John Cunniffe

John Cunniffe has worked in construction since 1973, has been a licensed builder and building consultant in New South Wales for over a decade, and has prepared expert reports and given evidence in building disputes since 2014. Every engagement at this office is led personally by him. There is no separation between the person whose name appears on the report and the expert responsible for the work.

From the tools to the tribunal

John started on the tools with the family construction business and worked in carpentry and construction from 1973. Before he prepared expert reports he built. As a contract project manager and building supervisor he personally managed fifty-four new house builds and two townhouse developments, including knock-down rebuilds and rescue projects taken over from a builder who could not finish them, working alongside the trades through benching, formwork, steel, slabs, framing, rough-in and fixing out. That background is why his reports go past what is wrong with a building to the questions that actually decide a matter. Why did it happen. What caused it. What standard applied at the time. What is required to rectify it. What that rectification reasonably costs.

Into building consultancy

In 2014 John was introduced to John Worthington at the Master Builders Association and became an associate of his building consultancy. The work was progress and handover reporting, post-handover defect reports, builder and contractor dispute reports, owner-builder mediation, NCAT reports and termite damage reporting. He founded Worthington Cunniffe & Associates as a forensic building consultancy in 2019, and expert engagements have run continuously since.

Standards and industry work

John sits on Standards Australia Committee BD-002-11 and on the EN 1504 working group committee of the Australian Concrete Repair and Remedial Building Association. He is President of the Australian Society of Building Consultants, chairs its Strata Inspection Panel, and sits on the NSW committee of the Concrete Institute of Australia. He served on the Master Builders Association NSW Council of Management and chaired its Housing Committee. The practical effect for an instructing solicitor is that the standards cited in a report are cited by someone who has worked on them, and that the currency of the technical position can be demonstrated rather than asserted.

How he works with instructing solicitors

Instructions are taken from either side of a dispute. The scope, the hours estimate and the delivery date are agreed in writing before work starts, and a variation to scope is raised before it is incurred rather than after. Where the technical case is weak, that is said early and in conference. The objective is a report that narrows the issues, survives the other expert's response, and arrives when it was promised.

Papers, presentations and industry contributions

Papers presented and sessions convened. Continuing professional development attended is recorded in the curriculum vitae rather than listed here.

• Laticrete swimming pool waterproofing system, sponsored presentation — Australian Institute of Waterproofing (2026)
• Strata Inspection Panel workshop, seminar presenter — Australian Society of Building Consultants (2025)
• Convenor, Annual ASBC Conference — Australian Society of Building Consultants (2025)
• Strata Building Bond and Inspections Scheme, co-presenter — Australian Society of Building Consultants
• Risk mitigation for timber pest inspectors — Pesticon 24, Australian Environmental Pest Managers Association (2024)
• Coastal corrosion impacts on buildings — Australian Institute of Waterproofing (NSW)

Currency

Recent conferences and technical programs attended include Concrete 2025, the Concrete Institute of Australia national conference in Adelaide; the Expert Witness Symposium 2025; Pesticon 2025 in Adelaide; and the Society of Construction Law New Zealand conference in Wellington in 2025, covering illegality and quantum meruit in residential construction, proportional liability in construction disputes, adjudication estoppel and collaborative contracts. Expert evidence training has included Expert Evidence and Ethical and Professional Obligations, sessions on the hearsay rule and its exceptions, affidavit evidence of conversations, and the treatment of complex expert evidence. A full record is in the curriculum vitae.