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HELLO AND WELCOME TO BUILDSAFE
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My name is John Green and I have had nearly forty years experience in all aspects of the building and construction industry. Half of these have been as a subcontractor, main contractor, design build contractor, architectural designer, building consultant and President of the Master Builders Association. I have twenty years experience designing and providing specialist dispute resolution services for the building and construction industry as an arbitrator, a mediator, an adjudicator, President of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand, founder and Director of Building Disputes Tribunal Ltd (the leading independent, nationwide provider of specialist dispute resolution services for the building and construction industry in New Zealand) and as the longest serving Weathertight Homes Adjudicator.
With all of this experience, along with having built eight family homes myself, I have seen and heard the very best and the very worst of what can happen in the building and construction industry.
I had always known that Contractors struggle to get the final payment for work that they do and that homeowners lose money from time to time when the value of work that they have paid for just simply is not there. But it was during the filming of the TVNZ series ‘Trade Wars’ last year when I was ‘the Mediator’ that I came to appreciate the enormity of the problem for homeowners in New Zealand.
During the filming of ‘Trade Wars’ I had the enormous pleasure of meeting a large number of wonderful New Zealand homeowners. Sadly they had often lost considerable sums of money as a result of paying deposits to contractors in advance of work being undertaken and the contractors had simply vanished, or the contractors had started the work (usually excavation or demolition work and often without a building consent), made a mess, and then disappeared never to be seen again taking the owner’s money with them.
When I asked these homeowners why they had handed over all this money to a complete stranger, almost everyone answered that the contractor had demanded payment of the money as a deposit and they thought that by paying the deposit they would get priority service.
How wrong they were. Sadly that seldom happened and many people who simply could not afford it, lost large sums of hard earned money to scurrilous contractors. As a result, those homeowners could then not afford to pay someone else to do the work and their dreams and their faith in the building industry were shattered.
I readily concluded that the heart wrenching results were entirely avoidable, but that good, honest (but often inexperienced) New Zealand homeowners and contractors really needed help, guidance and the tools to enable them to contract smarter, fairer and more safely, and the support to make that happen.
The concept of a fair, independent security of payment scheme for the New Zealand building and construction industry was born – BUILDSAFE® seemed a most appropriate name for the scheme.
So, based on my extensive personal experience and the firm belief that most building disputes and most financial losses are avoidable with reasonable care and planning and proper documentation, I have developed the BUILDSAFE® Security of Payment Scheme in consultation with representatives of leading industry groups, professional organisations, lawyers, bankers and insurers. The BUILDSAFE® Security of Payment Scheme has been developed and designed to empower homeowners and contractors alike to contract sensibly, safely and effectively by providing them with the tools, guidance and support to make informed and considered decisions. I am absolutely certain that the introduction of the BUILDSAFE® Security of Payment Scheme will vastly improve and revolutionise the way in which residential building contracts are undertaken in New Zealand.
Everything that I have learnt and experienced over nearly 40 years in the building and construction industry tells me that by improving the way parties contract with each other by using fair and proper documentation and by minimising the risk of loss for all parties by default, accident and non payment, the building and construction industry in New Zealand is more than capable of delivering a world class product of which it can be justly proud. The result is that New Zealand home owners will enjoy the thrill and excitement of creating new, better, and more enjoyable places to live, work and play for them and their families.
We understand the pitfalls and the problems and we have the solutions to allow you build smartly and safely.
So please be smart, and let us help you BUILDSAFE®
John Green
Director
Buildsafe Security of Payment Trustee Company Limited
