Free legal help for Victorians building a home is expanding
The Domestic Building Legal Service will help homeowners at every stage of a build, not only after formal dispute resolution has failed.
Free legal help for Victorians building a home is being expanded to cover every stage of the build, through the Domestic Building Legal Service.
The Victorian Government announced on 22 October it would invest more than $14.5 million over five years in the service. Until now, it only stepped in after formal dispute resolution had failed.
What changes
According to the release, funding will rise from $730,000 to almost $3 million this year. The government expects:
- up to 16,000 Victorians a year to use the service’s free online legal resources
- around 1,100 homeowners to get tailored advice, online or in person
- 400 homeowners a year to get intensive legal help, including advocacy and representation in complex disputes with their builder, up from 150 last year.
The service will be delivered by Justice Connect and the Consumer Action Law Centre.
The expansion was announced by the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Tim Richardson.
The background
The release says the collapse of builder Porter Davis in 2023 left 1,500 Victorian homes unfinished.
Since then, a new regulator, the Building and Plumbing Commission, has been set up. First-resort Home Warranty Insurance, covering lost deposits, unfinished work and defects, has applied since 1 July 2026, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria.
Explore: how a house gets built
Building a home in Victoria happens in stages: base, frame, lock-up, fixing and completion, with mandatory inspections by the building surveyor and progress payments along the way. Take a new home apart in 3D, stage by stage, and see what you can be asked to pay and what to check before you pay: How a house gets built, piece by piece.
The payment limits in the explainer are the current ones, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria: a deposit of up to 5% on contracts of $20,000 or more. Victoria’s new domestic building contract laws are set to start on 1 December 2026, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria, and the government has proposed new deposit and progress payment limits for homes, which it consulted on until 16 September. Anyone signing a contract from 1 December should check the rules that apply to them.
Where to get help
Help is available now from Justice Connect: justiceconnect.org.au/help/building-disputes.
General information, not legal advice.
Sources: Victorian Government media release, Backing Families Against Dodgy Builders, 22 October 2026; Consumer Affairs Victoria (deposits and payments, insurance, new contract laws); Alpine Shire Council, What are the mandatory inspections?; Victorian Government, proposed Domestic Building Contracts Amendment Regulations 2026. Adapted from “Backing Families Against Dodgy Builders”, Victorian Government media release, 22 October 2026. © Copyright State Government of Victoria, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence; this version has been edited and shortened, and party-political content removed. Illustrations: The Dosage.