Door wide open - that's terrible, but unsurprising.
Well, you are both well ahead of us. I think we signed the fixed priced tender in May 2017, when did you both sign?
We are guesstimating handover around Easter 2019, based on nothing in particular.
I would say they need 6 months from the day they are on site, give or take.
and no, Kurmond doesn't give any lock combinations. the other way around, they stress out that we cannot access the site without them and when you ask them for an inspection they say they are busy.
Your friends are lucky to have such a loyal builder/SS.
Anyway, there are usually plenty of ways to access the site and home if you really want it
we signed the tender in Jul 2017. Tender was ready much earlier but it was postponed from our side as we were waiting for our lot to be registered. we didn't want to pay for tender extension everything 3 months.
we ended up paying for one though.