Worker safety stays with the contractor
A clause making you responsible for the safety of workers on site transfers a liability that can exceed the value of the house. The people on site are the contractor's workers, engaged and paid by the contractor.
What to look at
- Who carries workmen's compensation insurance, named
- Site safety assigned to the contractor
- Any clause transferring "all statutory obligations" to you - read it twice
How to check it yourself
Read the safety and statutory-compliance clauses closely, including the catch-all ones. Watch for wording that makes you responsible for "all statutory compliance" or for workmen's insurance - that quietly moves the contractor's own duties onto you. Ask for it to say the contractor carries workmen's compensation cover and remains responsible for site safety.
Where this comes from: Building and Other Construction Workers (RE&CS) Act 1996; Employees Compensation Act 1923 (required by law)
More construction agreement checks before you sign
- Agreement check passed
- Contractor background verified
- Site handover checklist agreed
- Worker-welfare rules applicability checked
- GST treatment understood before signing
- The payment schedule keeps money back until the end
- The agreement does not contradict itself
- GST is stated, and you know who pays it
- You know who you are contracting with
- Price escalation has a limit you can calculate
- Foundation extras cannot be open-ended
- Curing is the contractor's job, in writing
- The arbitrator is not chosen by the contractor alone
- There is a warranty, and it has a length
- Signing for a stage does not sign away everything after it
- There is a way to settle a dispute short of court
- Cancellation terms are not written by one side
- Nobody else builds your house without you knowing
- No blank spaces, no missing dates
- Money goes to the company, not to a person
- You can ask where the money went
- Delay has a consequence for both sides
- The quotation is attached to the agreement
- Force majeure is not a blanket excuse
The whole stage: Construction agreement checks before you sign