Liability in building

Press, 20 February 1980, Page 17

Liability in building

Modern trends in _ the building industry’s liability laws are towards support for the consumer.

Since 1977. people in the building industry have been held liable for negligence not only during the time a house is owned by the person who ordered repairs or who bought the house new, but down the line of owners since the mistake was made, according to Professor J. Burrows, of the law department of the University of Canterbury 7. This was in line with fairly modern trends that most trades and professions had decisions going against them. People doing jobs for the community' had to be careful not to make mistakes that resulted in serious damage. This was a healthy principle, he said. But some members of the Canterbury Master Builders’ and Joiners’ Association are concerned that the trend will cause builders to be overcautious.

Liability law's will lengthen the completion time for a building, not necessarily making it a better construction, and this will cause a rise in

costs, they say. Also, recent court rulings in favour of fairness rather than strict law might cancel out contracts. Under several statutes, including the Contractual Mistakes Act, 1977, a court could cancel or change a contract, but this power was limited and it was not likely to happen very often, Professor Burrows said.

The trend would not take over the whole building industry and there was no chance of the contract system’s disappearing. , What the courts classed as negligence could be a fairly small mistake, and the size of damage payments could be out of proportion, although they would be only the cost of rectifying the damage.