Domestic Bliss or Paradise Lost? Consumer Rights in Construction in England and Australia

Philip Britton and Julian Bailey

May 2011

A paper derived from a talk to a meeting of the Society of Construction Law in London on 2nd November 2010

The rights of individual residential consumers of construction services are not the stuff of most construction specialists' practices; but they nevertheless raise difficult legal and practical issues and reflect an imbalance of bargaining and economic power which deserves attention. In Domestic Bliss or Paradise Lost? Consumer Rights in Construction in England and Australia (SCL Paper 167), Philip Britton and Julian Bailey argue that consumers are inadequately protected in English law by the common law and by the limited other rights which they already enjoy. Instead, the authors argue that a more interventionist body of regulation is needed, along lines already in existence in the States and Territories of Australia.

A. Introduction - B. Consumer rights in England & Wales - 1. Introduction - 2. Home buyers and contract formation - 3. Substantive rights of home buyers: contract, tort and statute - 4. Contrasts with commercial or infrastructure construction projects - C. Consumer rights in Australia - I. Introduction - 2. The Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) - 3. Summary - 4. Strata title structures - D. Conclusions - 1. Contrasts between England and Australia - 2. Reform by statutory intervention in England? - Appendix (Construction Defects in Multi-unit Residential Developments: Rights of Action in English Law).

Philip Britton LLB BCL is a former Director, now Visiting Professor, Centre of Construction Law & Dispute Resolution, Kings' College London and Julian Bailey BCom LLB(Hons) is a solicitor at CMS Cameron McKenna LLP in London.

Text 30 pages including Appendix.