Melbourne's West · Fixed price
Why Zaman. Your money is covered before we touch it.
Choosing a builder means handing over money before the home exists. This page sets out exactly what protects it: cover in your hands before any deposit, payments that follow finished work, and a price that does not move.
Your money, protected
We don’t take a cent until you’re covered.
Before you pay a deposit, you hold the certificate that covers your build. Certificate first, deposit second. That order is the law, and we put it in your hands so you can see it before any money moves.
If something goes seriously wrong, you can claim straight away. You are not waiting on anybody else first.
Why that is a change worth knowingLess
It is called first resort cover, and the name is literal. Under the old system owners had to wait until their builder had died, disappeared or gone broke before an insurer would even open the file. That wait is gone. The cover answers to you, not to the builder’s circumstances.
$400,000
The cover on your home
The most the scheme will pay out on a single home. It is a legal cover amount set by the scheme, and it is the same for every builder in Victoria.
6 years
Major defects
Structural problems and other major defects are covered for six years from completion of the work.
2 years
All other defects
Everything else the scheme covers is claimable for two years from completion.
An honest note: on a larger build, $400,000 may not be enough to finish the home. No builder’s cover goes further, ours included. The stronger protection is making sure you never need to claim at all. That is what the rest of this page is about.
Scale, examined honestly
We build a small number of homes a year, on purpose.
homes on the books when Porter Davis collapsed in 2023
In 2023, Porter Davis collapsed with around 1,700 homes on its books and left families across Victoria with unfinished houses and lost deposits. Porter Davis was not a small builder. It was one of the biggest in the country. It did not fail because it was small. It failed because it took on more homes than it could finish.
Trusting a small builder can feel like the risk. Look closer and it runs the other way. Every home we take on is one we know we can staff, supervise and complete with the people and the money we already have. We do not chase volume, because chasing volume is what buries builders. The families who lost the most in recent years lost it to the biggest names on the biggest billboards.
We would rather build fewer homes properly than promise hundreds and hope.
Progress payments
You only pay for work that’s done.
Your money should follow the build, never run ahead of it. At every point of a Zaman build, the work on your block is worth more than the money you have handed over.
A capped deposit
Your deposit is capped at 10%. We never ask for more up front. The law sets that cap, and plain fairness agrees with it.
Payments follow the build
You pay at fixed stages, and only once a stage is genuinely complete. Base, frame, lockup, fixing, completion. No finished stage, no invoice.
Bring your own inspector
You are welcome to have an independent building inspector verify any stage before you pay for it. We will give them access and answer their questions. Work done properly has nothing to fear from inspection.
The schedule, drawn
Five stages. Five invoices. Each one arrives after the work it pays for exists.
If a stage is not finished, the invoice does not exist. That is the whole system, and it is the reason your money can never run ahead of your home.
Our guarantee
The price we agree is the price you pay.
The number on your contract is the number you pay. Agreed before a brick is laid, held until the keys are in your hand.
A fixed price building contract, signed before work begins
Every inclusion itemised in writing
No surprise variations partway through the build
First Resort Home Warranty cover on every home
A structural workmanship guarantee that outlasts handover
Due diligence
Ask any builder these questions.
Take this list to every builder you meet, including us. A good builder answers every one of them in writing without flinching. We will.
A Zaman home, TarneitWill I hold my home warranty certificate before I pay a deposit?
Taking a deposit before cover is in place is against the law. The certificate should always come first.
How many homes will you be running while you build mine?
Taking on too much is what brings builders down. The answer tells you where your home sits in the queue.
Would you show me a current credit report on your business?
A builder in good financial health has no reason to refuse.
What are your PC and PS allowances based on?
These allowances are the estimates inside a quote for items not yet chosen. Set them low and the quote looks cheap on paper. You pay the gap later.
Can I speak to three clients you handed keys to in the past two years?
Recent, contactable owners are the one reference that cannot be staged.
Is the price fixed once we sign, and what could still change it?
The honest answer names the few genuine exceptions instead of pretending there are none.
What exactly is not included in your price?
Site costs, driveways, flooring and landscaping are where cheap quotes quietly grow.
Are progress payments tied to completed, inspected stages?
You should only ever be paying for work that already exists.
Who will I actually deal with during the build, and can I call them?
A name and a number beat a call centre every time.
The homes behind the checklist. Every question on this list has an answer standing in Tarneit.
Why family owned
What it actually changes about your build.
Not sentiment. Logistics. Four things that work differently when the people who own the company are the people running your build.
One person knows your build
You are not passed between a sales office, a drafting room and a site crew. The person who takes your brief stays with you from the first meeting to the day you get your keys.
The owner walks your site
Decisions about your home are made by people who stand on your slab, not by a head office that has never seen your street.
Answers take one phone call
There is no ticket queue and no account manager in the middle. The person who picks up is a person who can decide.
Our name is on the sign out front
Most of the homes we build are for people our past clients sent our way. That only happens when the last home was finished properly, so protecting the family name protects your build.
Tarneit · a Zaman family build
Built by the family · Melbourne's west
Family owned and operated
The same family, for over fifty years.
Zaman is a family business. The name on your contract is a family that has been building for more than fifty years, through every boom, downturn and rate cycle this state has thrown at it. More than two hundred families live in homes we built. Companies chasing fast growth come and go. We plan to be here when your grandchildren need a builder.
On site, Melbourne’s west
Start your home
Every home starts with a conversation.
Five quick questions, then a free consult with the builder.
- Free and no obligation
- Honest numbers, no surprises
- You deal with the builder, not a salesperson
Free, no obligation. You deal with the builder directly.
What are you planning?
Takes about 45 seconds.