Building with Rawson - handover delay and delay fees?

Hi all,

This is my first time building a house so I'm not very experienced so seeking advice from you who have built before:

- Rawson homes started on site for my new house beginning of September 2018 and did the slab frame and bricks all before Christmas
- After this they basically did nothing for over a month, which was the end of year shut down
- Pre-lining inspection came in Feb 2019, there's some minor defects involving wrong positions of exhaust outlets and door furniture but nothing major
- PCI was then mid June 2019

At the PCI the SS basically said handover would be in two week's time, so beginning of July. We identified some defects but again nothing major.

However and this is what I'm frustrated about - the two weeks between PCI and handover turned into 9 weeks, and now we are in mid August and I still don't have my keys. Apparently the certifier withheld the interim OC pending site clean up and certain doors needing to be bolted shut from their height off the ground. But seriously, should this take two months to finalise?

My contract states that if the time it takes to get to practical completion exceed 43 weeks then the builder would be liable to pay us delay fees. But when I questioned Rawson about this they just said practical completion was already reached before the 43 weeks was up and they have closed out all the defects raised at PCI. I just find this a bit ridiculous if they can simply say PC was reached in an email and take their sweet time to get to handover. The two months of delays has cost me a five figure amount in mortgage and lost rental income so I want to pursue delay fees. Do you guys think I have a chance?

How do they explain the 2 month delay to rectify the problems?

Curious about the height of the doors and needing to be bolted etc. Was your build under CDC or DA?

CDC

Door height was simply because the landscaping will be done by owner after handover so right now the step is too high and doesn't meet requirements

No explanation given except that my lender needed the interim OC to provide final payment and Rawson just couldn't get this turned around and dragged it on. Everytime we chased up they just said they are working on it asap

Not sure if you've heard or if it will affect you, but I understand that soon (September) interim OCs won't be issued.

https://www.claytonutz.com/knowledge/20 ... ember-2019

So Rawson have'nt been paid either.. you'd think more reason to get it sorted.
You'd think if they haven't been paid for practical completion they could hardly argue its been achieved.
They haven't added any delays or weather extensions either?

Clause 21 seems to say that if they've accepted your notice of work to be completed that practical completion hasn't been achieved.

You need to shout to the top. As high as you can go. We have just bypassed our SS and gone to the state manager a few times. We are doing our walkthrough tomorrow and will be demanding handover on the following Monday or we will be sleeping in there office.

I might just need to do that, do you have the state manager's contacts? How long did you have to wait between PCI and your final walkthrough? Are you pursuing liquidated damages/delay fees?

Yes exactly - the SS was making it sound like it was the payment delaying handover but my lender wasn't going to issue the final payment without the house having interim OC. There were defects from me, defects from a private building inspector I hired, and then the defects from the private certifier but nothing major.

I'm getting keys tomorrow which is a full 50 weeks after they started on site. The interim OC was only issued late July/early August or at 48 weeks. Contract says the building period shall not exceed 43 weeks to get to PC - when we chased up the SS just emailed saying "all defects have been rectified" back in mid July. Do you think I can claim liquidated damages for the additional 5 weeks it took to get the interim OC?