Things to watch out for in building contract

Hi all, I'm building a home and am in the process of going through the contract and plans with a fine tooth combe. In the first few seconds I've noticed that the builder has listed a whole lot of works as 'by owner', including the entirety of the downstairs flooring. This has put me on edge, and I'm worried I'll miss something important and that I don't know what to check for.

It's a 'standard' HIA contract. Any advice would be appreciated, including people's experiences of things put in contracts (or missing) that have taken them unawares.

I am not an expert, however, I would expect the contract itself to be a standard one with the exception of the following custom things:
- anticipated start date - in case if you have a house to demolish, make sure that you leave yourself enough time to meet this date, otherwise you can get in trouble
- liquidated damages - this is negotiable but I would try to get at least $50-$100 per day
- payment schedule - make sure that they are not using their own custom payment schedule where you would pay a lot in the first few stages. Stick to the standard HIA schedule

There will be custom terms&conditions or a similar document. That's where you can negotiate if you find something that does not work for you.

Firstly your builder should be doing all the work or else there will be two builders on your house, you and your builder, a recipe for a disaster.
You should invest in a pre contract review with a good building consultant.

That's pretty standard.
Lot's of people choose to leave out flooring, wall painting, landscaping robe fitout etc.
People can do them after handover, either themselves or get in their own suppliers.

By choice though. Sounds like op has been presented a contract which stipulates they're doing the floors etc and they were not aware.

This however sounds strange as part of a normal build, you'd choose your finishes and the builder would install.

i wouldn't be worried, you'll definitely miss something, no matter how many times you review. we've spent close to 5 months ensuring everything got reflected in the tender and the plans correctly, and still mistakes were identified during construction (granted most of them were simple discrepancies between tender and a spec).

focus on ensuring that everything you've agreed to before has made it into contract documents. especially those things that are important to you. and there are no special clauses that allow builder price increases outside of the normal HIA clauses, or anything else like that that would allow builder to defer construction start/timeframe.