Porter Davis homes

Surely that can't be acceptable to the VBA...

Makes me glad we bailed out of our contract with them and got our money back

We were told this same thing in our tender in the past week. It was said in a semi-nasty way, and not that it can incur but that it WILL incur by default.

I made my thoughts known that was a joke, but as we're not on a tight timeline just brushed it aside as something that is petty on their end.

Wow, they really don’t like them do they. In saying that, our SS has been great with Darbecca and we haven’t had any issues or delays. But our Darbecca reports have also come back pretty good which may also be why. But yes if someone is doing all the inspections that would add up to 2 months to there build.

It’s interesting. At guess I think this is coming from a corporate side, meaning it’s an excuse to add more time to your build therefore less penalty for going over has to be paid to the client.

We have this in our contract too, and it was presented to us without any rancour, just as a fact that if more defects are picked up than by their own inspectors (eg defects that don't contravene Code but we still want fixed) then it will take some time to fix. We've also just had our pre-pour inspection and our Base Supervisor was fantastic about working with New Home Inspections to find a time and about taking photos to show us they'd rectified everything NHI picked up before pouring as we couldn't be there.
I guess I'm not too fussed. Other delays could take a week or more. I'd rather the delays were due to picking things up and fixing them!

We advised PD early on that we would be engaging Darbecca and didn't have the days added on. We signed contracts in December 2017.

When we had our initial phone call from our SS he said, "oh I see you're engaging Darbeeca. Every inspection you have will delay your build". As it's not in our contract my response was that we will only be delayed if there are any items in the report which need rectifying. I will be making sure we keep to our 308 days.

Worth a note as well, after two attempts at meeting our SS, we're 98 days into our build and we're still yet to meet him.

So how many days delay so they allow for the "independent" inspector you are forced to get through them and the sheet they make you sign to say you have independently chosen them who finds very little.

see more About the hoffman – Building the hoffman
https://hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com/about/

The 7 day delay is actually in the sample contract we were given (we are going to tender tomorrow), we are trying to reduce that to 3-4 days.

For people that have built the Waldorf Grange/Astor Grange or anything with a double storey void, what did you install in terms of window furnishings and how did they install and how much did it cost? In the same vain, chandeliers over the void/staircase I assume will require some sort of scaffolding or did any of you try to use a chandelier winch/hoist?

e.g. https://www.micalighting.com.au/lightin ... -50kg.html

We're going to ask to put extra noggins so that we can install the chandelier hoist over staircase and void.

Poor form PD, poor form. Just received 2 letters from our BC, advising because we have had 2 x independent inspections, they have extended the time to be finished by 12 days......we signed our contract in Nov 2017. It states:

"I refer to the signed HIA Building Contract Schedule 1, 'Time for completion - building period' Clause 11 and Clause 34.0 'Builders right to extension of time'.

Porter Davis Homes advises we are claiming 6 days of the allowance stated in the HIA Building Contract:

I have no doubt it probably does say something like that in our rather large contract that I signed. However a courtesy call from our BC before the letter would have been warranted, especially considering that I would have had absolutely no clue about this unless I was on this forum.

Hi There,

We went through Contract stage at the same time and we have no clause that specifically allows them to claim delays due to Independent Inspectors. It sounds like from the comments below that the new contracts do. In our Contract, there is a clause (34.1) where you can dispute in writing their 'Builders right to extension of time' within 7 days. You need to give a detailed reason why you dispute their claim.

I know what I'll be reading before I go to bed tonight

To be honest, I don't see what the problem is here. If your inspection finds issues that need rectification, this allows the builder more time to have the issues fixed. The SS can't be 100% responsible for every defect as he doesn't have the time to lean over the shoulder of every trade to make sure they are doing the job perfectly.

If there's defects found at frame stage, chances are those chippies have already gone to the next site.... are they expected to just stop what they're doing to come back and rectify the defects? The SS will need to schedule them a visit to come back, which could take a few days.

I'd rather have some extra days added to my build if it meant getting more issues fixed, resulting in a better quality build.

I also received 2 letters from Porter Davis 3 weeks ago adding 7 days for each independent inspection.


My problem with this situation is that I have signed a contract that stipulates that my house will take 266 days to construct. Now that they can see that my construction won't be done in time they are fabricating reasons to extend their time frame and not pay me the liquid damages due. I will need to pay rent and mortgage for longer than budgeted and there will be financial hardship due to their inability to construct my house to their original deadline.
This is not their first rodeo, they know that trades will need to be scheduled to come back and correct mistakes, that's just the nature of construction, these extra days must surely already be allowed for within the original 266 days of my construction timeline.

They have an obligation under the contract to construct my house to the minimum quality standard set out in the National Construction Code. I have engaged an inspector who has shown their trades have incorrectly constructed my dwelling and are therefore bound by law to correct these mistakes. Why should I be further penalised by extending my construction deadline because they have employed less than competent trades people. The decision to utilise those trades where made by Porter Davis, therefore the costs associated with their mistakes are 100% the responsibility of Porter Davis. I should not be financially penalised for their choices.

I should still expect my house to be finished construction within the 266 days specified in my contract, there should be no reason that my contract should be extended just because I decided to engage the services of a professional who can help me understand if my house has been constructed according to code or not.

This is just another blatant action on the part of Porter Davis to save money. I would suspect that they have more work than they can cope with and are looking for ways to extend contracts and save on paying out liquid damages. I know that all new contracts for similar size houses to ours now have 308 days written into the contract, I would say this supports my theory that they can't keep up with the number of houses they have taken on in recent months.

If it wasn’t in your original contract, then yes I fully understand why you would be upset about the extensions they are requesting, I would be too.

If it was in your original contract, then they are within their right to do so.

It would appear that they are sending out letters to people who have signed their contracts last year, which do not have any indication that extra time will be added on for any and all independent inspections. From what I have read on forums, they are now specifically including a clause that states 7 days will be added for every inspection.
But I do not have that specific clause in my contract and they are trying to use clause 34 of the HIA contract to claim the extended time.

"Anything done or not done by the owner or by an agent, contractor or employee of the owner"





I have attached the clause for reference, given the other reasons mentioned within this particular clause, I don't think that they are using this clause in the right context, but are clutching at straws to try and extend our build time without justification.

Yes. Has anyone gone back to there BC to query this? I don’t see how they can make the connection with clause 34. I will reply back to my BC tomorrow but interested in any PD feedback from anyone who received these letter

The following response from our BC (after 3 weeks delay from when we sent our email)



Apologies for the late reply in regards to your dispute email below.

I have discussion with your site supervisors manager and my manager and the expert HIA contract in Porter Davis. So basically in the HIA contract, the clause in regards to the extension of time is always there, however we haven't been putting a clause to clear this with clients in Porter Davis contract document.

So based on the discussions, in your case, for the 2 inspection (Frame stage and Lock up Stage) below are the breakdown on the days required on top of normal supervisor day that (name removed) had to spend in order for him to action the items on the Private inspection list:
1. 1 day for the site supervisor to meet your private inspector onsite (your private inspector day).
2. 1 day for the your private inspector to issue the report - please note your site supervisor could have been organising things for the next stage of the build, but have to hold off waiting for the result of the inspection
3. 1 day for your site supervisor to review the report
4. 1 day for your site supervisor to organise for trades to action the lists agreed to be fixed on the report

We will be claiming 4 days for each inspection at Frame and Lock up stage, in lieu of the 7 days previousy stated in the letter.
Once the letter is amended, I will re-send them to you.

Please let me know if you still have any other enquiries.



So it would appear that they are willing to compromise and meet in the middle. But I'm still not sure of the legality of this action and feel that I need to seek some legal advice

My brother in law is doing the void curtains for our Waldorf Grange. We are hiring scaffolding to install them. We will have an electrician there to motorise them and install our void pendant lights at the same time. We got PD to put the pendant provisions in the roof during the build.

Do you have a quote for the scaffolding hire/setup/teardown? I've seen it as cheap as $100 on airtasker but my handyman reckons it might take a whole day to setup and another to teardown! It might just be that a scaffolder can do it quicker and cheaper, just wanted to know costs. We did extend our ceilings to 2.7+2.5 so approx 5.5m to the ceiling (including subfloor).

My bro in law said it would be about $300? Not sure where he got that price from. I haven’t shopped around.

Our ceiling upgrades are similar to yours 2740mm and 2590mm

For all sorts of reasons spent a couple of hours yesterday reading the NSW Government's conditions of contract for projects under $1 million and the builder contract signed by a private punter. The thing that is totally clean is how the favour of the document in the private area is toward the Contractor rather than the Principal. I found myself reflecting as to how what is considered appropriate for the Government agency isn't considered appropriate for the citizenry. And then I realised where I was!

What I don't understand is how if the site supervisor ensured contractors built according to the current building standards then the inspector would not find anything to put on the report. Our inspector (via Darbecca) only raised things that were not to the building code. So in that regard it is not the client causing the delay by getting the inspector but PD causing the delay by not building according to standards int eh first place. So effectively they are cutting corners, and then making the customer pay (in time delays) to rectify those cut corners to bring the build back to where it should have been in the first place.

We used inspectors for every stage. And there were no extra days added to our contract time. This appears to be a new thing to deter customers from using these inspectors.