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362Q: Building contractor or on-seller must remedy defect notified within 1 year of completion
or “If you find a problem with building work within a year, the builder or seller must fix it for free.”
You could also call this:

“This part explains who is involved when fixing building problems within the first year after a building is finished.”

In section 362Q, you need to know what ‘client’ and ‘on-seller’ mean. A client can be three types of people. First, it’s the person who hired the building contractor to do the work. Second, it’s the person who bought the house from an on-seller. Third, it’s the owner of the building or land where the work was done, even if they didn’t hire the contractor or buy the house. But a client is not a building contractor working with another contractor.

An on-seller means the same thing as it does in section 362H(3).

When section 362Q(1)(d) talks about work done ‘on behalf of’ a building contractor, it includes work done by the contractor’s employees, other contractors, subcontractors, or anyone else the building contractor is responsible for.

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Next up: 362S: Exclusion of liability for event not attributable to fault of building contractor or on-seller

or “Builders are not responsible for problems they didn't cause after finishing the work”
Next

Part 4A Consumer rights and remedies in relation to residential building work
Remedy of defect notified within 1 year of completion

362RDefinitions for purposes of section 362Q

  1. In section 362Q, client—

  2. means any of the following:
    1. the person or persons with whom the building contractor contracted to do the building work in question:
      1. the person or persons who purchased the household unit from the on-seller:
        1. the owner of the building or land in respect of which the building work was carried out, whether or not that person was a party to the building contract or contract of sale; but
        2. does not include a building contractor in that capacity contracting with another building contractor (for example, a contractor and subcontractor).

          1. In section 362Q, on-seller has the same meaning as in section 362H(3).

          2. In section 362Q(1)(d), building work carried out on behalf of a building contractor includes building work carried out on behalf of the building contractor by any of the following persons:

          3. an employee of the building contractor:
            1. another contractor:
              1. a subcontractor:
                1. any other person for whom the building contractor is responsible in law.

                  Notes
                  • Section 362R: inserted, on , by section 56 of the Building Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 100).