A TV production company ('Tele Co') is making another reality TV show about home renovations. The twist with this show is that the owner of the home to be renovated, does not know it will be renovated. The homeowner applies to be part of the show (and consents to the renovation), but they are not told whether they are accepted. The TV production team then arranges an accomplice to get them out of the house for a day so that Tele Co can go the property and renovate it. Tele Co has a contract with a TV network to create six episodes for the first season of the show. They are paid $3M per episode by the network, however, their expenses for making each episode are $3.1M. Tele Co is willing to take the $600,000 loss because they estimate they have a 90% chance of securing a second season of 12 episodes by which time their costs will be lower and they will be able to make a $200,000 profit per episode. For the pilot episode Tele Co chooses the Fahour family in Blackburn. Tele Co enters into a contract with Bee Build Co who will provide the staff for the 12-hour renovation. The contract provides that Bee Build Co will provide 200 qualified and unqualified tradespeople to do the planned tasks. Bee Build Co's staff work under the instruction of a foreperson who follows the instructions given in advance by Tele Co. Tele Co promises to pay Bee Build Co $500,000 for the day. Under the contract, Bee Build Co is not required to provide any materials for the renovation, but the qualified tradespeople have their own tools. Clause 8 in the contract states: 8. Bee Build Co will take reasonable care to ensure that the building work is completed according to the schedule provided by Tele Co. Bee Build Co does not have a contract with the homeowner, Waleed Fahour. The pilot episode renovation started on 1 February 2024. The renovations started at 7.00am when Waleed left for the day. It was scheduled to end at 7.00pm. Unfortunately, the renovations did not go to plan. Tele Co had organised for a truck to bring new furniture, rugs, curtains and furnishings to the house at 4pm. For reasons unknown the truck only arrived at 6pm. This meant that the interior of the house was still not finished at 7.00pm, when it was supposed to be finished at 6pm. Also, during the day Tele Co's representatives argued with Bee Build Co's foreperson that she was giving her staff breaks that were too long. The Bee Build Co foreperson allowed her staff to take an hour break for lunch, two 15-minute breaks in the morning, and a 30-minute break in the afternoon. She insisted that breaks of that length were standard in the industry and Tele Co could not convince her otherwise. As the breaks added up delays accumulated on Tele Co's schedule. The last big piece of work that was to be done was helicoptering a large glass window and lowering to a hole that had been cut in the roof. Unfortunately, the helicoptering had not been done by 7.30pm when the council noise consent ended. They stopped all work at that point, knowing they would have to come back the next day. On the evening of 1 February, when Waleed returned to his home to find it half renovated, he was completely shocked and not in a pleasant way. Although he had consented to a surprise renovation, he was horrified that someone appeared to have partially destroyed his home. Tele Co paid $600 to put Waleed up in fancy accommodation for the night as well as paying him $5000 for not completing the renovation, which Tele Co was obliged to do under its contract with Fahour. The BOM forecast predicted showers with isolated heavier falls overnight so before the workers left, they covered the hole in the roof with a large tarpaulin. Overnight some rats came out of the roof and gnawed through one of the ropes holding the tarpaulin, which let a corner flap in the wind. At 2.00am a very heavy downpour of rain flooded in through the open corner and poured into the house. The water damaged and stained the bottom quarter of a tapestry that had been handed down to Waleed from his great-great-grandfather and has great sentimental value for him. The tapestry's market value was $5000, but with the damage could not be sold. The next day Bee Build Co and Tele Co returned to the renovation and completed it after three more hours of work. It would have only taken an extra 1.5 hours except that only half of Bee Build Co's staff were available the next day. Bee Build Co also only managed to convince the 100 staff to change their plans and return by offering to pay 1.5 times their pay rates (thus, the average pay rate for the first day was $50/hour, for the second day was $75/hour). After discovering the damage to Waleed's tapestry, Tele Co agreed to pay him compensation of $50,000. Tele Co's executives decide to offer this amount to try to avoid Waleed bringing any negative publicity to the series on social media or interviews. Waleed was still sad at the damage to the very old family tapestry but was happy to have $50,000 as well. He has now put the tapestry in a smaller frame so that the water damage doesn't show but the image at the centre is visible. When Tele Co reviewed why the renovation had failed, they discovered that the Building and Construction General On-site Award that governed Bee Build Co's employees' rights only required the staff to be given a 30-minute lunch break, one 10-minute break, and one 20-minute break. Tele Co claimed that giving each staff member an extra 60 minutes of breaks was a breach of cl 8. Bee Build Co has conceded this was a breach of the contract. Also in the review Tele Co has learned that the network is going to invoke a clause in their contract that means the network only has to pay $2M for this episode as it does not comply with the "success" criteria for the show due to the renovation not being completed in 12 hours. Tele Co's executives now estimate that the chance they will secure the second season from the network is 60%. Waleed has another complaint that he has brought directly to Bee Build Co. At the start of the renovation, Bee Build Co staff moved all of Waleed 's possessions into offsite storage. During this one of the staff picked up a small cardboard box that was on a shelf in the living room, with "stamps" written on it. This box was careless dropped into a puddle on the road when being carried to the storage truck. By the time it was picked up it was quite wet. Bee Build Co has conceded vicarious liability for the negligence of its staff member in dropping the cardboard box and letting it get wet. Inside that box was Waleed's prized possession: a Palestinian stamp from his great great grandfather in mint condition. The stamp was printed by the Ottoman Empire Postal Service in 1914 when WWI had commenced, and this particular one is a rare copy that was overprinted with the "signature" of the Sultan of the Empire. In February 2022 there were only 18 of these stamps known to be in existence. The most recent sale of one of these stamps in similar condition was 168,000 Euros in December 2022. The water damage to this stamp means it is now worth less than 10% of its original value. However, four months after the renovation an incredibly lucky stamp collector in Jordan found 100 of these same type of stamps in mint condition, which means that the market value of all stamps of this type has now reduced by 50%.

Bee Build Co has sought your advice on their liability to compensate Tele Co and Waleed Fahour.