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What rights do I have if trade work is done badly?

The short answer

Australian Consumer Law gives you automatic guarantees on services, due care and skill, fitness for purpose, and delivery within a reasonable time. They apply by force of law and cannot be excluded by a contract term or a sign.

TradieAnswers editorial · written in-house and sourced to the authorities listed below

Checked against 4 published sources, listed in full at the end of this page. How we source this

These guarantees are not something you negotiate for and not something a business can opt out of. They attach automatically to services supplied to consumers, and a term in a contract purporting to exclude them does not work.

The guarantees on services

  • The service will be provided with due care and skill.
  • The service will be fit for the particular purpose you made known.
  • The service will be supplied within a reasonable time, where no time was agreed.

Major failure or minor

The remedy depends on how serious the problem is. For a minor failure, the business gets the opportunity to fix it within a reasonable time, and you should give them that chance. It is both fair and procedurally important later. For a major failure, you can choose: cancel and get a refund, or keep the service and seek compensation for the drop in value. A failure is major where a reasonable consumer would not have engaged them had they known, or where the problem cannot be fixed within a reasonable time.

How to use them

  1. Put the problem in writing, with photographs and dates. Written records are what tribunals work from.
  2. State what you want and give a reasonable deadline.
  3. Allow a genuine opportunity to remedy a minor failure.
  4. If it does not resolve, escalate to your state's consumer affairs or fair trading body, which offers free conciliation.
  5. Beyond that, your state's civil and administrative tribunal hears these disputes without requiring lawyers.

Related questions

Can a business say 'no refunds' on trade work?
A sign or contract term cannot remove the consumer guarantees. A blanket 'no refunds' statement is not effective against a major failure and is itself potentially misleading conduct.

Sources

Every source below was fetched and its response recorded on the date shown. Where a government site blocks automated clients, that is noted rather than reported as a successful check.

  1. Consumer rights and guarantees · Australian Competition and Consumer CommissionChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  2. Building and renovating · Consumer Affairs VictoriaChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  3. NSW Fair Trading · NSW Fair TradingChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  4. QBCC · Queensland Building and Construction CommissionChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK

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