Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 02, 2022 1:39 pm Hi all, If you are building a house and the boundary is so close to the neighbours fence that the builder will need the fence removed in order to render and paint the wall isn't that their responsibility to organise that with the neighbour, not the client? Re: Builders Responsibilities 2Feb 02, 2022 2:09 pm depends what bit youre specifically asking about. You share the fence with the neigbour so you both own it. from a relationship perspective you should speak with your neighbour about needing to remove it. Given that your neighbour doesn't need the fence removed for your house stuff to be done, be prepared to pay the cost for it. Once you have the go ahead, your builder can organise the relevant trades to take it out to do the work on your house. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Builders Responsibilities 3Feb 02, 2022 2:20 pm Surely, the builder knew this was going to be an issue when the plans were done? There is nothing in the contract saying that I had to organise this or pay for it, they sited the house that close to a fence, so shouldn't it be their issue to deal with? Re: Builders Responsibilities 4Feb 02, 2022 2:27 pm kazawats Surely, the builder knew this was going to be an issue when the plans were done? There is nothing in the contract saying that I had to organise this or pay for it, they sited the house that close to a fence, so shouldn't it be their issue to deal with? you sound like a difficult client. building has lots of moving parts. Not everything slots into place perfectly all the time. The less friction you create by arguing this sort of stuff, the more pleasant the journey will be. I cant comment on whether the builder should have known, because there are unknown variables, but I'm telling you now, this is not going to be your last unexpected challenge or expense. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Builders Responsibilities 5Feb 02, 2022 2:30 pm Im actually not a difficult client at all. Builders themselves have told me this is not normal practice. In order for them to BUILD the house ie; render and paint the one wall that is too close to fence for a human to fit into, they need to remove the fence to access the area. Other builders have said they would communicate with neighbour and deal with it themselves as not the clients responsibility Re: Builders Responsibilities 6Feb 02, 2022 2:33 pm so keep arguing with your current builder about what other builders do. I'm sure it will be well received. Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Builders Responsibilities 7Feb 02, 2022 2:37 pm Fencing is the one area that most builders will leave the client to deal with the neighbour as the client is the one that has the relationship with the neighbour. It's a grey area and definitely one of the things that will need to be discussed with the builder upfront (not during the build). Once the build starts, if neither the client nor the builder willing to budge, the build will come to a standstill and both parties will be at disadvantage both financially and emotionally. As NoName said in his other post, you have to pick your battle. You can't win every single one. Re: Builders Responsibilities 8Feb 02, 2022 2:52 pm Noname so keep arguing with your current builder about what other builders do. I'm sure it will be well received. Not really sure why you are giving me attitude, i merely asked a question, or did i not phrase it clearly enough. I don't see that it is good customer service to commence a build when you clearly know you are going to require access to the neighbours property in order to complete your job and then dump it upon your client at the last minute telling them they need to pay for it and also tell the n eighbours that their fence needs to come down for a period of time whilst the builder does their job. Re: Builders Responsibilities 9Feb 02, 2022 3:02 pm kazawats Noname so keep arguing with your current builder about what other builders do. I'm sure it will be well received. Not really sure why you are giving me attitude, i merely asked a question, or did i not phrase it clearly enough. I don't see that it is good customer service to commence a build when you clearly know you are going to require access to the neighbours property in order to complete your job and then dump it upon your client at the last minute telling them they need to pay for it and also tell the n eighbours that their fence needs to come down for a period of time whilst the builder does their job. The best thing to do is to check your signed contract, my contract states a lot of owner's responsibility for many items, I just hope there won't be any surprise. Don't take verbal commitment, I keep everything in my email trail if there are things agreed between builder and me. Re: Builders Responsibilities 10Feb 02, 2022 3:20 pm kazawats Noname so keep arguing with your current builder about what other builders do. I'm sure it will be well received. Not really sure why you are giving me attitude, i merely asked a question, or did i not phrase it clearly enough. I don't see that it is good customer service to commence a build when you clearly know you are going to require access to the neighbours property in order to complete your job and then dump it upon your client at the last minute telling them they need to pay for it and also tell the n eighbours that their fence needs to come down for a period of time whilst the builder does their job. why? because I answered your question. You just wanted to argue. You're still arguing despite someone else has backing up what I've said. SO your option really is to take your argument back to the builders. Like i told you, building has lots of challenges and unexpected turns. If you're going to sweat the small stuff ( and this IS small), you're going to have a tough time of it. Every one of those people who say "building is a nightmare" and they'd "never do it again" are usually (not always, but usually) the architect of that nightmare. This is where i see this going. Now to play devils advocate - It could be argued that the issue originally arose from the moment you chose a house that used the maximum width of your block leaving the bare minimum setbacks. Did you expect the builder to be acutely aware of who has what fencing at all times on all blocks everywhere? You need to work in partnership with your builder to solve small problems rather than being militant about it. The outcome and stress levels will be better for everyone. I've built a number of houses and not in any one of those did the builder deal with neighbours regarding fencing. All of them I've resolved with the neighbor directly. literally just solved this exact issue earlier this week. Its annoying, but building a house is not a walk in the park Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ you may want to check your contract a little more carefully too, because any standard builder will have a clause bundled with some other things that covers that exact point. my guess is you've missed it. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Builders Responsibilities 11Feb 02, 2022 3:33 pm There is nothing in the contract, i am in qld, not sure what state you are in. The building supervisor even admitted it wasn't in the contract and they "used to do it" but can't anymore, in fact they did it for a new build behind this house. This house is in fact my 24 year old daughters first ever home, not mine, but the whole building process has been such a trial that i'm just trying to help her. Re: Builders Responsibilities 14Feb 02, 2022 3:52 pm Hmm, thought this would be a friendly site offering advice without attitude. I see you seem to enjoy ridiculing people who ask simple questions looking through your previous posts. Have a wonderful day Re: Builders Responsibilities 15Feb 02, 2022 3:57 pm you got the advice, multiple times from multiple sources without attitude. you wanted to argue. what do you expect? Dark matter scientist, can breathe underwater, mind reader and can freeze matter just by willing it. Trust me, its in my sig. Re: Builders Responsibilities 16Feb 02, 2022 6:28 pm The is no clear responsibility if it is not explicitly in the contract. I’d say your 24yo daughter has a better chance of them agreeing especially if she takes some chocolates/flowers/case/binning voucher etc. Much easier to say no to a builder. Maybe go over together. She just needs to check with the builder the duration, date, method. If it is colorbond the panels are simple to remove and replace later. Also suggest they take photos and offer to replace any turf etc. Re: Builders Responsibilities 17Feb 03, 2022 11:24 pm If it didn't need to be so close to the fence (lets assume that's correct), then why did your daughter sign off on the plans showing the current location? As a client she's responsible for expressing her wishes as to the positioning of the house and checking the plans to ensure it's how she wanted it. In terms of who's responsible, if the contract doesn't explicitly say the builder is, and there isn't a regulation saying they are - then it's your daughter. I personally wouldn't leave any dealings with neighbors to the builder, because their goal is to build a house as quickly as possible and get out, but your daughter will be the one living next to them for years to come. I'm in QLD too and our paperwork stipulates we have to get any permissions from neighbors for walls built to boundary. 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