Four key construction law cases from 2025

Brienna Anderson, a Barrister at 8 Garfield Barwick, has highlighted four 2025 decisions that cut across payment claims, insurance and defect disputes. Together, they show courts taking a practical view of how statutory rights, contractual rights and mitigation principles fit together.

The first case, All Civil Solutions Group Pty Ltd v Woonona-Bulli RSL Memorial Club Ltd, arose after a subcontractor used the Contractors Debts Act to pursue a principal for unpaid work. Anderson said the Court of Appeal drew a clear line between that regime and the Security of Payment Act, holding that the principal could still rely on contractual defences available against the head contractor. She also pointed to CN1 Pty Ltd v NSW Self Insurance Corporation, where insurance on two non-contiguous lots in a North Kellyville subdivision was denied after the builder became insolvent because the owner was said to be a “developer”. The court’s focus was timing, namely whether that status should be assessed when the residential building work was carried out.

The other cases dealt with loss and remedy. In 85 Princess Pty Ltd v Fleming, a purchaser sought more than $5.3 million to remove and replace a cracked warehouse slab after buying the site for $5.05 million, but the court awarded only $100 in nominal damages after finding that monitoring and repair was the reasonable response. In Ceerose Pty Ltd v The Owners, Strata Plan No 89074, the Court of Appeal confirmed that owners are not automatically required to give builders a chance to return and fix defects, and that a builder alleging failure to mitigate bears the onus of proving the owner’s conduct was unreasonable. Read together, the cases show that construction disputes turn on the legislation, the contract and the evidence, rather than broad assumptions about how the dispute should be resolved.

If this topic interests you, you can learn more and receive a CPD point in Substantive Law here