You inherited the building.
Don't inherit the defects alone.
When a new apartment building hands over, the clock starts on windows most owners corporations don't know they're losing: the defect liability period, the strata building bond inspections, and the statutory warranties. Miss them and the cost of every defect quietly moves from the developer's ledger to yours. Group 4 is the independent specialist that keeps those windows working in the owners' favour.
The builder's incentive ends
the day yours begins.
At handover the developer wants the bond back, the builder wants off the job, and the owners corporation — often newly formed, often advised by people appointed by the developer — is the only party whose interest is a building that actually works. Defects get logged as complaints instead of claims, the cheapest rectification window closes unused, and by the time owners realise, the leverage is gone.
Three deadlines, diarised from day one.
- The defect liability period — usually 12 months from practical completion. The owners' cheapest fix: the builder must return at their own cost. A baseline inspection early and a full inspection before it closes is the difference between fixed and forgotten.
- The strata building bond inspections — for class 2 buildings the developer lodges a bond (2% of contract price; an increase to 3% has been deferred to 1 July 2028). An independent inspector reports at 15–18 months and again at around two years, and the bond funds what they find. Owners who arrive at those inspections with a documented defect history get the rectification; those who don't, often don't.
- Statutory warranties — under the Home Building Act, six years for major defects and two years for others, from completion. The backstop — but slower and more adversarial, so the earlier windows matter most.
The full framework is set out in the NSW close-out playbook and the defect liability period guide.
Independent, on your side
of the table.
- Baseline & DLP inspections — the building walked and every defect logged to a cost-coded register early, while it's still the builder's cost to fix.
- Bond-inspection readiness — a documented defect history and evidence pack ready for the interim and final building-bond inspections, so nothing defensible gets missed.
- One register, put beyond argument — located, photographed, priced, tracked to verified close-out. Complaints become claims with evidence behind them.
- Warranty-claim support — the defensible record that turns a statutory-warranty claim from a battle of memories into a matter of file.
Defect Health Check
A fixed-fee independent inspection and register review — where the building actually stands, and what to claim before the windows close.
The protective retainer
Ongoing independent oversight through the defect liability period and the bond-inspection milestones, so no deadline passes unmanaged.
Dispute support
If it turns adversarial, the record becomes evidence — see expert witness & dispute support.
Group 4 works for the owners corporation's outcome — independent of the developer, the builder and the trades. For strata managers, that means a specialist you can bring in without a conflict, and hand a building you can defend.
Protect the windows while they're open.
A quick call, no obligation. Louis will tell you straight what your building needs and by when.