Popular questions and answers
1. If I register with BuildAdvisor, will my personal details be safe?
BuildAdvisor adheres to the Australian Privacy Principles, as defined by the Australian Government (Please see our Privacy Policy for more information).
Protecting your details is our highest priority. We will never pass your personal contact details on to a third party. Likewise, you will never receive unsolicited emails from third parties unless you choose to opt-in to receive news or special information from BuildAdvisor and Affiliated Organisations.
2. What information do I need to supply when I review my builder?
You will need to provide us with your Building Permit Number, which is issued by your Council or your Building Surveyor.
Without your Building Permit Number you cannot rate your Builder. This information enables us to verify that projects are 100% legitimate – and therefore gives readers assurance that we are providing information they can trust.
3. I’m looking to choose a Builder – how can I trust that the reviews I’m reading are genuine?
The authentication process we follow allows us to verify the authenticity of building projects as well as confirm whether the reviewer and builder are genuine. BuildAdvisor does this by:
* Checking all Building Permit Numbers with the Local Council;
* Collecting information about the Builder from the State Building Authorities; and
* Utilising a number of manual and automated authentication procedures on our website.
BuildAdvisor follows the investigation process to identify and remove fake reviews as recommended by the ACCC (See Online Reviews – A Guide for Business and Review Platforms, ACCC November 2013).
Please See our Contents Integrity Policy for more information.
4. Who are the builders listed on BuildAdvisor?
The Builders displayed on the website are currently registered or were at one time registered by their State Building Authority. You can easily check a builder's current registration status once you have searched for and accessed their rating information.
5. How does BuildAdvisor's star rating system work?
BuildAdvisor's easy-to-follow star rating system is a way for you to share your opinion about how well your builder performed.
Ratings are measured on a scale of 1 to 5 stars - 5 stars being the highest possible rating.
Your rating is used to inform readers about project completion, delivery on budget, expected quality, professionalism and integrity. Rating summaries appear below the builder's individual reviews. There is also an overall star rating displayed next to the Builder's name and this is an aggregate of all the individual overall ratings for that particular Builder.
6. Is BuildAdvisor independent?
You can be assured that BuildAdvisor is an independent review platform.
We are commercially independent of any building or finance organisation. We have no association or connection with any real estate agents or building developers, we maintain our independence by offering free registration to everyone and our website requires that all reviews are submitted in the same format. We communicate with Government bodies only for the purpose of validating publicly available information provided by the reviewer or builder.
7. Why is BuildAdvisor only available in Victoria?
BuildAdvisor saw its origins in Victoria, however we know that we provide a service highly sought-after around Australia.
Our plan is to roll-out to additional states/territories. We are currently fully operational in Victoria only, however if you live in another Australian state or territory and would like to submit a review, we will happily accept it. We will retain your review and display it on our site once we launch in your area.
8. Which web browsers are supported by BuildAdvisor?
BuildAdvisor supports the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and Safari, and is responsive across desktop, tablet and mobile.