Take CDC approval to another builder

As the title indicates, my question is, if you have CDC approval, can you change builders? Or can you ask a new builder to quote based on the CDC conditions and build based on the same CDC approval?

Do you own full copyright of the plans? ie, were the plans drawn up by a building designer or architect? Or were the plans done by the first builder you engaged?

done by the builder (heavily modified from their standard). Assuming I can "buy" the plans, are there any other procedural issues? As in, can the process continue from here, or do certain approvals need to be redone?

With respect to the approvals I am unsure whether they will need to be done again if you choose to build with a different builder. The issue comes about with copyright of the plans because the first builder who developed the plans owns copyright, irrespective of how modified they are or what type of instructions they have been given to arrive at the final design.

Some builders may release copyright of their designs however you may not be able to use the exact plans for the following reasons: most builders are not licensed like draftspeople, building designers or architects. Instead their license only allows them to produce plans for their express purpose to build.

If the builder is willing to release the copyright over to you I wouldn’t expect them to let it go cheaply. In fact, copyright cases I have been involved with prescribe a minimum 5% fee for plans (of building contract).

If in doubt I recommend you seek legal advice because builders do check up on these things. I would also recommend walking away from any builder that tells you not to worry about copyright or that they can change the plans by 10% to get around it. It’s simply not true.

I hope this helps and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask or PM.

Cheers,

I have the final architecture building plan from a builder I'm walking away from. They owned the copyright. I want to use their building plan by changing a percentage which will move away from their copyright. What percentage is required?

What is so specific about plans? Why can't you just take them to any relevant building designer to see if they can create similar plans to tick all your boxes and may be improve some of the things too. It shouldn't be very hard to do so.

Your feedback is noted. Thank you.
As you have read in this post, one have to be very careful in amending copyright plans building plans. Even 10% amendment, the builder can still sue for copyright infringement. My SIL was a draftswomen, and offer to draw a new building plans from a fresh start using Autocad.

It's only s small single storey 3 bed house with double garage about 200 sq m.
I have seen so many plans that caters for my proposed house. They all looked very similar. Why don't each of these residential builder compare their plans with the other?. They will start suing each other for copyright infringement .

Those cases will be overly expensive to run in a court and extremely difficult to prove.
If we are not talking about exclusive and very well distinguished architectured project, it will be very hard to prove anything in the court as most of the houses and plans are all more or less standard and alike.

You are absolutely correct. All the standard project 3 bedroom houses are so similar in design. How can you vary the design with a limited 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, open plan kitchen and a double garage?

The key will be to change measurements a little bit here and there as well as the windows schedule.

Even 10-15 mils will do to prove it is a different plan if needed, but I really doubt small to medium builders will be even engaged in this kind of exercise.

Sorry but there is a lot of misinformation here.

Having worked for a small project builder (20-40 home per year) that also does custom plans we have been involved in 4 legal cases where our copyright has been infringed. Either where the client has taken our standard design, full custom design or a modified standard design to another builder and had the home constructed. Builders do check up on previous clients blocks to see what has been constructed and the process of gaining the plans that were lodged to council is easy through FOI.

There are a lot of misconceptions around copyright and ownership of plans. More often or not, if a builder prepares the plans under your instruction, irrespective of how much input the client has, the builder owns copyright. The only thing the client owns is their hand sketches they provided (but not if they're based off the builders plans).

In terms of a percentage of changes to allude copyright infringement, this is incorrect. If it can be proven that the original design was used in any way shape or form by the client or another builder, copyright has been infringed. This is not hard to prove. Also moving a few walls millimetres does not remove copyright as copyright has no bearing on dimensions or the scale of the building. "Feel" and "look" are definitions that are used to prove copyright.

The last 4 court cases I have been involved in are all quite similar and I wont go into too much detail but the builder won all 4 cases with damages and legal costs awarded. Each case was in excess of $100k with the client, other builder and other draftsperson liable.

There is a great information sheet from the Australian Copyright Council that I urge you to read, it dispels a lot of myths.
https://www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/House_Plans___Copyright.aspx

I completely understand that a narrow block 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car house will look similar across a range of builders but it's how the plans were developed. If you decide to go with another builder, get them to draw up new plans from scratch. Don't even show them the other plans, throw them out. Or go see a building designer, they will draw up plans that are licensed for your use; allowing you to take them to a few builders to quote without having to worry about copyright. Yes you'll probably pay anywhere from 2.5% - 5% of construction budget to have the plans drawn by a building designer but it's a lot cheaper and less stressful than going to court.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for explanation, it looks that the legal system will be always inclined towards protecting the interest of the builder.

Considering that builder has probably already charged customer with deposit before customer decided to switch the builder, what is exactly a builder interest here for NOT giving out the design to the customer (or simply selling it out for a little extra)? Just another source of revenue?

It's very unfair on the client in this situation, as majority are completely unaware and the builder already has the money.

Sorry, not getting it. Unfair to which client? Who "buys" the plans out of the builder? There are builders on the market which do release plans to the clients if requested.

One of my previous employers who did mostly project homes in county WA took a drafting company and there client to court over copyright infringement. The client had come to the building company I worked for first but didn't sign up, he took the plans and combined them with another builders plans to come up with his final design.
The builder won the court case as it was proved that some aspects of the original design were used by the drafting company. The damages awarded were 50/50 split between the drafting company and client. It got super messy as the client then went on and sued the drafting company

BTW, It's not just the 2D drawings/plans/elevations which is subject to copyright, all information is also included,ie the 3D Bim Model, data and quantities, "the whole kit and caboodle"
In my case the clients prefers a better AEC service, for those clients they sign forms indemnifying BDC from copyright prosecution, Basically they take full responsibility.
Here's a Tip Boro , " Don't waste too much time and money finessing another design with a salesman... move quickly to CDs, data and accurate pricing"
Otherwise you may end up with expensive wallpaper ( ie, Colour renderings and Images of the House you didn't build)
OT, I get swamped with projects weekly, 80% are copyright infringements, do the math it's not worth it
If your builder signs a release, then all associated drawings and approvals needs to be done again
Cheers
Chris

Thanks StructuralBIMGuy, in the end, decided to proceed with the same builder, but was considering the available options...