PD people, after your price capping expired, what's next???

Hi guys,

Currently our land will not be titled until May09 and as we all know we need to allocate a certain period of time as an allowance for the land title being delayed. Therefore we asked the builder about the price capping and at the end of the day they gave us a fix price capping until July09.

But the interesting part is our CSC looks very very reluctant to tell us what happen to the house price IF we exceed this capping period!! We keep pushing him to write something down about this issue and the only thing that he agrees to write down on the paper is

“After this date, the price may vary due to a possible change in the price of the house”.

This is really really NOT clear to us of what happen to our house price once we exceed the capping period. What should we do??

Also we just want to know what usually people have after the price capping expired? Any input??

As I understand it they can put the price up as much as they want.

The ** part is they give you a quote for 100 days and even though you have paid the deposit to get the plans done, if it is not out of council in time to meet the 100 days for you to sign the contract then they can again increase the price.

wow!! that looks scary...

uhmm.. Currently I'm building with pl4ces homes which is a sub-division from PD.. And our CSC claims all the process would be similar to that of PD..
I just wondering what PD's policy is when the price capping expired? PD people pleaseee enlighten us...

I dont have any dealings with PD but when i was with M, they gave me a price cap up to a certain date, and then they charge you 0.5% of your contract value for every month that you are delayed.

I would think that PD would do something similar to this.

We have bought our block of land and have a similar problem, as our title isn't expected until April-May 09.
All the big building companies are very reluctant to give a straight answer on the matter. This makes it so hard to decide whether to lock in a price or not. Some of the smaller builders have told us they wont have a price rise for another year, so we're just going to wait til next year.
PD are currently price capping until August 09 but its ******* you have to pay up to $5000, especially when its only for a limited time and if the house prce rises after that you have to pay the difference anyway.
We've found much of our problems come with speaking to so many different sales people who dont seem to have a clue.

I think people need to be firmer when dealing with builders early on in the process. The building industry will be hit heavily by the financial crisis and rising material costs and demand will slow dramatically. If the builder wants your business signed up earlier than when your site will be ready, they should fix your price for a reasonable amount of time for FREE. Remember, you're shoring up their business and giving them cash upfront for next to no work. You have the most power before you sign so demand what you want and go to their sales manager (or another salesperson) if the sales person you're dealing with won't come to the party. Make them aware that you're aware that you're doing them a favour by signing up early. Do it nicely though and stick to the facts (don't whinge about it).

When I built, I specified a number of conditions including a fixed price for the next 10 months for no fee. I was prepared to walk away if they weren't interested. Bugger this $5K price cap business - you're just giving money away again for nothing and it sh!ts me no end that a company is acting in this fashion.

These days, it's almost uneconomical to build. What's the point of building if an existing home is going to be cheaper and less hassle? I think builders need to be made more aware of this point.

Its quite simple, your builder will not give you a price after that date as their records for pricing will be updated for that period in the coming months, so they do not have a price to give you past July 2009.

i am a builder by trade and to forecast that far ahead is impossible, how can you expect to pay today for a price that will last forever when the circumstances regarding your land are totally out of there hands?

no builder nor successful business will be stupid enough to FIX a cost of a build with so many variables before your land is ready. they could be potentially cutting their wrists with your job 8 months before they begin.

I agree with the above.

Then don't ask for money from the owner to do tests.

And pay for it out of our pocket when you may not build at all. No thanks find some other sucker that will work for nothing.