Read before you rely on anything
Legal boundary & disclaimers
DefectLedger is a deadline-awareness tool. It is not a solicitor, it does not give legal advice, and use of it never creates a solicitor–client relationship.
1. General information only
Every date DefectLedger shows is a computed estimate: date arithmetic applied to statutory periods, using the dates you registered. Those dates are general information, not legal advice and not a legal opinion about any building. Your strata lawyer must verify every date before any action is taken on it. The product is built to make that verification fast — never to replace it.
2. What the product will not do
- Classify defects. Whether a defect is "major" or "minor" is an engineering and legal opinion. The diary will not decide it; ambiguous cases are escalated with no deadline declared.
- Resolve statutory ambiguity. Where a provision admits two readings, the diary shows both with citations and escalates. It never picks one for you.
- Declare legal outcomes. It will never tell you definitively that you are "in time" or have "lost" a right — only a solicitor can do that.
- File or represent. No lodgements with Fair Trading, Building Commission NSW or NCAT; no correspondence with builders on your behalf.
- Advise on strategy. No forum guidance, litigation strategy or settlement advice — general process information only.
3. Your inputs, your responsibility
Accuracy of every deadline is bounded by the dates you supply. A single wrong-but-uncontested completion date flows straight through the arithmetic. Every report carries an inputs-audit block echoing the exact dates it was computed from, so what the diary was told is always visible.
4. Confidence bands are not warranties
Deadlines carry a confidence band — computed-from-user-inputs, ambiguous-needs-verification, or certain (reserved for verified anchors only). A band describes the basis of the estimate; it is not a warranty of accuracy, and nothing computed from unverified inputs claims certainty.
5. NSW only, and NSW law changes
The diary covers NSW regimes (SSMA 2015, Home Building Act 1989, Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020) as encoded in its ruleset [prototype ruleset — solicitor review pending]. It refuses non-NSW buildings outright. Statutory periods and their interpretation can change; the ruleset's maintenance schedule is part of the pre-launch legal checklist.
6. Action packs are drafts
Scott Schedule templates, Fair Trading complaint drafts, NCAT timing guidance and AGM motion templates are document-automation drafts. Each carries a "have a solicitor review before use" notice that cannot be removed.
7. Liability and terms (staged)
- Staged pricing: A$199 per building per year [unverified thesis — WTP test pending].
- Limitation of liability in the final terms will be a cap (not a blanket exclusion) sized to survive small-business unfair-contract-terms scrutiny [unverified — solicitor to draft].
- Final terms of service require solicitor sign-off — a mandatory gate before any live billing.
- Professional-indemnity cover for a deadline-computation product is a mandatory gate: if cover is declined, or costs more than 10% of realistic year-1 revenue, the product does not ship [unverified — insurer quote required].
8. Privacy (staged)
Building records and committee contact details are collected only to run the diary, retained only while your subscription is active, and deleted on cancellation. Full collection notice and retention schedule form part of the pre-launch legal checklist [staged — solicitor review pending].
9. Prototype status
This page, the website, and the checkout are staged prototypes. No live accounts, no real payments, no outreach. Solicitor review of the ruleset, templates, disclaimers and terms is outstanding and mandatory before any live use.