Practical completion is the point when the home building work is finished apart from omissions or defects that do not stop the house being reasonably used for its purpose. In Western Australia, the builder must make good any defect in the work or materials that you notify within four months after practical completion, or within a longer period if the contract allows one.
General information, not legal advice. Building and Energy runs the building complaints process as an alternative to going to court, and stays impartial between owner and builder; its number is 1300 489 099. For advice on your own dispute, a lawyer is the person to ask.
What practical completion means
Building and Energy’s fact sheet gives an example: the house can be lived in comfortably with every utility connected, but not every last detail is necessarily done. Handover usually follows within the time the contract sets. During the defects liability period after it, the builder is to fix the defects and omissions found at practical completion and any that come to light and are notified within the period.
Building and Energy also points to the right to inspect during the build: the Act lets an owner, or someone acting for them, check during the builder’s ordinary hours that work has been done properly and has reached the stage being claimed.
The date matters well beyond the defects list. The home indemnity policy runs for six years from it, and RevenueWA’s 12 months to apply for the first home owner grant on a built home run from the day the home is ready to live in, usually the day the keys are handed over.
The clocks that start at handover
| How long | Counted from | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| 4 months, or longer if the contract says | Practical completion | Notifying the builder of defects it must make good. |
| 3 years, generally | The contract date, or when the cause of the dispute arose | A complaint about the contract itself: variations, a breach of contract, payments on termination. |
| 6 years, generally | Completion of the building service | A complaint that the work was not done in a proper and proficient manner, or is faulty or unsatisfactory. |
| 6 years | Practical completion | A claim on the home indemnity policy, which pays only if the builder has died, disappeared or become insolvent, or lost registration on financial grounds. |
For work done under a building permit, the building service counts as completed when the notice of completion is given, or when the person responsible for the work stops being responsible under the permit and gives notice of cessation; without a permit, it is the date practical completion is reached. One exception runs longer: complaints about failed Typlex plumbing pipes can be lodged up to 15 years after practical completion.
What the official guidance says about handover
- The defects clause. A contract can give longer than four months, and owner and builder may also agree in it that particular defects are excluded.
- The timing. The four months is the window in which the builder must be notified of a defect for the duty to make it good to apply.
- The evidence. In a building dispute the onus is on each party to back its position, and depending on the issue that may mean photographs or a report from a building expert.
- An inspector’s report. Building and Energy publishes guidelines for private building inspectors writing reports likely to be used in a complaint, so that reports come in a consistent format.
If a defect is not fixed: the complaint route
Building and Energy suggests starting with its checklist on whether a complaint can be lodged, then reading its guidance section by section. The route runs like this.
Notice first
The notice of proposed complaint goes to the builder at least 14 days before the formal complaint; email is enough, with a copy kept as proof. For a contract complaint, the notice describes the remedy sought and the evidence relied on, and a copy goes to the Building Commissioner with the complaint.
Lodging, and the fee
The standard fee is $122 and the concession fee $61, current from 1 July 2025 and exclusive of GST. Building and Energy prefers the online form, which takes payment and counts the complaint as lodged on submission.
Conciliation
A conciliator may help the parties identify the issues and reach an agreement, and the Building Commissioner can make an order to give effect to it. If there is no agreement, the complaint goes back to the Commissioner.
An order
The Commissioner may make a building remedy order where it finds the work was not done properly and proficiently, or is faulty or unsatisfactory; it can require the work to be fixed, the cost of someone else fixing it to be paid, or reasonable compensation. The Commissioner cannot make orders worth more than $100,000 without both parties’ consent, and complex disputes are referred to the State Administrative Tribunal.
Enforcing an unpaid order
A money order can be enforced in the Magistrates Court up to $75,000, or in the District Court above that and up to $750,000.
The complaint process is within the scope of the WA Government’s current review of home building contract laws, so these steps may change.
For what the insurance covers if the builder is gone, see home indemnity insurance; for the protections that apply before handover, see home building contracts in WA.