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NSW contract guide

Write the extra down before you do it

The owner wants a niche, tonight. On a homeowner contract this writing rule covers, do not cut it until the change, the price and the extra time are signed.

Scope. Schedule 2, clause 1 of the Home Building Act applies to a contract section 7AA applies to: the homeowner contracts over $5,000, including GST, from 1 March 2015. Not a developer contract. Not a subcontract where you and the builder both hold contractor licences for the work. Not specialist work that is not residential building work. NSW only. Not legal advice.

What to hand them

The NSW Government contracts page says the variation is in writing, attached to the contract, and signed by the owner and by you or your nominated supervisor. Show how the price was worked out, and the new total, not a single unexplained figure. Say if the finish date moves.

Two limits on that page. If the extra is only to fix your own mistake, the owner does not have to pay it. If waiting would likely put someone in danger or damage property, the writing can come after the work (section 6(2) is the same idea). That is not a week of verbal extras on a normal reno.

A commercial job, or a subcontract, is outside this clause. Write the change down anyway. You will need it when someone says the extra was included.

Before the tool comes out

  1. Say what is changing, in words you could read back in six months.
  2. Name any new spec. Do not leave it as “the one they pointed at”.
  3. Show labour, materials and the new total.
  4. Say how many days it adds.
  5. Both sides sign before you start, unless it is the danger or damage case.
  6. If the new total would cross $5,000 or $20,000 on a homeowner job, the contract type can change. Price the whole job again.

Illustration only. Not a contract and not a customer job.

A niche on a $14,200 bathroom

The signed contract already says: waterproof and tile one shower, fit the specified tapware, $14,200 including GST, last payment when the owner can use the room. No niche.

  • Change: one shower niche, and the tapware model they named after signing.
  • Niche $480. Tapware difference $190. Extra $670 including GST. New total $14,870.
  • One extra day. The $670 goes on the final claim, not as a new deposit.
  • Both sign before you cut.

$14,870 is still not over $20,000. If the extra crossed $20,000, cooling-off and home building compensation would need another look. “Yeah, go on” in a text is not this note.

After the contract is already issued

Full Whack can record the description, the price effect, any extra days, and whether both parties have signed. Only a variation marked signed by both parties changes the running price. An unsigned one stays on the list. A reduction cannot take the price below $0. On a homeowner contract, a variation that crosses from $5,000 or under to over $5,000, or from $20,000 or under to over $20,000, is refused. That is a product stop, not a finding that the Act forbids the change. The record does not itself get you paid. If they will not pay, chase it in order.

Questions tradies ask

They want it, but they will not sign. Do I start?
Not on a homeowner job this rule covers, unless waiting would likely risk a person or property. An unsigned extra is how “that was included” starts.
Does this bind a variation for a builder who hired me?
Not this Schedule 2 clause, where you both hold contractor licences for the work. Agree the change in writing because that is the evidence, not because this homeowner clause applies.

Related guides

Sources

Read on 8 November 2026. General information about NSW rules, not legal advice. A later amendment can change a section.

Write it for this job

NSW publishes free sample home building contracts for work with the homeowner. Fill one in yourself if that is the job. Full Whack asks who is hiring you and writes the matching file. The first one is free. It is not a check that the job complies.

Start a contract

Opens the contract start page. No card on that page.