Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Municipal Building surveyor or private 12Jun 27, 2018 5:57 pm 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Municipal Building surveyor or private 13Jun 27, 2018 6:06 pm Ah, probably, I am speaking in NSW terms. In NSW: Building inspector = private building inspector who is checking the quality of your build and reporting directly to you. I can't see how it is illegal to hire as many building inspectors (i.e. consultants) as you want. Bulding Surveyor = Certifier (in NSW can be either private or government) - reporting to council, responsible for mandatory building inspections and issuance of the Occupancy Certificate. Re: Municipal Building surveyor or private 14Jun 27, 2018 6:12 pm alexp79 Are you guys talking about private vs council certifier? He won't be checking quality of your build, it is not his job, he will be only confirming that your build dimensions are in line with what has been certified by the council, that you have insulation, etc. That's correct and I don't think anyone is disagreeing. But in my case, for example, it literally was a dimensional thing. You could see the error on the paper plans. If you can see an error on paper that a registered, licenced Building Surveyor apparently misses, my view is that is definitely their responsibility as much as it is (or was) anyone else's further down in the chain. But the buck would surely stop at the Building Surveyor since they rubber stamp the plans - errors and all. So what I am saying is if what has been posted above is correct ( that you can't have a Building Surveyor check the work of a Relevant Building Surveyor), who do you get to act as a fifth or even sixth level of error checking (since you have client ==> Builder's draftspeople ==> structural engineer ==> onsite tradies ==> Building Supervisor ==> Relevant building Surveyor). in my case this fundamental error seems to have escaped the whole lot of that chain of command!! but perhaps someone can clarify for me going forward. Can I appoint a private building inspector to check the work over and above the Relevant Building Surveyor (Vic) or is it now too late given the contract was signed months ago and work is already well under way? Re: Municipal Building surveyor or private 15Jun 27, 2018 6:14 pm Mr. Sausage alexp79 Are you guys talking about private vs council certifier? He won't be checking quality of your build, it is not his job, he will be only confirming that your build dimensions are in line with what has been certified by the council, that you have insulation, etc. That's correct and I don't think anyone is disagreeing. But in my case, for example, it literally was a dimensional thing. You could see the error on the paper plans. If you can see an error on paper that a registered, licenced Building Surveyor apparently misses, my view is that is definitely their responsibility as much as it is (or was) anyone else's further down in the chain. But the buck would surely stop at the Building Surveyor since they rubber stamp the plans - errors and all. So what I am saying is if what has been posted above is correct ( that you can't have a Building Surveyor check the work of a Relevant Building Surveyor), who do you get to act as a fifth or even sixth level of error checking (since you have client ==> Builder's draftspeople ==> structural engineer ==> onsite tradies ==> Building Supervisor ==> Relevant building Surveyor). in my case this fundamental error seems to have escaped the whole lot of that chain of command!! Error on the building plans to what extent? Can this error to be something he is actually aware of and hoping that it can be fixed during the construction stage, be happy to accept it as variation? Re: Municipal Building surveyor or private 16Jun 27, 2018 6:20 pm I'm still trying to establish if they were aware of it or not. Thus far I have told they are "now on the case and looking into it" which suggests they were not aware of the issue and are looking to see if someone else caught it or not. The issue was that the raft slab for the garage has been poured consistent with accommodating a much smaller door than I signed up for. My hope is the Surveyor did catch onto it and directed an "onsite fix" (which to my layman mind would have involved little more than changing the formwork at the front of the garage slab prior to pouring. The sub-floor plans, frame plans and every other plan is correct except for the slab layout plan / footings plan which is wrong. The issue goes all the way back to a drafting error I spotted back in February and asked them to fix prior to the final version of the contract. They fixed the drafting error but it looks like no-one told the footings engineer - or if they did, the footings engineer neglected to update the footings and slab plans accordingly. Bottom line is that if they followed what the slab and footings engineer directed, the garage slab has been poured to only accommodate a single garage sized door. But if they have followed the sub-floor / framing plans correctly then a one-and-a-half sized garage door can be accommodated (as I wanted). Re: Municipal Building surveyor or private 18Jun 27, 2018 7:13 pm Yes - all of those are correct (and "rubber stamped"). Re: Municipal Building surveyor or private 20Jun 27, 2018 8:16 pm Well thank goodness for that. They picked up on it before the pour. Not sure who did the picking up though but whoever did I am incredibly thankful to them. I'm kicking myself for even missing it myself as I am usually very pedantic and thorough - and I don't really allow myself the excuse that I am a layman paying customer with only one other house build in my entire life. I can still understand the basics of a drawing. But it just goes to show - we can all stare at paper for months on end and still miss things. All of us were so concerned about getting other multifarious details right that we missed the wood from the trees. I'm really hoping it was the Building Supervisor or RBS who "fixed" this since it would be some good publicity for these people for a change Hi everyone, Looking for some advise. We are about to build an above ground pool in our backyard. There is a private sewer line running under the pool at 1.6m… 0 11764 If you already have a contract, is the inspection cost stated in there? If not they would be forced to issue you a variation which you could of course object to. 12 25889 |