A building expert is encouraging people to check their builder is trustworthy before going ahead with a new build or renovations.

Yesterday, a Christchurch building practitioner lost his licence for two-years, after mistakes including a budget blow out of more than $100,000 landing on the owner's back.

Master Builders Canterbury president Ivan Stanicich says a home is often the biggest single investment made, and you want a builder who takes the job seriously.

He thinks building clients don't want to embarrass themselves or take the time to research.

"They just want to trust the people they are dealing with. [If] you were buying a car or building a house, you'd look around on the internet these days, is there anything bad said about this person or this person, and try to make an informed decision."

Stanicich says he doesn't believe any industry is devoid of compliance problems.

He says the amount of compliance requirements can be daunting for the average carpenter.

"Most of these guys are pretty good people but they make some poor decisions because they don't like the fact that they've got to document every single thing that goes on in a building site, be it a small alteration or a new build."

However, he doesn't understand how the man managed to blow his budget by such a large amount when there are robust systems in place monitoring building compliance.

"There's too many eyes in every portion of the project. Your council engineers, you've got project managers. You'd have to have complete failure of the whole system to really be seriously caught."