Residential building contracts: the $30,000 line

There is a line in New Zealand residential building work at $30,000 including GST. Below it, the paperwork rules are light. At or above it, three separate obligations attach — one before the contract, one in the contract, and one after the work — and each has its own infringement offence attached.

The line is not in the Act. Section 362D applies where "the price for the building work is not less than the prescribed minimum price (if any)", and regulation 4(1) of the Building (Residential Consumer Rights and Remedies) Regulations 2014 supplies it:

"For the purposes of sections 362D and 362F of the Act, the prescribed minimum price is $30,000 inclusive of goods and services tax."

Regulation 4(2) adds how to work out an estimate: "the estimated price must be calculated in accordance with section 10(2) of the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985."

That cross-reference has a consequence worth noticing before you price a domestic job: because the prescribed minimum price is GST-inclusive and is worked out under the GST Act, whether you are registered for GST at all can decide which side of the line the same work falls on — see Registering for GST in New Zealand: the $60,000 you may already have crossed.

Before the contract: disclosure and a checklist

Section 362D(2):

"A building contractor must not enter into a residential building contract to which this section applies unless the building contractor has first provided to the client (or each client if there is more than 1) — (a) the prescribed disclosure information (if any); and (b) a prescribed checklist (if any)."

Regulation 5(2) sets out when:

"The prescribed disclosure information and prescribed checklist must be disclosed by a building contractor to a client before the contractor and the client enter into a residential building contract if — (a) the price for the building work is not less than the prescribed minimum price; or (b) the client requests either the disclosure information or the checklist."

Paragraph (b) has no price. A client on a $9,000 job who asks for the disclosure information is entitled to it.

The forms cannot be adapted

Regulation 5(1) locates them — "the information in the form set out in Schedule 1" and "the checklist in the form set out in Schedule 2" — and regulation 5(3) locks them:

"Despite section 26 of the Interpretation Act 1999, the forms of the prescribed disclosure information and prescribed checklist may not contain any differences from the forms that are prescribed in Schedules 1 and 2."

Rewriting them onto your letterhead, tidying the wording, or merging them into your quote document is non-compliance. Fill them in; do not redesign them.

What Schedule 1 asks for

The disclosure form covers information about the contractor — full legal name, whether the business is an individual, partnership or limited liability company, the date the partnership or company was formed, postal address, telephone, email — and information about the key contact person, described in the form as "a person who will manage or supervise the building work and who is available to the client to discuss any aspect of the building project", with their name, telephone and mobile numbers, "role in the building project (for example, 'project manager', 'site foreman')", relevant qualifications, skills and experience, and "Licensed building practitioner number (if any)". Where the job includes restricted building work, that is the same licence class covered in Licensed Building Practitioner: what restricted work covers.

The remainder of the form covers the contractor's insurance, guarantees and other business information. It is a disclosure document about you, and that is why it is the one contractors resent and clients read.

The penalties

Section 362D(4): contravening the requirement to provide either document "commits an infringement offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding $2,000."

Section 362D(5) and (6) are more serious. A person must not, in the disclosure information, "knowingly make a statement that is false or misleading in a material particular or knowingly make a material omission", and a person who fails to comply "commits an offence" and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $50,000 for an individual and $150,000 for a body corporate.

The disclosure form asks about your insurance and your history. Getting those answers wrong on purpose is in a different category from getting the process wrong.

In the contract: writing, a date, and sixteen matters

Section 362F(2): a residential building contract at or above the prescribed minimum price "must — (a) be in writing; and (b) be dated; and (c) comply with regulations (if any) made under section 362G."

Section 362F(3) prohibits entering into one that does not comply, and s 362F(4) makes entering into an unwritten contract an infringement offence with a fine of up to $2,000.

Regulation 6(2) then lists what the contract must contain. In full, it is:

• (a) the names of the parties;
• (b) each party's physical address, postal address, address for service, contact telephone number or numbers, and email address;
• (c) the address (or location description) of the site;
• (d) the date or dates when the contract was signed by both parties;
• (e) a description of the building work, including the materials and products to be used (if known), the person or persons who will be carrying out the work, the person or persons who will be supervising it (if applicable), and which party is responsible for obtaining the building consents and any other approvals;
• (f) the expected start date;
• (g) the expected completion date;
• (h) the contract price or the method by which it will be calculated — the regulation's own example is "fixed hourly rate with materials invoiced separately";
• (i) the number of payments and, if more than one, the interval between them, the amount of each, the date each is due, and mechanisms for determining those matters;
• (j) terms prescribing how payments will be invoiced, made and receipted;
• (k) terms prescribing how notices are to be given;
• (l) mechanisms for negotiating and agreeing on variations;
• (m) terms prescribing how possible delays will be dealt with, "for example, delays as a result of force majeure events";
• (n) terms prescribing how any defects will be remedied, "including a reference to the existence and application of the implied warranties in sections 362I to 362K of the Act";
• (o) dispute resolution procedures;
• (p) "an acknowledgement that the building contractor has supplied, and the client has received, the disclosure information and checklist prescribed in regulation 5."

Item (p) is the one that ties the two obligations together: the contract itself records that the pre-contract step happened.

What happens if the contract is oral or incomplete

Regulation 7: where the price is at or above the threshold "if there is no written contract as required under section 362F of the Act", the contract "is deemed to include the terms prescribed in Schedule 3."

Regulation 8 does it item by item for a written but incomplete contract. Schedule 3 clauses are read in where the contract does not specify:

"(a) … which party will be responsible for obtaining the building consents or other approvals …: (b) … mechanisms for negotiating and agreeing on variations …: (c) … [terms relating to payments under regulation 6(2)(i)]: (d) … which person or persons will carry out or supervise the building work: (e) … dispute resolution procedures: (f) … how notices are to be given under the contract."

This is the practical answer to the question "what actually happens if we just shook hands". Not nothing: a set of standard terms you did not write becomes your contract on the six most contested subjects in residential building.

After the work: the handover pack

Section 362T(2):

"As soon as practicable after completion of the building work, the building contractor must provide in writing the information and documentation prescribed by regulations made under this Act to the following persons: (a) the client; and (b) the relevant territorial authority (if any)."

Section 362T(4): contravening it "commits an infringement offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding $2,000."

Regulation 9 sets out what goes in it:

"(a) a copy of every policy of insurance — (i) that the building contractor holds in relation to the building work; and (ii) that is current (ie, subsisting) on completion; and (b) a copy of any guarantees or warranties that apply to materials or services that comprise the building work, including information about — (i) whether the guarantees or warranties are transferable: (ii) how to make claims under the guarantees or warranties: (iii) whether the guarantees or warranties need to be signed and returned to the issuers in order to be valid; and (c) information about the processes and materials that must be used to maintain elements of the building work if — (i) maintenance is required to meet the durability requirements of the building code; or (ii) the validity of any applicable guarantee or warranty could be affected by how and whether maintenance is carried out."

Paragraph (b)(iii) is the item most often missed, and it costs the client rather than the contractor: a product warranty that needed a registration card returned and never was.

Note also that this pack goes to the territorial authority as well as to the client. It is not just a nice folder at handover.

A workable routine

1. Set your threshold check at the quote stage, on the GST-inclusive figure. If the quote is near $30,000, treat it as over.
2. Send the two prescribed forms with the quote, unaltered. They are the same forms every time; only the answers change.
3. Use a contract template built against regulation 6(2), item by item, and keep item (p) in it.
4. Collect product warranties and maintenance information as materials arrive, not at the end. That is the only way regulation 9 is a five-minute job rather than a two-day one.
5. Keep the insurance certificates current and on file — regulation 9(a)(ii) asks for policies current on completion, which may not be the ones you had at the start.

Everything in step 4 and 5 is also what the implied warranties in ss 362I to 362K will be tested against years later, and what a s 362Q defect notice will land on. Collected once, it serves three purposes.

---

Checked on 29 August 2026 against the Building Act 2004 and the Building (Residential Consumer Rights and Remedies) Regulations 2014 (LI 2014/361) on the New Zealand Legislation website. This describes the legislation and is not legal advice. Schedules 1 to 3 are long; use the forms and terms as published rather than any summary of them.

What Zirko does: it keeps quotes, invoices, documents and photos on the project, so the material a handover pack is built from is collected during the job rather than after it. What Zirko does not do: it does not produce the prescribed disclosure form or checklist, does not draft a residential building contract, and does not send anything to a territorial authority.