Hypotheticals by Manny Wood. Published in the Coffs Coast Advocate on 19 September 2015.
John and Jane purchased a vacant block on the north coast of New South Wales and planned to build a home for themselves and their son, Jason who was attending high school.
They had a very tight budget and performed a lot of the building work themselves, with the assistance of Jason.
John obtained an owner builder permit and initially all three of them resided in a caravan on the property.
Jason assisted his father in digging the foundations for the house and later acted as a bricklayer’s labourer. He also performed a wide range of other construction work including assisting with the installation of the floor joists, roof trusses, roof tiles, fibro sheeting and doorways.
Over the course of a number of years, the pair constructed a bathroom and rendered the walls and ultimately completed the interior finishing with some assistance from tradespeople, retained by John.
Jason performed the work before and after school and invested a considerable amount of time on the weekends. He was never paid for this work.
After the completion of work, John said to Jason, on a number of occasions; “This house is yours” and “This will all be yours one day”. On one occasion, John also said to Jason; “I would have transferred the property into both our names but I don’t have the money to do it right now”.
Many years later, John and Jane decide to sell the property and Jason lodges a caveat on the property, preventing the sale and claiming an interest in the property.
The matter proceeds to a hearing and the court finds that at the time Jason performed the work, he did not hold an expectation that he would receive the property and that the work that he did was expected to be done as a contribution towards the combined family welfare. The court also found that John did not intend to “induce” Jason into performing any work on the basis of his statements.
The court ultimately dismisses Jason’s claim and orders that he pay the legal costs involved.
