There really are some terrible situations out there - it seems there is a body to protect builders, but nothing for us (except expensive lawyers!) Thanks for all your responses…

True, however our contract is a cost-plus contract, not a fixed price, so the total amount was never set in stone. However, we did get approval from the bank for…

I know, this is the third house we have built so I am fully aware of all the problems that can occur, like defects, builder not finishing the job, etc,…

Are you talking about builders indemnity insurance? We paid this as part of the contract - this I thought just protected us in case the builder didn't finish the job.…

Our builder has, two-thirds into the job, discovered he's left out some money (gst/margin) on his estimate (which we used to get finance from the bank). If he had…