21 October 2011
In 2002, the NSW Parliament enacted the Civil Liability Amendment (Personal Responsibility) Act. Among other things this bill introduced provisions that were designed to ensure that someone that is jointly responsible with others will be liable only to the extent of their responsibility.
The new legislation will turn the 2002 reforms on their head, so that when there is, in truth, joint responsibility for a problem between a contractor and another party, the contractor may be held 100 per cent liable.
Under the new provisions, the builder will be obliged to shoulder 100 per cent of the liability, even though other parties contracted by the property owner at the time were also at fault. While a builder may commence their own action to recover money from others, this will be the builders problem, not the home owners.
