BUILDING CONTRACT ENDED... AND STILL NO HANDOVER

joaninhac · Mar 12, 2008 12:32 pm

Hi All,

Our building contract has ended... it is now 2 weeks over and they are not telling us when to expect handover....

So frustrating, we still have works to complete on house after handover but we can't even plan or organise these as we have no idea when it will be ours... any advice on what i should do or say to them to speed up the process...?!

ahuang · Mar 12, 2008 1:30 pm

I am in similar situation as you, waiting for final handover but builder wouldn't give us a firm date yet as they are still fixing a few things.

Thinking from the good side, may be they are just waiting for some trades to turn up to fix something?

About the dates, did you only count the working days? Have you deducted the number of rainy days during the contract period? Depends on what's written in the contract, for ours, if there's 1 rainy day, builder is entitled to extend the period for 2 days because they need 1 extra day for the land to dry. This sounds ridiculous but unfortunately that's how the game been played.

I think the biggest problem is the lack of communication from your builder. You have to keep pushing them on this and keep record of your calls/email/fax in case you need to prove something in the future.

Good luck!

joaninhac · Mar 12, 2008 1:37 pm

Thanks alan for your reply.
no the time specified in the contract included rainy days and all, so they are not intitled to extra time - they have advised they will be paying liquidated damages, but that's the least of my concerns!!! I think you are right in saying the biggest problem is lack of communication from the builder as it's quite frustration to just sit around and wait for them to update us when they are ready! I know the real reason they are delayed is because they were slack, majority of the time we'd go there during work hours, there'd be no-one working on the house... even now, there's hardly anyone there... the house isn't even exactly finished as there's still some platering to be completed... i just don't understand what's taking them so long, it's driving me mad!!!

Rose72 · Mar 12, 2008 2:35 pm

our contract went over by 6 weeks. I was ringing & emailing every few days for updates but they were unable to give me any dates just what work was happening/planned to happen that week. We weren't given a handover date until a few days before actual handover.

ricci · Mar 12, 2008 6:34 pm

Hi - we are currently 8 weeks overdue and don't have a firm date as yet. The worst part is that there is only 3-4 days worth of work left to finish it off and it has been like that for the last 2-3 weeks.

Hennig · Mar 12, 2008 7:59 pm

Could be a message in this for all considering signing a new home contract.
When it comes to agreeing to/nominating the liquidated damages amount - negotiate a far higher amount than what the builder is comfortable with.
To date, I do not know of a situation where the liquidated damages amount has covered reasonable accommodation costs.

blackmax · Mar 12, 2008 8:34 pm

Liquidated damages should actually be set at an amount that acts as a deterent to the builders for running over schedule.

For example, builders 'should' be made to work overtime of weekends, etc all to ensure the job gets done in time. This happens all the time in commercial projects. But why would any builder pay tradies overtime when it's far cheaper to simply pay the damages fee of $50 or whatever it is.

Perhaps making the penalty $500 a day would be enough to see a change in the industry.

Hennig · Mar 12, 2008 10:42 pm

Beautiful!
That's what I'm talking about.

joaninhac · Mar 13, 2008 9:14 am

ricci,

that is exactly my situation... 3-4 days of work left, however they take 5-6 weeks to complete it.... ridiculous!!!!

i regret not having negotiated the liquidated damages payment prior to signing contract, i actually never thought they would go over... stupid me!

aliand · Mar 13, 2008 4:48 pm

It has been 19 weeks since we had a pre-handover inspection done....it has been 12 weeks since our contract ended....it has been 25 weeks since we were told we were only a few weeks away from handover....they need to fix things up but haven't completed fixing these yet

Stupidly, we also didn't negotiate the damages amount, as we thought there was no way they could go over time, as we were told upon signing that it would take about 6 months and be ready by August 07.....these are our facts unfortunately....we still wait....

We speak to the builder a number of times a week and it is all action, however upon checking for ourselves this is not so.

Casa2 · Mar 13, 2008 5:06 pm

aliand,

Who is your builder?

aliand · Mar 13, 2008 5:28 pm

Casa2

aliand,

Who is your builder?

I don't want to say at this stage....the house was pretty much completed by the end of September 07 but the finishing off and fixing of mistakes is still on-going.

I don't believe there is anything we can do but continue to wait....we are supposed to be getting handover next week (but we have heard this a number of times since late last year), however I am fearful that there will still be issues unresolved or items not fixed correctly (patchwork instead of being re-done) when we get the final inspection done....

I cannot stress enough how important it is to get an independent inspection done, but not to just give it to your supervisor, also ensure the office receives it as well...

Trust no-one.

Casa2 · Mar 13, 2008 5:54 pm

aliand,

OK. What percentage of the building contract is the final payment?

aliand · Mar 13, 2008 9:19 pm

Casa2

aliand,

OK. What percentage of the building contract is the final payment?

It's approx. 12%....is this about normal ?

Casa2 · Mar 13, 2008 9:28 pm

Sounds about right. You'd think that if the builder has spend the money to almost complete a house and just has to finalise a few things to get 12%, they would be fast tracking everything.

blackmax · Mar 13, 2008 11:39 pm

I disagree Casa.

They would have already covered their costs in the previous payments, and the final payment would be made up of mostly or all profit on the project.

If they builders aren't making more than 12% profit in building a house then there is something wrong.

ahuang · Mar 14, 2008 9:23 am

I agree with blackmax, builders always say that they do the work first and only ask for payment after each stage is completed.

But in my opinion, after the first few stages, they should already have received enough payment to cover their cost. The rest is actually: we pay before they start..

joaninhac · Mar 14, 2008 10:52 am

aliand... gosh that's a long time to be waiting.... i hope we don't have the same problem....

i would be screaming if we do! It's just ridiculous!!! The builders just don't seem to care these days!