Individual Liability

So I was reading the sticky about posting on this forum and your individual liability…

So Let me get this right, even though you have dealt with the builder directly and experienced what you have experienced 1st hand and it is fact, if you post about it in a negative manner naming the builder you can get sued??

Not if you can prove your allegation in court. It then becomes a fact, not an allegation.

However forums like this arent interested in how well you can prove your allegations. they just dont want to get involved in the first place.

Yep fair enough… just thought it was interesting reading the sticky….

I think you need to be be even handed in your criticisms, why
1. This site has a trusted reputation to uphold
2. Home-builders support each other and are looking for assistance .ie empathy
3. Because of the above if forum users see this site as just pro-builders they will simply migrate to other sites
4. So It is a fine line..don't bash builders try to offer solutions to home-builders problems..

Yeah I try and refrain from criticising builders on the forum, just try and help where i can from the experience I gained while building….

I'm experiencing a number of problems at the moment. Some are major. I don't think it helps anyone to be negative -- especially myself or my builder who I want to keep a good relationship with. Building a house is a complex logistical process. I couldn't organise it and I have empathy for builders who I believe want to do the right thing to protect their reputation.

Its off-putting having to deal with negativity, people tend to shut down. If you can show people how you resolved your issues in a good way, why not. As you say it can help others.

I agree with others who've responded ^

You can certainly post the details of problems you are having. This can only be helpful to others in allowing them to know what to look out for. It also sometimes throws up some excellent advice about how to sort the problem out. With regard to naming the builder - a lot of people name their builders on here, usually volume builders because they are the ones most people are building with. So long as a company employs more than ten people you can't defame the company. Just don't name individuals. But people have a right to report the good and the bad of their experience.

agree. I'd typed something like that myself but must have edited out (?)

Yes and so can the owners of home one forum:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... h9ttz.html



On the other wnd of the spectrum, Whirlpool managed to win a case:



http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/wcs_v_wp

That 1st case caused the website ZGeek to close. Whirlpools case set a precedent for future cases but so did the ZGeek case. If a builder feels your claims have caused financial loss then Homeone could be held liable and in turn they could also go after you as the poster.

This action was won because an individual was named. You certainly can't name individuals.

You don't have to name individuals either, they only need to be identifiable by the post's comments.

Costs when suing for defamation can be very high and a financial loss has to be established. This can be very difficult to prove.

There is now a 2 year time limit for proceedings to commence which is ridiculous considering that it can take quite some time in many instances for the defaming to be brought to attention.