Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Apr 04, 2013 12:22 pm Our builder has asked us to give a 4.9% deposit after drawing up our house plans. At this stage we won't be getting a contract. But after we pay the 4.9% we can go for colour selections and our plan will be sent in for all the necessary approvals. We will have to pay a further 0.1% after the contract has been drawn up. I am just a bit worried about having to pay 4.9% without getting a contract in return. Is it normal to pay 5% without getting a contract.? More info: We have already paid a tender fee of $1000 and $5000 to draw the preliminary plans. Re: Deposit Payment 2Apr 04, 2013 1:05 pm We paid $1000 to secure the price and any promotion at that time. We then paid 3% (less the $1000 already paid) at tender stage. We then had our colour and tiles appointments, then the remaining 2% was paid after signing contract. I'm not sure what is a "normal" amount but it does seem excessive before contract, which in todays economic climate is a concern. Is your builder a small private builder or a large project builder? If he's a small private builder maybe he's just wanting to cover himself in case you pull out/decide at the last minute you can't go ahead with the build. Can you negotiate the payment? This is all just my personal opinion, sorry it's probably not much help. edit: to add missing words...... stupid phone! Re: Deposit Payment 4Apr 04, 2013 6:53 pm I paid nothing to get my build underway with a custom builder. There was after quite a bit of work by their building designer to develop an initial plan based on my design brief. They also provided a detailed tender and spec. This included a couple of iterations on the plans and several iterations on the spec. All of this at no cost to me! Once I decided to proceed with them, I then paid $4500 as a pre-deposit. There have now been further revisions to the pre-plan to finalise the layout and front elevation. One I sign off on the pre-plan and the exterior colours, pre-plan will then go to land developer for approval. The balance of the 5% deposit will be paid once I have signed the contract. Build thread: here Land Nov 12, Contract 6/07/13, Consent 15/08/13, Start 20/09/13, Slab 25/09/13, Frame 4/10/13, Brick 21/10/13, Roof 2/11/13, Lock-up 17/12/13, Handover 3/3/14 Re: Deposit Payment 5Apr 04, 2013 10:22 pm mimi23 We paid $1000 to secure the price and any promotion at that time. We then paid 3% (less the $1000 already paid) at tender stage. We then had our colour and tiles appointments, then the remaining 2% was paid after signing contract. I'm not sure what is a "normal" amount but it does seem excessive before contract, which in todays economic climate is a concern. Is your builder a small private builder or a large project builder? If he's a small private builder maybe he's just wanting to cover himself in case you pull out/decide at the last minute you can't go ahead with the build. Can you negotiate the payment? This is all just my personal opinion, sorry it's probably not much help. edit: to add missing words...... stupid phone! This is pretty much standard. 1k to get the ball rolling, 2% to move on to colours, electrical, etc then 3% at contract taking you to a total of 5%. HD Re: Deposit Payment 6Apr 05, 2013 3:46 am we paid $1500 up first then plans extra was all drawn up site survey done . then after we were happy with everything and had gone over contract then we paid the final amount which equaled 5 per cent of the total build but we were building a custom home regardless, your contract stipulates a payments schedule and SOPA doesn't give provision to that scenario. Your contractual terms appear to stand. Hence get a lawyer, it… 4 11869 There is no reason why building contract reconciliation cannot be done prior to handover, if the builder won't do it get someone to do it for you. Why would you pay for… 3 6687 1) I had requested R6 ceiling insualtion batts, however I noticed that on some areas there are huge gaps which will allow hot air to sweep in, and also noticed black/grey… 0 3597 |