Frequently Asked Questions
Our monthly Q & A’s provide contractors with answers to questions on a range of legal issues.

June 2010

• I decided to close down the airconditioning side of my contracting business. I was told that so far as the BSA licence goes, all I have to do is tell BSA and then they will cancel the licence next time it is due for renewal. Is that all I have to do?
• Please see the attached request for a quote and my response by email where I clearly said, “Below is how I have priced the job” and then set out various prices based on costs plus. I got the job and there have been a number of extras. The builder now maintains it was a fixed price quote and all he is going to pay is my initial figure. How do I get around this?

May 2010

• I am a plumbing contractor but I also did a small, four unit development, up at Woodgate with a mate of mine two years ago. We have not been able to sell any of the units and according to our accountant, we have to put the company, which we set up to do the deal, into liquidation. A friend of mine told me that if I do this I will lose my plumbing licence even though that company has nothing to do with my plumbing business. That cannot be right, can it?
• My wife and I operate a superannuation fund and plan to use it to buy a property from which to operate our contracting business. The change in rules last year which limited the amount we can put into our superfund, means we do not have enough money in our superfund to buy an appropriate property. I have heard that superannuation funds can now borrow money but I thought that was against the law?
• I am 67 and have recently been diagnosed with cancer. Because of the treatment I can get, I am not about to die in the next few years but, I do not want to keep having the hassle of running my business. Everyone keeps telling me that a contracting business is not worth anything in terms of goodwill but I have a good, established and longstanding brand. How do I maximise the sale price?

April 2010

• I have been operating my business for two years and have spent a large amount of money promoting my business name as a brand. I have now received a letter from a company in another state demanding that I cease using my business name because they claim to own a registered trade mark for the same name. My business name is registered with the Queensland Office of Fair Trading. Can I be stopped from using the name in Queensland?
• Wish you invented the electrical power-board?

March 2010

• We have been operating under our business name for 12 years and have spent a lot investing in development of the brand. As a result, our name and logo was well known in the industry and easily recognised. Now some bloke in Victoria claims he has the legal right to stop us using the name and is demanding that we immediately cease using our own business name, pay him $20,000 “damages”, enter into a licensing agreement with him and pay him $5,000 per year to allow us to continue using the name! This has got to be rubbish as we have a registered business name and a company incorporated using that name. What should we do?
• Dad died recently and we are now selling his business. The accountant doing the valuation of the business refuses to give a value for goodwill which is ridiculous because the real value of the business is in the special drying process dad invented which is fundamentally what the business sells. The accountant says we do not have any legal intellectual property rights protection for the invention and process so anyone could copy it and therefore, its not worth anything. Is there anything we can do?

February 2010

• My brother died last year. Although he had been separated for ten years, he never actually got divorced. Nor did he change his Will. It says everything goes to his wife. Will it?
• I sent a Payment Claim on a job where the builder was late paying. I delivered it to the foreman on the site. Now they are saying that the Payment Claim is invalid because giving it to the foreman didn’t count. Is that right?

November 2009

• Is a verbal instruction to carry out a valid variation?
• Since I tendered for the job, the price of copper has gone up substantially.  It was a fixed price Contract but another contractor reckons I can pass on this cost.  Is he right?

October 2009

• The developer on a Gold Coast job has been placed into administration.  Is this the same thing as going bankrupt?

September 2009

• I recently bought a contracting business. The seller still owns the building we operate from. We took over just two months ago and now as the landlord, the fellow we bought the business from is telling me I have to move. He promised me that he would give me a lease. How do I make him do it?
• I have a Contract with a builder and it sets out a works program. His program with the principal sets out a different time table and now he reckons I have to follow that. I just do not have the men to get the work done that quickly. Is there an answer to my dilemma?

August 2009

• I’m selling my rental property and told the tenants that they have two weeks to get out. I have now been sent a nasty letter from them saying that I have to give them two months notice and they won’t be leaving until then. That can’t be right can it?
• The builder is trying to enforce liquidated damages on me but I had never signed the Contract. How can he enforce liquidated damages if I haven’t signed the contract?

July 2009

• I have been living with my partner for three years and we are about to buy an investment property together.  Is there any way I can protect myself if things don’t work out?
• I got one of my office girls to collect the mail, driving her own car. She had an accident and smashed up the front of a shop. Now the shop owner is trying to sue me. Surely they can’t do that?

June 2009

• I heard under the new industrial relations laws even as a small business, we are going to have to pay the same redundancy pay that larger employers have to.  Is that right?
• Are Prenuptial Agreements enforceable?

May 2009

• One of my guys left recently and now I find out he has taken away quite a few of my good customers who give us regular work. What can I do?
• I heard that the new rules coming in for industrial relations mean that if you make an employee redundant, they can sue you for unfair dismissal. Surely that can’t be right?

April 2009

• I have a very good subcontractor who “dots all of his i’s and crosses his t’s”. I recently cancelled a job on him and he sent me a bill for a cancellation fee. Can he do that?
• The developer on a Gold Coast job has been placed into administration. Is this the same thing as going bankrupt?

March 2009

• I was badly behind in my payments with my supplier and they have just come and taken away the stuff I have bought from them despite my protests. They reckon their entitled to do that. Isn’t that stealing?
• One of our major clients, a builder, has just gone broke owing me about $175,000.00. The liquidator tells me there is no prospect of getting much out of the builder. I cannot meet my wages bill let alone the redundancy payments I have to make and the mortgage on my house is fully drawn. What should I do?

February 2009

• Builders seem always to pay late. Can I claim interest for late payment?
• I heard another contractor was going into receivership. What is the difference between that and being wound-up?

January 2009

• We cannot pay our debts and are going to have to go into voluntary administration. My accountant said that I should consider a “CVL” as an alternative. What does he mean?
• I received a letter from our Bank saying they want to appoint a consultant to conduct a “strategic review” of our operations. What should I do?

December 2008

• The builder was not paying me so I stopped work. The builder’s lawyers have written to me telling me I have “repudiated” the contract and that the builder is going to sue me for any loss he suffers. What does he mean?
• I owe one of our suppliers a substantial sum and they are threatening to wind me up. The reason I haven’t paid is because I have a big job where I am owed $89,000.00. What can I do to stop them winding me up?

November 2008

• I am in dispute with a developer and we are going through a dispute resolution process. It’s adjourned but the mediator said that next time we’d both better be “bona fide”. I don’t know what he meant so I’m lost as to what I should do. What does he mean?
• I know what liquidated damages are but what are unliquidated damages?

October 2009

• I am doing a job for a builder which is a lump sum job. He is insisting that I do this extra work which I do not think is included. He says it is necessary for the job to be finished and he is probably right but it was never mentioned in the quote. Can I rightly refuse to do it?
• I put in a claim for a variation and the superintendent has responded saying that I am “estopped” from pursuing the claim. What on earth does he mean?

September 2008

• Does my contract need to be in writing?
• I hate telemarketing calls and so we put our home number on the “Do Not Call Register”. Despite that, I am still getting called. What can I do about this?

August 2008

• My husband and I are doing new Wills. We have chosen the people we want to run our estate when we die. Do we need to ask them permission before we put them in the Will as executors and do we need to tell them what we are putting in the Will?

July 2008

• With our help our daughter bought her first home. Her boyfriend has now moved in and is helping with the payments. We are worried the relationship is not going to last. Is there anything we can do to protect our daughter (and our investment!)?
• I recently fitted a replacement hot water cylinder for a customer in a rental property he owns. The customer signed my quotation which includes a clause saying that he does not own the materials until he pays for them. There were no problems with the job. The tenant was happy but the guy just will not pay! As title in the goods is mine, I would like to rip the cylinder out but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me I can’t do that. What’s the go?

June 2008

• A customer and I recently exchanged a series of emails about a new job including a suggested price. Now the customer is saying I am bound to do the job for that price even though we never signed a contract. Can he force me to go ahead at that price? It’s actually too low!
• How come when my mate had his and his wife’s Wills done it cost them something like $500.00 when the lawyer I asked, said he expected it would cost about $3,000 plus?

April 2008

• I heard one of the partners at McKays Solicitors saying that Do it yourself Will Kits are not worth the paper they are written on. Why?
• My thirty year old son is about to get married and my wife and I are worried that it is not going to last. He really should have a prenuptial agreement but where do we even start raising this with him?

March 2008

• I’ve got a number of jobs, which have been affected by the recent floods.  All those jobs are held up.  What should I do to protect myself?
• I’m 55 and think its time to sell my business, while the going is good. I have a potential purchaser, where do I start?

December 2007

• Some years ago I bought a house with a downstairs office so we could run our business from home. I wanted to claim some of the expenses relating to using the property as an office (including interest on the loan) so I bought the property in the name of our family trust. We are now looking at selling the house. My brother tells me I am going to be up for massive capital gains tax because the property is worth so much more now. Is that right?
• A friend of mine has a small business which they operate through a company. It looks like they are going to have to close the doors. Both of them are directors of the company. The house is in the wife’s name but the accountant still reckons they are going to lose their home. The wife doesn’t even work in the business – so how can this happen?

Liability limited by a scheme approved under professional standards legislation

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