On a newer home, photograph it before anybody repairs it

When something fails in a house, the reasonable instinct is to get it fixed. Nobody wants to live with a leak while they think about paperwork, and a plumber who arrives and repairs the problem has done exactly what they were called for.

On a newer home there is one step worth taking first, and it costs nothing. Residential building work in NSW carries statutory warranty periods, and those periods pass to later owners rather than expiring with the original buyer. A repair that closes the wall removes the only evidence of what was actually there, and that evidence is not recoverable afterwards.

The short answer

Residential building work carries statutory warranties: six years for a major defect and two years otherwise, running from completion, and passing to subsequent owners. Whether a particular fault qualifies is not a plumber's call and it is not something to guess at. What is entirely within your control is documenting the fault properly before it is repaired, because once the wall is closed the evidence is gone.

1. Photograph the fault before anybody works on it, dated
2. Ask the plumber to photograph what they find once it is open
3. Get a written description of the cause, not just the repair
4. Find out the completion date of the house if you do not know it
5. NSW Fair Trading is the authority on warranties, not your plumber

On this page

1. What the periods are
2. Why documentation disappears
3. What to capture
4. The cause matters
5. Know the completion date
6. What we will and will not say

1. What the periods are, and what they are not

Residential building work in NSW carries statutory warranties. The periods are six years for a major defect and two years otherwise, running from completion of the work, and they pass to later owners rather than ending when the property is sold.

That last part surprises people and it matters here, where a great many houses in the growth-area estates have already changed hands at least once. A second owner is not automatically outside the scope simply because they were not the person who had the house built.

What we are not going to do is tell you whether your particular problem is a major defect, whether your circumstances qualify, or what you should do about it. Those are genuinely questions for NSW Fair Trading and, where the amounts justify it, for proper advice. A plumber offering a confident opinion on any of them is out of their depth.

2. Why the evidence disappears so easily

Almost every plumbing repair is, by its nature, a covering-up operation. A wall gets opened, something is fixed, and the wall gets closed. A trench is dug, a pipe is repaired, and the trench is backfilled.

From the moment that happens, the only record of what was actually there is whatever somebody wrote down or photographed while it was open. There is no way to go back and re-observe it, and re-opening later to prove a point costs more than the original repair did.

That is not a reason to delay a repair. Water damage compounds and nobody should live with a leak to preserve a photograph. It is a reason to take five minutes before the repair rather than regretting it afterwards.

3. What to actually capture

1. The symptom, before anything is touched. The stain, the damp patch, the lifting floor, with something in frame for scale.
2. The date. Photographs carry it automatically, which is one of the reasons a phone is better than a description.
3. What is found once it is open. Ask the plumber directly, and most will simply take the photographs for you if asked at the start rather than at the end.
4. A written statement of the cause. Not just "repaired leak" but what was wrong and, where it can be established, why.
5. Camera footage, where drainage is involved. It is the single most complete record available and it costs very little on top of an inspection you were having anyway.
6. The invoice, itemised. Keep it with the rest.

None of that changes what the repair costs, and all of it is available for the price of asking at the beginning of the visit instead of the end.

4. Why the cause matters more than the repair

An invoice that says a leak was repaired describes the work. It says nothing about what caused the leak, and the cause is the part that carries any weight in a conversation about responsibility.

There is a real difference between a fitting that has failed after fifteen years of ordinary service, a line damaged by somebody else's work, and a connection that was never right. All three produce the same wet patch on the same floor.

A plumber will not always be able to say which, and should say so plainly rather than speculate. But asking the question at the time, and getting the honest answer written down while everything is open, is very different from trying to reconstruct it from an invoice a year later.

5. Know when the house was actually completed

The periods run from completion of the building work, so the completion date is the reference point for everything. A surprising number of owners, particularly second owners, do not know it.

It is worth establishing while nothing is wrong. It usually appears in the documentation from the purchase, and knowing it turns an abstract question into a simple one.

Keep it with the rest of the house papers alongside the compliance certificates, any drainage footage and the record of any work done. In a newer house that record can still be genuinely complete, which is an advantage an older property has already lost.

6. What we will and will not tell you

We will tell you what we found, what we did, and what we think caused it, including when the honest answer is that we cannot establish the cause from what is visible.

We will photograph it, film drainage where that is useful, and put the description in writing rather than leaving you with a one-line invoice.

We will not tell you whether something is a major defect, whether a warranty applies to your situation, or what to do about a builder. NSW Fair Trading is the authority on the first two, and the third is a decision for you with better advice than ours.

That is not us being unhelpful. A plumber's confident legal opinion is worth exactly nothing if it turns out to be wrong, and the person who acts on it is the one who carries that.

The short version

• Residential building work in NSW carries statutory warranty periods that pass to later owners.
• Six years for a major defect and two years otherwise, running from completion.
• A repair closes the wall, and with it the only record of what was actually there.
• Photograph the symptom before the visit, and ask for photographs of what is found.
• Get the cause in writing, not just the repair, because the cause is the part that matters.
• NSW Fair Trading is the authority on warranties. A plumber's legal opinion is worth nothing.