Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Oct 20, 2010 9:54 pm I need help on how to proceed with my contract Should I sign my contract before signing the second soil test . My CSR says she has seen the second soil test and it looks like there shouldn't be much of an additional cost if at all ther is any. We don't mind a couple of thousand or so. But again we don't want to be locked in a contract and then hit with a 10-20K site cost increase. What has been your past experiences and what should I do in such a situation? Your help and experience in dealing with the same is much appreciated! Tarneit : The Reserve Re: Contract and second soil test 2Oct 21, 2010 6:11 am If she has already seen it (ie. it's already done), why is it not possible that she sends you a copy? I assume you have asked already ... My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Contract and second soil test 3Oct 21, 2010 7:49 am I would push to see the second soil test. Cost could be affected if the soil is fill, rock, clay and or if you need piers or additional support. On a technicality, you should receive the soil test on contract signing. They get around this by providing a "preliminary report". Re: Contract and second soil test 4Oct 21, 2010 11:15 am I would ask them to adjust the site costs in the contract based on the second soil test. Never trust a CSR. Not that she is ****** to you, just that she doesn't have the knowledge or the authority to interpret the soil test. And neither do you (I'm assuming), so you seeing the soil test isn't going to help much. They really need to give you a fixed quote based on the second soil test. I had my CSR tell me repeatedly that the benchtop was always done a certain way, and there was no need to include it in the contract. I insisted on including it anyway. Guess what, when the house was built they had done it the wrong way. So I pointed out that it was in the contract and they had to fix it. Luckily I picked it up before the benchtop had been made in the wrong shape. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Contract and second soil test 5Oct 21, 2010 7:22 pm Yes I agree with all of you here. I have requested but she said I will get it only after the contract signing. I don't want to sign the contract without knowing what my site cost is. In fact PD has come up with a new promo to include all site costs. I did ask to be put on that promo and they said it cant be done now. btherl - I totally agree with you we had a retreat option which is std, which was on the sale copy and were told at tender that they have rushed the plans but they will make a note. Then guess what at tender they told me its my mistake lucky I waved the Sales copy. Again its not so much trusting the CSR but like you said neither me nor the CSR has the knowledge to even guess the site cost. On another note they gave us a free promo for a H class and then told us we will need a H D Waffle slab. The two other people we know who are building in the street have H class slabs and their lots are adjacent to us, something doesn't make sense ...... Tarneit : The Reserve Re: Contract and second soil test 6Oct 21, 2010 7:38 pm I would NOT be signing anything until i knew what was going on & was happy. If they are pressuring you or not answering your questions "Do not sign" Look up your builder on here,there seems to be alot of people having probs with them. Good luck Block bought 1st RBC X! 2nd Ventrua,Keeper! Pstart 18/7/11 Ethwks jan 2012 Slab Bricks- finished 7/6 Roof Trusses 15/6-cbond 21/7 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=41185 Re: Contract and second soil test 7Oct 21, 2010 7:47 pm rramesh Yes I agree with all of you here. I have requested but she said I will get it only after the contract signing. I don't want to sign the contract without knowing what my site cost is. In fact PD has come up with a new promo to include all site costs. I did ask to be put on that promo and they said it cant be done now. btherl - I totally agree with you we had a retreat option which is std, which was on the sale copy and were told at tender that they have rushed the plans but they will make a note. Then guess what at tender they told me its my mistake lucky I waved the Sales copy. Again its not so much trusting the CSR but like you said neither me nor the CSR has the knowledge to even guess the site cost. On another note they gave us a free promo for a H class and then told us we will need a H D Waffle slab. The two other people we know who are building in the street have H class slabs and their lots are adjacent to us, something doesn't make sense ...... The part I bolded .. are they legally allowed to withhold information in order to get you to sign a contract? It reminds me of the old 'white shoe salesman' ... very *******. ~ trying to build our dream home by the sea ~ Re: Contract and second soil test 8Oct 22, 2010 6:34 am ^ And, the same sentence (in bold) caught my attention. Can you turn it around and say "I can only sign after I receive the soil report". Or, even get your own soil report done on top of the above. My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Contract and second soil test 9Oct 22, 2010 7:47 am The obvious question here is "Why can you only see the second soil report after signing?" Based on what you've posted here, I can't think of any reason why that would be the case. The paranoid interpretation is that there is a dark secret in the second soil report that they don't want you to know. But that wouldn't make PD look very good, so I'm sure they have a better explanation. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Contract and second soil test 10Oct 22, 2010 8:09 am Ok this will be a long explanation. Reading over my contract there is a one pager at the start: Notice Approved by the Director of Fair Trading and Business Affairs Pursuant to Section 31 (r) of The Domestic Building Contracts and Tribunal Act 1995, "Checklist" Before Signing this Legally Binding Contract Check this List Is the work shown and described clearly in the Contract, plans or specifications and any other relevant documents such as engineering computations or soil report? At the start of the contract: Definition of "Soil Test Report" means an investigation of the Building Site to seek evidence of filling on the Land, concealed rock and to establish a depth for the footing requirements." My contract: HIA Sep 2008 Contract clause 7.0: "On the signing of the Contract, the Builder must give the Owner identical copies of documents that form the Contract Documents at the time of signing or no later than 5 clear Business Days after the date of signing, including: Contract, specifications, plans and Soil Test Report and Engineer's Design. In summary: You are legally required to receive a copy of the Soil Test Report at contract signing... not now. A preliminary one does not cut it. They generally want you to sign everything within 1 hr but you are also legally able to cancel the contract within 5 days. I wouldn't jump to conclusions because it will stress you out. If they recommend H-D class slab then so be it. I would only be worried if you have substantial fill on your land and they don't recommend bored piers. But you wouldn't know this if don't have a Soil Test Report! If you would like more info, PM. I went through some fun tiems on this topic. Re: Contract and second soil test 11Oct 22, 2010 8:43 am Adam.M They generally want you to sign everything within 1 hr but you are also legally able to cancel the contract within 5 days. Hey Adam, does this mean they wanted you to sign the contract within 1 hour of not seeing the contract at all before this time. If that is correct then OMG I wouldnt sign anything if I was given that time limit even if you could reneg after 5 days That reminds me of one of those ads on the tv where you can buy now and send it back after 30 days if it doesnt work. If I got that wrong, sorry rramesh.....I would get that soil report before signing a thing Re: Contract and second soil test 12Oct 22, 2010 9:05 am Standard practice of the "Mass/ Volume" builders. Sit you down with your Contracts Customer Service Officer and a legal dude, show you the contract, you ask questions of which they reply "that’s standard in every contract", sign every page and before you know it, it took 1hr to sign your largest purchase to date (if your a First Home Owner). Within the 5 days you hopefully would have gone to a solicitor of which the solicitor says "you might as well pull your pants down and assume the position to the builder" because the contract is so one sided. Within the 5 days you kick up a fuss to the CSO of which they reply "you don't like it then *** off minus $1500 deposit" of which you concede and bear with the consequences. Does this sound like a burnt man rambling? So back to the main point of Soil Test Report. Builders do not like to release Soil Test Report because of a raft of reasons. You still technically not required to receive a Final Soil Test Report before the contract signing. But I would not see why you wouldn't on the day especially if they have seen it. Our <insert grown up words here> builder started off with an M class slab, then H class, then H-D class and even then technically should have used bored piers after my engineer looked at the soil report. They liberally use the "provisional costs" to assign you costs for such slab upgrades. rramesh is rightfully concerned if the new promo is "fixed site costs" and at the same time they are playing around with Soil Reports etc. But in the end you have the 5 day cooling off period and hopefully you don't get pushed around too much. Re: Contract and second soil test 13Oct 22, 2010 9:37 am Wow, I cant believe thats standard practice. I'd better check that with my builder cos there is no way I would be happy with that. When we got our soil tests done, we asked for a copy of the soil report and it was given to us almost straight away Re: Contract and second soil test 14Oct 22, 2010 11:57 am We are in the process of looking to build with a major project builder now, still waiting for the tender document and received via email just now was a copy of my contour survey as well as my soil report. This is before we've received our tender prices let alone anywhere near signing a contract. ~ trying to build our dream home by the sea ~ Re: Contract and second soil test 15Oct 22, 2010 7:47 pm It may be different here, We have also recieved our soil report from a builder,without signing a thing or any deposit being paid (we paid seperately for the soil report only) As far as i know if you have paid for the soil report as a deposit to build a house (the deposit covers the contour & soil report) you own the reports,its yours & should be given to you! Block bought 1st RBC X! 2nd Ventrua,Keeper! Pstart 18/7/11 Ethwks jan 2012 Slab Bricks- finished 7/6 Roof Trusses 15/6-cbond 21/7 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=41185 Re: Contract and second soil test 16Oct 24, 2010 8:15 am Yeah we got our first soil test report which is pretty much a farce and a cost to us I think as they always order a second soil test if your land isn't titled. They never told us about the second soil test until tender. I was in no rush to get a soil test done till my land titled. Here are my thoughts since they have a current promotion where they have free site costs. They may be afraid (since we haven't signed yet) that we may be able to conclude from the second soil test that there are additional costs in our case which would probably be covered by the new promotion and insist on going with the new promo. Tarneit : The Reserve Re: Contract and second soil test 18Nov 01, 2010 4:00 pm Hi rramesh, I am glad that everything is sorted. Let me know if you have any more questions and goodluck with everything. Jess. Porter Davis Homes Questions? Call 1800PORTER Mon - Fri 9am-8pm Sat - Sun 10am-4pm info@porterdavis.com.au http://blog.porterdavis.com.au/ http://www.porterdavishomes.com.au Re: Contract and second soil test 19Nov 05, 2010 3:57 am Ok I think I spoke too soon! I was told one thing over the phone and by the time it came to having it on paper it was a another story. So the story so far.... In order to get around the second soil test and to receive the new promotion we requested to switch houses and were told that we may loose our deposit so I kind of negotiated something in return and one of the things that came back was the ability to reuse the second soil test. Now when it came to signing on the dotted line we were told we could only use the second soil test if it was done on titled land ! Even though I mentioned during the negotiation that they had done the second soil test on untitled land which at the time they accepted. So why would they do the second soil test if the land hasn't been titled yet? I must say it is a bit disappointing so far but I am an optimist and believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have requested Jesse here from Porter Davis who seems very keen on helping me as to what the escalation process is with PD. I hope someone in PD has the intelligence to prevent me from walking out on them. Has anyone else had to pull their hair out dealing with PD ? Tarneit : The Reserve Re: Contract and second soil test 20Nov 05, 2010 8:32 am If this is what its like to sign the contract, what will it be like once its signed. We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37142 Hi Building Expert, Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated, there is also a code of conduct for building surveyors which they need to follow as well. I am looking… 4 3671 Three options 1 Ask the liquidator 2 Find another PD customer and ask the source of their report 3 Pay for new report 3 12337 |