Corporate & Commercial
Contracts, structures and governance for businesses that need the paperwork to hold when something goes wrong.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Buying or selling a business, from the term sheet and due diligence through to completion and the restraints that follow.
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Commercial disputes in the NSW, ACT and Federal courts, resolved early where that is possible and run properly where it is not.
Technology and Software
Your product scales digitally. Your contracts have to scale with it.
The track record
Judgments and tribunal outcomes, transactions completed, appointments taken, and the conversations we are part of in Australia and in Germany.
Germany
A German desk for businesses moving between Australia and the German-speaking market.
Singapore
Singapore law where it governs the contract, and the arbitral seat that carries much of the region’s work.
Building and Construction
We act on building contracts, on getting paid under them, and on the defect claims that follow.
For builders, developers, owners, owners corporations and subcontractors in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, and for the foreign suppliers and contractors who work on Australian sites. Every matter is led by a principal, and on a construction dispute the first question is what the contract and the programme records actually show.
2007
Practising in Australia since
3
Offices: Sydney, Canberra, Frankfurt
2
Legal systems, one team
1
Principal on every matter
How a construction matter runs
Six points where a project turns into a dispute
01
The contract, before anyone is on site
Most construction disputes are decided by what the contract said about variations, extensions of time and the payment mechanism, and by then it is too late to change it. We review and negotiate before signing, on amended standard forms and on bespoke ones. Where the work is residential, the statutory warranties apply whatever the contract says, and they run down to subcontracts as well.
02
Variations, delay, and the record
A variation claim and a delay claim are both won or lost on records made at the time. Site diaries, programmes, notices given within the contractual window. We tell you what to keep and when to give notice, because a notice given late is often worth nothing, and that is cheaper advice than the claim it protects.
03
Getting paid, and the clock that catches people
Security of payment gives a contractor or subcontractor a fast route to a progress payment through adjudication, in both New South Wales and the ACT. It cuts both ways. In New South Wales a respondent who does not serve a payment schedule within the contractual time or ten business days of the payment claim, whichever runs out first, becomes liable for the whole claimed amount. That deadline has cost respondents more than any argument about the work.
04
When the defect appears
The first decisions are practical: get the defect inspected and recorded, work out whether it is still within the rectification regime under the contract, and identify everyone who might be liable before anything is sent. Rectification by the original builder is often the cheapest outcome for an owner and is sometimes a precondition to a claim.
05
Who is liable, and for how long
For residential work the statutory warranties run six years for a major defect in New South Wales and two years otherwise, and in the ACT six years for a structural element and two for a non-structural one. The split looks the same and the question is not: one asks how serious the defect is, the other asks what part of the building it is in. In New South Wales there is also a statutory duty of care to avoid economic loss from building defects, owed to each owner and to every later owner, which cannot be delegated or contracted out of and is not limited to residential work. Both jurisdictions stop everything at ten years from completion.
06
The forum, and what it will cost
Adjudication, the tribunal, the courts, or expert determination where the contract requires it. Each has a different cost, a different speed and a different answer on whether you recover your legal costs. A construction lawyer earns their fee at this point or not at all. We work it out with you before commencing, on the arithmetic of what the claim is worth and what can actually be recovered from whoever is left standing.
Selected matters
Construction matters we have run
Clients are not named and no project or proceeding is identified. The kind of work, the side we acted on and the jurisdiction are.
Building defects
Owners corporation claim over defects in an apartment building
Acted for the developer and the builder, including the insurance and funding position.
Supreme Court · NSW
Modular construction
Dispute over modular building work and its rectification
Acted for the claimant.
Court · NSW
Delay
Delay claim on a residential build
Acted for the owner, on the notice position and the programme records.
ACT
Residential building
Dispute between an owner and a builder over incomplete work
Acted for the owner.
Tribunal · NSW
Supply and installation
Claim over defective supply and installation of building products
Acted for the claimant.
Court · NSW
Contracts and plant
Review of building contracts, subcontracts and plant agreements
Acted for owners and for contractors, before signing rather than after.
NSW and ACT
Adjoining property
Property damage caused by works on an adjoining site
Acted for the affected owners.
ACT
Regulatory
Workers compensation premium dispute for a trade contractor
Acted for the employer.
Regulatory review · ACT
Who does the work
The person you meet is the person who runs it
Fabian Hoffmann
Principal · Sydney, Canberra and Frankfurt
Juris Doctor (ANU) and the First State Examination in Law (Bielefeld), admitted in the Australian Capital Territory, Notary Public of the Society of Notaries of New South Wales, member of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators, and Vertrauensanwalt for both the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria. Works in German and English, and tutored contract law at the ANU College of Law for four years.
Mason Keene-McCann
Principal · Canberra
Admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Victoria and holds a practising certificate in the Australian Capital Territory. Joined Boettcher Law in 2022 and works with barristers and experts on contested commercial matters.
Australia and Germany
One team, both legal systems
Where a matter runs across both jurisdictions, the German side is handled by our Frankfurt office under German law, not passed to correspondent counsel and marked up. That is the practical difference: one team, one set of documents, and nobody translating between two firms at your cost.
Tax on either side sits with an accountant. We work with Accru Felsers through the German Professional Services Alliance and bring them in at the point the numbers start to matter, which on a restructure or a share transfer is usually before we draft.
Related
Also relevant to a building project
Tell us about the project
Send us the contract and whatever has happened since. We will tell you where you stand on notices and time limits, what the realistic outcome is, and what we would do first. If a time limit is close, say so when you write and we will look at that before anything else.
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