Building Contracts
3. › Stage payments — Frame Stage completion — minor defects or minor omissions
1. Contract
2. › Termination
3. › Interplay between contractual termination regime and common law repudiation rights

Where a building contract defines stage completion as being reached 'apart from minor defects or minor omissions,' defects and incomplete items that are minor, non-structural, or capable of rectification within the contractual defects regime do not prevent a stage payment from falling due, and failure to pay a validly issued stage invoice constitutes a substantial breach by the owner that disentitles the owner from terminating under clause 20.3.
A contractual termination clause (clause 20) does not, without clear language, exclude common law termination rights, but even where common law rights are preserved, the threshold for repudiation in a building contract requires conduct far exceeding the usual collection of construction defects — on the facts, the defects identified did not approach the 'overwhelming evidence of repudiation' found in Mousa v Vukobratich Enterprises Pty Ltd [2019] QSC 49.
An owner cannot rely on a defect discovered years after termination (here, pier encapsulation issues found in 2021) to justify a termination effected in 2018 where the defect was a rectifiable breach of warranty rather than a breach of condition, and the builder was never given an opportunity to inspect or remedy it.