Kore v Intelligent Building Pty Ltd

[2025] NSWDC 297

District Court

New South Wales

• Amendment notes

Medium Neutral Citation:

Kore v Intelligent Building Pty Ltd [2025] NSWDC 297

Hearing dates:

10 March 2025 – 12 March 2025, 21 May 2025

Date of orders:

08 August 2025

Decision date:

08 August 2025

Jurisdiction:

Civil

Before:

Weber SC DCJ

Decision:

See [90] below

Catchwords:

BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION – Breach of residential building contract – Delay – Where building was to be completed within a specified time period – Defective works – Where both parties claim to have validly terminated building contract – Whether monies awarded under an Adjudicator’s Determination and registered as a judgment debt can be recovered pursuant to s 32 of the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW) – Consequential loss incurred from renting alternative accommodation – Correct measure of damages for breach of building contract – Whether sole director of building company is necessarily liable under the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW)

Legislation Cited:

Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW) s 32

Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) s 100

Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW) ss 36, 37

Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) ss 92, 94, 96

Cases Cited:

Barber v Oracle (NSW) Pty Ltd [2019] NSWSC 1370

Ceerose Pty Ltd v Building Products Australia Pty Ltd [2015] NSWSC 1886

Mangano v Amescorp Pty Ltd [2024] NSWDC 195

Sargent v ASL Developments Ltd (1974) 131 CLR 634

The Owners – Strata Plan No 84674 v Pafburn Pty Ltd [2022] NSWSC 659

United Australia Ltd v Barclays Bank Ltd [1941] AC 1

Category:

Principal judgment

Parties:

Nishant Kore (First Plaintiff)
Divya Kore (Second Plaintiff)
Intelligent Building Pty Ltd (First Defendant)
Andrew Hanna (Second Defendant)
John Hanna (Third Defendant)
Eman Shonoda (Fourth Defendant)

Representation:

Solicitors:
Adelstein Solicitors (Plaintiffs)

In Person:
J Hanna (First and Third Defendants)
A Hanna (Second Defendant)
E Shonoda (Fourth Defendant)

File Number(s):

2023/00321282

Publication restriction:

None

Judgment

Introduction

1. These proceedings concern a dispute arising out of a home building contract. The subject of the contract was a two-storey home at Schofields (the ‘Contract’).

2. The Contract was in a standard form NSW Residential Building Contract for New Dwellings as published by the Housing Industry Association ('HIA'). It contained no special conditions, and as such it prescribed a 26-week period for completion (subject to valid extensions of time).

3. The parties to the Contract were the plaintiffs, who are husband and wife, and the first defendant (‘IB’). Also joined in the proceedings were the second, third and fourth defendants. The third defendant (‘JH’) is an experienced engineer who, on any view of it, was supervising the construction work undertaken pursuant to the Contract by IB. The fourth defendant (‘ES’) is the wife of JH and is the sole director of IB. She played no part in the actual construction work, including any supervision thereof. The second defendant (‘AH’) is the son of JH and ES. He was a 20% shareholder in IB but held no executive or other…