Lex
Very interesting, as that's almost exactly what I was thinking about when saying that it depends where this "early termination" of the VB is located. (I was thinking of the fill section of the block, where the soil would normally drain much faster than that in the cut section or in flat areas, so this shortfall would not have the same impact.)
Absolutely. My personal criteria is that I would only ever allow termination of the VB at the inside footing face in non-saline sandy soils where the soil profile is clean, free-draining sands to at least 1500mm deep and the area is not subject to a shallow water table. I've seen rising damp around perimeter walls in too many homes on supposed 'safe' foundation soils in Perth to do otherwise.
Perth builders would argue that this rising damp is pretty benign - and they're generally right, as far as the structure goes. It's not brick-eating high salinity rising damp like Adelaide experiences. But it's still a big ask in my opinion to expect home owners to cop ongoing plaster damage around the base of external walls just because the builder skimped on the vapour barrier.