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Insurance Australia Group is struggling with declining profitability as its stock price plunges.
A combination of storm damage claims and negative business cycles have caused Insurance Australia Group's profit to decline, resulting in its stock price dropping by more than a third since the start of 2007. However, it still claims a favorable medium-term outlook. Although this may only be a temporary slump, the insurer must be careful not to let rival players capitalize on its current woes.
Tue, 20 October 2009
Targeting unlicensed home building contractors


Fair Trading conducted three major home building compliance operations during 2006-07 targeting unlicensed residential building activity across both metropolitan and regional areas of NSW. Investigators visited over 1,250 contractors which led to 170 penalty notices and fines totalling over $120,000. Excellent results were also achieved in the courts following the pro-active surveillance of offending contractors.

Unlicensed Albury ashphalter fined

Unlicensed builder, Jeff Alan Vandersluys trading as JAV Constructions, received fines totalling $3,921 in the Albury Local Court on 23 January 2007 for advertising that he was prepared to do residential building work whilst unlicensed. JAV advertised in the Border Mail Newspaper in the classifieds section under the heading “Licensed Trades Available”. The advertisement also carried a NSW licence number 23514c which had expired in 1992.

Penrith builder fined $22,000

An unlicensed builder, Anthony John Hickson, who carried out residential building work in the Lower Blue Mountains and Penrith areas, was prosecuted by Fair Trading for unlicensed contracting, residential building work, demanding excessive deposits and a range of offences related to the non-provision of home warranty insurance. Hickson was convicted in the Penrith Local Court in December 2006 and ordered to pay $22,639 in fines and costs.

Licensed contractors also targeted

Consumers have a right to expect that building work done on their home by a licensed contractor is of reasonable quality and free of defects. When consumers are provided with shoddy work, licensees can find themselves targeted by Fair Trading’s Building Inspectors. As the following examples demonstrate, there are severe and lasting consequences for licensed contractors who operate with such disregard for their responsibility to provide work of an acceptable standard.

Illawarra builder licence cancelled

Illawarra-based builder Stephen Fotoudis was found guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court in January 2007 of using a false home warranty insurance certificate and has been sentenced to 250 hours community service and ordered to pay fines and costs totalling $6,667. Subsequent to the convictions, Fotoudis’ builder licence was cancelled on the grounds that he had two convictions in a 12 month period.

Poor work leads to loss of licence

Fair Trading discovered a range of defects in Mr Zuhret Korajac’s work of providing stencil concrete driveways. A claim with the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT) was lodged and Korajac was ordered to pay the home owners a total of more than $70,000 but he failed to comply. Korajac was issued with a Notice to Show Cause following his failure to perform work in a proper and workmanlike manner and to comply with Tribunal orders. Once again, he failed to comply. In March 2007, Korajac was disqualified from being an authority holder and his licence was cancelled.

For information on further Fair Trading prosecutions, view or download the Enforcement Action Report

Resolving disputes

In 2006-07, almost 80% of all home building complaints received were resolved within 40 days at no cost to either party, through Fair Trading’s dispute resolution process - a quick and simple way of resolving building disputes between consumers and contractors. As a result, there has been a 30% reduction in the number of building-related matters referred to the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal.

Fair Trading will continue to use both publicised compliance programs and covert inspections to ensure residential building and trade contractors meet their legal obligations in the marketplace. These initiatives reflect Fair Trading’s continued commitment to improving services and increasing customer satisfaction.

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