Australia, July 3 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on June 3:

1. The Applicant filed an application for administrative review on 20 March 2025 seeking administrative review of the Respondent's decision of 22 January 2025 to take disciplinary action against the Applicant for improper conduct. As the application was filed 29 days late, the Applicant is seeking that the Tribunal extend the period of time for the application to be filed. The Applicant also seeks a stay of the Respondent's decision.

2. The Tribunal has decided not to extend the period of time for filing the application for administrative review and has therefore dismissed the application.

Background

3. The Applicant is a company that does residential building work. Pardeep Singh and Mandeep Singh are the Directors of the company. Mandeep Singh is also the Secretary of the company. The Applicant holds a contractor licence in the categories of builder and carpenter. Pardeep Singh is a nominated qualified supervisor.

4. The Applicant was engaged to construct a single-story dwelling house with integrated granny flat. The contract was signed on 12 June 2021 and the construction period to carry out the work was 180 days. The works commenced on or around 28 July 2022 and on 17 October 2023, the occupation certificate was issued. It appears that there were various issues between the Applicant and the homeowners, including defective works which required rectification.

5. On 3 September 2024, a Notice to Show Cause was issued by the Respondent to the Applicant inviting the Applicant to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against the Applicant on the grounds specified in the Notice. The grounds for the Notice stated that statutory warranties under the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) (Home Building Act) may have been breached in relation to residential building works carried out by the Respondent as the work:

a) involved a significant number of defective works and was not done with due care and skill and in accordance with the plans and specifications set out in the contract (s 18B(1)(a))

b) was not done with due diligence and within reasonable time (s 18B(1)(d)).

6. On 5 December 2024, the Respondent found that the Applicant was guilty of improper conduct for breaching a statutory warranty under s 51(1)(c) of the Home Building Act. As a result of this finding, the Respondent decided to take the following disciplinary action under the Home Building Act:

1) Reprimand the Applicant (s 62(1)(b)).

2) Require the Applicant to pay a penalty in the sum of $2,500 within the period set out on the penalty notice (s 62(1)(c)).

3) Vary the authority held by the Applicant by imposing the following conditions on the Applicant's contractor licence for a period of three years:

a) The Authority Holder is required to, within three months of this condition, create and implement a documented quality assurance system to ensure that the Authority Holder complies with all relevant legislative obligations in relation to the Authority Holder's operations as they relate to carrying out operations as an Authority Holder. The documented quality assurance system must meet the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 - Quality management systems.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1972db4edea9f0e15c971303)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.