Can I withhold payment if I'm not happy with the work?

This is one of the most common questions homeowners have and one of the easiest to get wrong, because the instinct is to use the whole payment as leverage. Tribunals do not tend to reward that.

The principle

Australian Consumer Law gives you guarantees on services, including that they will be provided with due care and skill. Where those are breached, you have a remedy. But the remedy is proportionate to the failure, and for a minor failure the business is entitled to an opportunity to fix it first.

A defensible position

1. 1Put the defect in writing with photographs and dates.
2. 2Offer a genuine opportunity to rectify, with a reasonable deadline.
3. 3Pay for the work that was done properly.
4. 4Withhold an amount that reasonably reflects the cost of putting the defect right, and say in writing that this is what you are doing and why.
5. 5Keep every piece of correspondence.

A weak position

• Refusing all payment for a job that is largely complete and largely fine.
• Refusing access so the problem can be fixed, then complaining it was not fixed.
• Withholding without ever putting the complaint in writing.
• Going silent and hoping it goes away, then acting after a long delay.

For residential building work, statutory warranties and your state's building dispute body sit on top of all this, and that is the route to use rather than the general consumer one.