Twelve questions to ask a builder

These are ordered roughly by how much trouble they save you.

About the company

1. What is your licence number and which entity holds it? Check it yourself on the state register. The name on the licence should be the name on your contract.

2. How long has this entity been trading? Not the brand, the company. A long-running brand can sit on a company registered last year.

3. Can I see current insurance certificates? Public liability, and the warranty or indemnity cover your state requires. Sighted, not described.

4. How many jobs are you running right now, and how many does the supervisor carry? The second number predicts your experience more reliably than anything on a brochure.

About the price

5. What soil classification is this quote priced on? And what happens if the report differs.

6. Which items are provisional sums or prime cost, and how were the allowances set? This is where a fixed price stops being fixed.

7. What is excluded? Ask for the list. Driveway, landscaping, fencing and floor coverings are commonly outside the headline.

8. How are variations priced and approved? In writing before the work happens, or you will argue about it later.

About the build

9. Can I see the build programme by stage? And what happens if it is exceeded.

10. Who is my single point of contact, and how often will I hear from them?

11. Can I speak to two clients whose builds finished in the last year? Recent, and finished. Not a curated reference.

12. Can I appoint my own independent inspector at stages? A builder who resists this is telling you something.

The answers that should worry you

Reluctance to put anything in writing. A deposit above what your state permits. Pressure to sign today. Vagueness about provisional sums. And any version of "we do not usually allow independent inspections".

Questions about your specific block

How many houses have you built in this council area, and what did the approval take? What soil classification have you priced this on, and what happens if the report comes back worse? Have you built on a block with this slope, this frontage, this overlay? Can I see one?

These matter more than general experience. A builder who is excellent on flat greenfield land may have never dealt with a heritage control or a bushfire rating, and the learning happens on your job.

Questions about capacity

How many jobs are you running right now, and how many will be running when mine starts? How many does your site supervisor carry at once? Who is my single point of contact and what happens when they are on leave? Are your trades employed or subcontracted, and how long have the main ones been with you?

Questions about money

Which items are provisional sums and what is each allowance based on? How are variations priced, and what margin applies? What is the payment schedule, and does each stage represent work already completed? What is excluded from this quote?

Questions about what happens when something goes wrong

What is your defects process and how long is the liability period? Who do I ring on a Friday afternoon? What was the last job that went badly, and what did you do about it? The last one is the most revealing question on this page — an experienced builder has had a bad job, and how they describe it tells you a great deal.

Ask for referees, then actually ring them

Ask for owners of houses completed roughly a year ago rather than last month. A year gives defects time to appear and the defects process time to have been tested. Ask those owners what surprised them, what the variations totalled, and whether they would use the builder again.

See also how to check a builder's licence and how to check a builder is still trading.