Master Build Guarantees, they are only useful if they’re submitted!
I saw an article on Stuff this morning and there’s a construction company, Jonesy Construction, in Wellington that went into liquidation and left 27 homeowners with their build not completed. The homeowners had thought they’d applied for a Master Build Guarantee which would have given them some protection for the builder going into liquidation and hopefully seen them to get their projects finished. However, the builder didn’t lodge the guarantees and now they’re in a position where they don’t have a guarantee, Master Build isn’t going to honor them. So our process when we do our Master Build Guarantees is that when we get the invoice, we pass the invoice from Master Builder to the client. So it’s really transparent the homeowner can see the guarantees being applied for, and accepted. So a couple of things that we would advise, is if you are getting a Master Build Guarantee, is actually check to see that invoice and the proof of the guarantee getting issued. In addition, one of the issues with these builds in this article, is that they’re taking advance payments. So just make sure that your solicitors checking the payment schedule, and making sure that you’re not paying for things in advance because even with the Master Build Guarantee, that’s something that could leave you a little bit exposed. So you know, we’re big on transparency here, and you know the contracts there to protect the builder and the client. We just want to make sure that that people are in a safe position, so hopefully that bit of advice helps. I would imagine there’s going to be more building companies, with what’s going on, going into liquidation, so just be careful people. Cheers.
Here at Strathclyde, we are proud to be a Master Builder. If you are interested in building and would like the comfort of a Master Build Guarantee then get in touch and we can talk it through.