CQA verifies build quality on behalf of owners, developers and project delivery teams.
From a single site to a national portfolio our team ensures you can answer one question: are you getting what you paid for?
CQA is backed by Stonebank Group's development and project advisory practice. We understand what matters to asset owners long-term and deliver our services through that lens. Reimagining the Clerk of Works role for today's construction industry, we look beyond tick and flick QA systems and deliver targeted, meaningful improvements in asset performance.
Delivering the works.
Protecting design intent.
Administering the contract.
Risk mitigation on modern construction projects is focused on shifting cost and design risk during delivery downstream to the builder and on the subcontractors. Consultants are often novated to the builder, leaving the project manager and superintendent to protect the Principal's interest, alongside limited inspections by the Building Surveyor. Whilst the builder is contractually responsible for build quality, there is no one independently verifying the quality of the workmanship.
Most major defects originate from construction execution rather than design intent. They are visible during construction, and preventable – if someone is looking. Early detection and rectification is the key to avoiding costly rectification.
This isn't a new problem, it's a role the industry lost. The Clerk of Works largely disappeared from Australian construction through the 1980s and 90s, as design-and-construct procurement reduced consultant site attendance and shifted certification to the contractor. The consequences are the ones the whole industry now knows by name: Opal Tower, the Lacrosse Building fire, Victoria's cladding rectification programme. Liability for what goes wrong increasingly sits with owners and developers, not away from them.
A defect is rarely just a rectification bill. It reduces asset value, degrades the occupant experience and raises maintenance costs for the life of the building. Timing is the whole argument, the same defect found later costs disproportionately more to resolve.
| When it's found | Cost to rectify |
|---|---|
| During construction | Baseline |
| One year after completion | 96% to 1,764% more |
| Seven years after completion | Up to 3,399% more |
The cost of prevention is always outweighed by the cost of rectification.
The regulatory direction reinforces the commercial one. Government is progressively shifting defect liability onto owners and developers, not away from them, and Victoria's Building and Plumbing Commission is tendering a panel to deliver similar independent oversight on Class 2 buildings. Independent verification is moving from best practice to expected practice.
We can engage at any single point on this continuum, or across the full lifecycle. Each phase is equally impactful.
Defining the quality aspects of the brief that matter, via the PPR, specification and standard details.
Reviewing the evolving design against the quality brief, targeted at the areas that cause latent defects.
Representing the owner on site, verifying workmanship, materials and sign offs against specification.
Managing commissioning and training to expedite the transition from development to operation.
Reviewing defect trends and legislative change, feeding findings back into the next brief.
For a single site, our services run project by project. For developers, operators and fund managers running a pipeline, they scale into a portfolio-wide quality function.
Regular, on-site quality inspection and audit through construction.
Reviewing design documentation for the issues that become future quality problems.
Periodic inspection and reporting aligned to an investor's or fund's own requirements.
At portfolio level, this becomes a standing function: a construction quality standard applied across every development, defect trend analysis that feeds back into the next brief, and consistent oversight regardless of which site or which builder.
We inspect what is hardest to fix later rather than what is easiest to see.
Retention, shoring and water control.
Concrete, steel and timber.
Cladding, glazing and building envelopes.
Roof systems, membranes and drainage.
Fire rating and compartmentation.
Insulation and sound transmission.
Membranes and wet-area detailing.
Mechanical, electrical and hydraulics.
It will not modify the design, instruct the contractor on methods of working, issue instructions to the contractor, vary contract procedures, or commit costs. That clarity is what allows it to work alongside a capable builder rather than against them.
This isn't a one-project claim. It's now a standard offering applied across a growing, multi-sector portfolio.
Engaged as Clerk of Works from inception. 530 quality issues identified and resolved during construction. Zero latent defects at handover.
Quality issues identified included:
The engagement cost a fraction of the rectification of any major issue identified and prevented.
Engaged on a limited Clerk of Works scope, joining mid-construction. Regular inspections, spot-checked QA records, and design detail review.
Identified for rectification, including:
Proof that a targeted, mid-construction scope still catches what matters.
"It filled an obvious gap in the meticulous approach we had taken to every other aspect of the project. We would not hesitate to engage the team on our future projects, or recommend them to other owners and operators."
"They bring clarity and structure to complexity, anchoring every stage of delivery in value, accountability and long term operational performance."
"The team was able to integrate with ours, collaboratively working to exceed benchmarks. We would welcome the opportunity to work with the team on our future projects."
The builder has since embedded a similar internal process across its own future projects, the clearest evidence the role works with a builder, not against one.
Engagements are led by directors and senior construction professionals, with decades of combined construction and design experience. This is a technical oversight function, not an entry-level compliance role, and it's resourced accordingly.
Leads Construction Quality Advisory.
Brings deep construction and technical oversight to Stonebank's Construction Quality Advisory practice.
Leads development projects from early feasibility and briefing through approvals and delivery, helping clients balance commercial objectives, project risk and delivery requirements.
We integrate with the builder's defect systems allowing us to notify most issues in real-time.
Underpinned by:
CQA is the dedicated Construction Quality Advisory practice of Stonebank Group, a director led property development advisory firm engaged nationally on projects across Australia.
