Dyjecinska v Step-Up [2024] NSWSC 159
Harrison AJ held that an unsigned and undated building contract remained enforceable by the builder12. The Act, accepted as involving consumer protection, required a contract in writing which sufficiently described the work. But extrinsic materials and amendments confirmed the purpose of the provisions13 to be to ensure that contracts were not wholly unenforceable due to minor error.
Failure to sign and date were errors of this kind. In any event, the homeowner conceded that she had entered into the contract. The judge said (at [97]) that general law requirements on the signing of contracts were ‘entirely academic’ in this context.
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Footnotes:
12 cf Hayward [2009] NSWDC 54 [91], Dyna [2021] NSWDC 507 [141, 144].
13 s 10(1)(b) of the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW).