The single most important distinction in any tradie consumer dispute is the difference between a minor problem and a major one. Most customers don’t realise the line exists. They just know they’re unhappy with something. The Australian Consumer Law treats those two situations very differently, and the remedy you can demand depends entirely on which side of the line your specific problem sits. Knowing the difference is the difference between waiting politely for the tradie to come back and being entitled to a full refund.
Here’s how the ACL actually defines a major fault and a minor fault, what each one means in real tradie examples, and what you can demand when you’re sure which one you have.
What the ACL actually says
Under the ACL, a service has a major problem when the failure is significant enough that a reasonable customer, knowing the full extent of the issue, would not have bought the service in the first place. It also covers work that is substantially unfit for the purpose the customer made known and can’t be easily fixed within a reasonable time. Or work that creates an unsafe situation. Anything else that doesn’t meet a consumer guarantee but doesn’t reach those thresholds is treated as a minor problem.
A minor fault in practice
A minor fault is the kind of thing a competent tradie can come back and put right without much drama. A skirting that pulled away from the wall a week after install. A dishwasher that wasn’t quite level after the kitchen reno. A pendant light that wobbles slightly in its mount. Each of these is annoying but easily corrected. The tradie comes back, spends an hour, and the problem is resolved. The customer doesn’t get to demand a refund or a replacement at this stage. The tradie has the right to remedy.
A major fault in practice
A major fault is something else entirely. A new bathroom that leaks into the unit downstairs. A switchboard install that trips constantly because the load was wrongly calculated. A retaining wall that fails the first heavy rain. A waterproofing job that lets water through within months of completion. These aren’t fixable with a quick site visit. They generally require ripping out and redoing significant work. They also expose the customer to consequential damage, which makes the failure substantively worse than what was paid for.
Safety failures are always major
The ACL explicitly treats safety as a major-fault category. An electrical job that creates a shock hazard. A gas appliance install that leaks. A balustrade that gives way under load. Plumbing that contaminates a potable supply. Any of these is automatically a major fault, regardless of how cheap the underlying job was. A customer doesn’t need to argue that they wouldn’t have agreed to the work if they’d known. The risk to safety alone gets the matter into major-fault territory immediately.
What you can demand for a minor fault
For a minor fault, your right is to have it put right within a reasonable time. The tradie chooses how to remedy: usually a return visit, sometimes a small adjustment to the invoice, occasionally replacement of a faulty component. The customer is generally expected to allow that opportunity before pursuing anything stronger. If the tradie refuses to come back, ignores the problem, or attempts a fix that doesn’t work, the situation can escalate. A minor fault that the tradie won’t address can become functionally similar to a major one because the failure to remedy is itself a problem.
What you can demand for a major fault
For a major fault, the choice of remedy is the customer’s, not the tradie’s. You can require the service to be redone properly. You can require a refund of some or all of the cost. You can require any goods supplied as part of the service to be replaced. You can also recover compensation for any reasonably foreseeable damage caused by the failure. The tradie does not get to insist on coming back and trying again. The decision about which remedy to take sits with you.
Don’t conflate “I’m annoyed” with “this is major”
Sometimes a customer is upset because the tradie ran late, because the invoice was higher than expected, or because the work took longer than planned. These can be legitimate complaints, but they are not, by themselves, a major fault under the ACL. A major fault is about the work failing to deliver what was reasonably promised. Time and price grievances usually belong in a different conversation, often a contract or estimate one. Mixing the two together weakens your position. Keep the major-fault complaint focused on the actual quality of the work.
Get an independent opinion when it matters
For anything serious, particularly building, plumbing, electrical or structural work, an independent expert opinion strengthens any claim that something is a major fault. A licensed inspector, an independent builder’s report, a separate electrical safety assessment. These cost money up front, but they often pay for themselves the moment a fair trading conciliator or a tribunal sees the report. They also remove the conversation from “I think the slope is wrong” to “an independent licensed builder has confirmed the slope is wrong.” That is a much harder argument to dismiss.
When the tradie disputes the major-fault classification
The tradie may insist their work is fine, that the problem is minor, or that the customer caused the issue. That dispute does not stop your rights. Document the disagreement in writing. Have the independent assessment done. Lodge a complaint with your state’s consumer or building regulator if the tradie refuses to engage. The classification of major vs minor is not at the tradie’s discretion. It is a legal question that, if pushed, gets answered by a tribunal.
The major-fault vs minor-fault distinction is one of the most useful things an Australian customer can understand before a job goes sideways. Minor faults: the tradie gets to fix them and you have to allow it. Major faults: you choose the remedy, including refund or rework. Decide which one you have early and clearly. The conversation, the demand and the eventual outcome all flow from that single classification.