Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Apr 06, 2014 6:34 pm Hi All, We have been proof reading the final contract before we are booked in next week to sign the contract and proceed with the deposit. The estimator is charging us additional costs for things that are standard inclusions, so far we have picked up 25 errors totalling $17,000. . This is the first time we are building a home, not sure if the estimator is unaware of the inclusions, or the builder is taking us for a ride. My wife just informed me our builder constructs 30 homes a year and only builds custom designs. Any one out there faced the same issues? Thanks Re: double charged by estimator 2Apr 06, 2014 6:39 pm Yep. Picked up $26000+ double ups in our tender. Just slack on the builders part. They deleted them before signing. In the end it become a joke between the tender presenter and myself. He found a few I missed too! Re: double charged by estimator 4Apr 06, 2014 6:47 pm Thanks Ari, We are have documented all the charges and will go in next week guns blazing! We have spent the last 4 days going thru the documents and feel WE have wasted so much of our time doing what the builder should have done. If it was 17k in my favour then id be happy with that for a weekends reading, but conveniently only swings the builders way ! Re: double charged by estimator 6Apr 07, 2014 7:05 am Sunshine2013 Hi All, We have been proof reading the final contract before we are booked in next week to sign the contract and proceed with the deposit. The estimator is charging us additional costs for things that are standard inclusions, so far we have picked up 25 errors totalling $17,000. . This is the first time we are building a home, not sure if the estimator is unaware of the inclusions, or the builder is taking us for a ride. My wife just informed me our builder constructs 30 homes a year and only builds custom designs. Any one out there faced the same issues? Thanks WOW! $17,000 worth of errors? "not sure if the estimator is unaware of the inclusions, or the builder is taking us for a ride" how come the errors are against your pocket and not the builder's? Don't believe it, they are just trying their luck and now playing dumb. There are thousands of others before you that never checked and got ripped off. How many never got their PS back even though it was never spent? Your most important inspection? Pre contract review, before you sign. Your second most important inspection? Post contract reconciliation. Your vital inspections? 1 Pre slab 2 Frame 3 Pre plaster 4 Pre final Yes @ around $ 600 each it does add up to a bit but nowhere near to what you could loose and nowhere near hair replacement. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: double charged by estimator 7Apr 08, 2014 12:13 am Ari Yes, I know that feeling well! I started thinking I should work for the company as I seemed to know more about their product than any of their admin staff. +1 We've already signed but at the time we also found that there were a few things which they had as inclusions and were going to charge for. Including a double vanity in the ensuite. The mortar was going to be charged twice as was some part of the alfresco slab (to the tune of over $10k all up). So yes... we think we ended up finding all of them before we signed... although we are still waiting on the contract variations to be returned to us... but I think that all comes with the Basix review etc Over the weekend I looked at the inclusions and found that they spec'd a 45 cm wide dishwasher when all their elevations were for a 60cm dishwasher. I get the feeling they spec'd it wrong. But what about all the other people who were on the same promotional deal? Surely we're not the first ones? The salesperson did get back to me today and was indicating that it was incorrect and that I'd get a choice of either a 45cm or 60cm dishwasher... anyway I'll see what they say. Re: double charged by estimator 8Apr 09, 2014 9:38 am really the question you should be asking is 'Do I want to be building with this lot if they have tried to do this before I've signed anything!' The dishonesty is immediate and apparent, how can you trust them to honour anything after you've signed. Re: double charged by estimator 9Apr 09, 2014 10:02 am Marmalade really the question you should be asking is 'Do I want to be building with this lot if they have tried to do this before I've signed anything!' The dishonesty is immediate and apparent, how can you trust them to honour anything after you've signed. Very true but then it's not about trust alone, it's about you knowing and being in control, only then will you have a chance to get performance and respect. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: double charged by estimator 10Apr 09, 2014 10:46 am For me, I have built with the builder before so I have faith that the house will end up decent (plus I do have a building inspector). If it was a new builder that I had no prior experience with I would have pulled out many times over. I honestly don't think it was all about being dishonest. I think its more a case of their admin department being incompetent or perhaps its a case of not being overseen properly from those in higher positions. They need a teacher to go in there "now kids, today we are going to learn "checking and double checking our work before giving it to a client". There also seemed to be an attitude of "oh, that will get picked up by someone else later". A feeling I didn't get when I first built with them. Re: double charged by estimator 11Apr 09, 2014 10:53 am Ari For me, I have built with the builder before so I have faith that the house will end up decent (plus I do have a building inspector). If it was a new builder that I had no prior experience with I would have pulled out many times over. I honestly don't think it was all about being dishonest. I think its more a case of their admin department being incompetent or perhaps its a case of not being overseen properly from those in higher positions. They need a teacher to go in there "now kids, today we are going to learn "checking and double checking our work before giving it to a client". There also seemed to be an attitude of "oh, that will get picked up by someone else later". A feeling I didn't get when I first built with them. It does not explain why errors always favour builder's bank balance. Why would builder teach anything when admin is raking it in for him? I am a lort more sceptical than you. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: double charged by estimator 12Apr 09, 2014 11:03 am building-expert It does not explain why errors always favour builder's bank balance. Why would builder teach anything when admin is raking it in for him? I am a lort more sceptical than you. If it doubt, charge. Easier to cop the wrath of the client if you're wrong than your boss for undercharging. Re: double charged by estimator 13Apr 09, 2014 11:53 am I have found errors both ways. I think it more the admin processes and the lack if substantive controls to catch errors. Re: double charged by estimator 14Apr 10, 2014 11:23 am We found many thousands of dollars in errors in our prestart costings - it was about 15% of the total charges. I can only think of one (small) error that was in our favour. The scary thing was that we had to ask so many questions, and keep pushing for more detailed breakdowns of costings, in order to get enough information to spot the errors. I bet most people just sign without asking as much as we did. Builders must make so much money that way. Built with WBN in WA Slab down 16 Aug 2013, Handover 16 April 2014, Moved in 2 June 2014 Our house build thread Re: double charged by estimator 15Aug 04, 2017 2:30 pm I would absolutely abandon a build based on, and from early contract unsigned, there is multiple errors, it's a sign that mistakes are common, and builders are only as good as their last build, I've seen good builders turn into average builders, never assume anything when building. Once you know the basics, the rest is easy. Read my post in the thread linked below. viewtopic.php?p=1919271#p1919271 2 15463 id suggest getting an engineer to give you an opinion rather than a builder. 1 11894 I am saying that double brick has similar thermal performance due to thermal mass effect. It will be still very interesting to see the state of your framing after 10-15… 10 23106 |