Legal
Property & Development
Transactional, construction and dispute advisory for developers, builders and investors.
Legal Advisory
Full-service commercial legal capability through Corson Fiske ILP.
Overview
How we help.
Property and development projects combine high capital intensity with long time horizons and dense regulatory requirements. The decisions taken at acquisition, financing and contracting stages determine outcomes years later when disputes, defects or delays emerge.
Corson Fiske advises through Corson Fiske ILP on property transactions, development agreements, construction contracts and disputes. Our NSW practice has particular depth in Home Building Act matters and the security of payment regime.
We act for developers, builders, landowners, investors and financiers across residential, commercial and mixed-use projects.
Capabilities
- Commercial and residential transactions
- Development agreements and joint venture structuring
- Construction contracts (AS, bespoke, FIDIC)
- Home Building Act (NSW) compliance and disputes
- Security of Payment Act claims and adjudications
- Strata and community title matters
- Leasing — commercial, retail and industrial
- Defects and delay disputes
Client Situations
When clients engage us.
The issues that bring clients through our door tend to fall into familiar patterns.
A development is being structured
Land acquisition, JV terms, financing and contracting all need to be documented.
A security of payment claim has been served
A payment claim or payment schedule requires rapid response.
A defects dispute has emerged
Defects or delay issues are moving towards formal proceedings.
A distressed project needs restructuring
A project is in financial difficulty and legal and restructuring advice need to move together.
A regulator has opened an investigation
ASIC, the ACCC, a state regulator or an industry body has commenced inquiries. Privileged legal counsel is required immediately.
A counterparty has breached a material contract
A significant commercial relationship has broken down and the legal options — from negotiation through to contested proceedings — need to be assessed.
Outcomes
What you can expect.
- Development structures that protect value through the project lifecycle
- Contracts that allocate risk appropriately
- Resolved payment and defects disputes
- Project outcomes that preserve value even in distress
Deeper Reading
Key legal considerations for property and development
Property and construction in Australia operates under a framework of state-specific legislation, national consumer protection law, security of payment regimes in every jurisdiction and contract structures that allocate risk between developers, builders, financiers and purchasers. In NSW specifically, the Home Building Act 1989, the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 and the Residential Apartment Buildings Act 2020 have reshaped the risk profile of residential development in ways that are still being worked through.
For developers, the central legal questions are usually structural: how the project is held, how financing is secured, how the builder relationship is documented, how presales are captured, and how risk is allocated to survive disputes that inevitably emerge. For builders, the equivalent questions centre on contractual risk allocation, security of payment claims, defects exposure and licensing compliance.
We act for developers, builders, investors, financiers and purchasers on these matters, integrated with the firm’s corporate finance and restructuring capability where projects are under commercial or financial stress.
Questions we are often asked
What rights does Security of Payment legislation create?
The Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW) and its state equivalents create a rapid statutory process for recovering progress payments. A payment claim triggers tight deadlines, adjudication is fast and decisions are interim but enforceable. The regime favours cash-flow certainty for claimants and procedural compliance is critical.
How does the Design and Building Practitioners Act affect developers?
The DBPA introduced registration requirements for design and building practitioners, duty-of-care obligations owed to owners corporations extending up to 10 years retrospectively, and regulated declarations for designs and construction work. The retrospective duty of care has materially expanded developer and consultant exposure.
What is the effect of a statutory trust under the BIF Act in Queensland?
Queensland’s project trust framework under the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 requires head contractors to hold progress payments on trust for subcontractors on qualifying projects. Breach of the trust obligations creates personal liability for directors.
Client Success
Outcomes from recent engagements.
Indicative results from engagements within this practice area. Client details have been anonymised; outcomes reflect actual matters completed by the firm.
$15M
Dispute Resolved
Construction dispute
Acted for a property developer in a contested Security of Payment matter, achieving a $15M favourable settlement on the eve of adjudication.
Property developer
AFSL Granted
90 days
Licensing application
Prepared and lodged an AFSL application for a fintech client that was granted within ASIC’s service standard of 90 days with no requisitions.
Fintech startup
Retained TM
Bad-faith opposition
Section 62A opposition
Successfully opposed a bad-faith trade mark application under section 62A of the Trade Marks Act 1995, protecting a registered Australian consumer brand.
Consumer brand
Why Corson Fiske
Experience where it counts.
Clients engage Corson Fiske because they need advice they can act on — delivered by senior practitioners who understand both the technical detail and the commercial consequences. Every engagement is led by a partner with direct experience in complex legal matters.
Our integrated structure means tax, legal, accounting and advisory questions are resolved within a single firm. For clients operating across Australia, Asia, New Zealand or Asia, our office network in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Singapore and Auckland provides consistent advice across jurisdictions.
Our Approach
A refined four-phase method for every engagement.
Corson Fiske applies the same disciplined framework to every matter, regardless of scale. The phases below are not a marketing device — they are the actual structure our partners use to move clients from uncertainty to resolution.
Phase One
01
Understand
A confidential partner-led briefing to establish the facts, commercial drivers, timing pressures and stakeholder dynamics.
- Confidential scoping conversation
- Document and data review
- Stakeholder mapping
- Initial risk identification
Phase Two
02
Analyse
Structured technical and commercial analysis of every realistic option, with a clear view of risks, costs and likely outcomes.
- Technical legal and tax analysis
- Commercial modelling
- Risk-weighted options assessment
- Precedent and market benchmarking
Phase Three
03
Recommend
A written partner recommendation in plain English — not a list of caveats. We stand behind our advice and explain our reasoning.
- Clear written recommendation
- Implementation sequencing
- Stakeholder communication plan
- Contingency and fallback positions
Phase Four
04
Execute
Hands-on delivery of the agreed plan with partner oversight, regular milestone reporting and clear handback at completion.
- Implementation leadership
- Stakeholder engagement
- Milestone tracking and reporting
- Completion review and handback
Key Considerations
What clients need to know.
Engaging external advisors on any significant matter raises practical questions about scope, timing, cost and outcomes. We believe in being straightforward about each of these from the first conversation.
How engagements typically begin
Every engagement starts with a confidential initial conversation — usually 30 to 60 minutes — in which we listen to the situation, ask the questions needed to understand it properly, and share a view on whether and how we can help. There is no charge for this conversation and no obligation to proceed.
How we scope and price work
We prefer fixed-fee or capped-fee arrangements wherever the scope allows. Where the scope is genuinely uncertain — as in contested matters — we agree hourly rates upfront and provide regular fee updates against defined phases. We do not bill for internal discussions, file opening or routine administration.
Who you will work with
Every engagement is led by a partner with direct experience in the matter type. That partner remains your primary point of contact throughout. Specialist colleagues join the team where their expertise is required, but you will never be passed from person to person or find the partner you hired is no longer on the file.
How we handle confidentiality and privilege
All engagements are subject to strict confidentiality. Where legal advice is being delivered, it is provided through our incorporated legal practice and attracts legal professional privilege. We take document security, information handling and communications discipline seriously on every matter.
Get the right advice from Corson Fiske.
Confidential, no-obligation initial consultations with a partner who specialises in complex legal matters.