Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 06, 2009 10:10 pm Hi all,
we received our HIA contract in the mail this morning. We're about to sign with Henley - appointment is on Thursday. Just reading through everything... they've crossed out quite a few sections in the HIA contract booklet. Has anyone else noticed this? Particularly Henley people? For example: The whole paragraph for clause 17.1 "If the builder has a reasonable doubt about whether the boundaries are correct the builder must notify the owner in writing and the owner must obtain a survey within 7 days." This clause is crossed out, and we have to sign that we acknowledge it. Are they allowed to cross out clauses like that? Anyone? Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 2Jul 06, 2009 10:22 pm I dont remember it being crossed out. I know a couple of places were crossed out though but I thought they were the pages with the blank line sections. I dont have the contracts to check either. Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 3Jul 06, 2009 10:28 pm We didn't have any lines crossed out but got a another page of variations to the standard HIA contract (so in essense the same thing!) Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 4Jul 06, 2009 10:29 pm Hi aaron4erin, We are building with DFH and just signed our contracts two days ago. Our clause 17.1 is not crossed out. I am not sure if they are allowed to cross out contracts like that. I would clarify this with your contact person in Henley on the reason why they cross this out. Stephen Williams Landing Stage 10 - Kingwell Neighbourhood Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 5Jul 06, 2009 10:33 pm Maybe it would be a good idea to consult a solicitor and get them to look it over? Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 6Jul 06, 2009 10:33 pm Ask you builder if there is any doubt about whether the boundaries are correct. An email would be good. If they answer, no there is no doubt ... the clause can stay If they answer, there is doubt ... the clause should stay. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 7Jul 06, 2009 11:17 pm My PD one doesn't have that one crossed out 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 8Jul 06, 2009 11:23 pm I know about this, because we had our last set of Henley contracts looked over by our solicitor. They can cross out/change anything in a HIA contract really, and you can ask to have things changed too (but most large volume builders will tell you to take it or leave it). All that clause you mentioned means (according to our advice) is that your boundary pegs are your babies- if the builder turns up and finds one missing, or suspects it is in the wrong spot, a new survey needs to be done and that will be done at your expense. We were reassured; our solicitor said it would be a sad person indeed who would go around moving people's pegs(!) and ours are bolted into concrete at the front, so they'd need some hard core tools to move them Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 9Jul 06, 2009 11:24 pm my sa hia contract has a 17.1 but it dosnt say what yours does, mine says after the date of the contract, the local authority may require a variation, but nothing in my contact is crossed out. i guess they can cross whatever they like out, as long as the customer signs. Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 10Jul 07, 2009 7:22 pm No crossing out on our contract. And our 17.1 looks identical to yours. Is 17.1 the only clause that is crossed out? Not very clear what would happen if they are in doubt of the boundaries without clause 17.1. Simply build the house on any spot that looks more or less right? Trying this building gig one more time. Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 11Jul 07, 2009 8:14 pm They can do whatever they like with the contract. At least some of the standard contract is written to give a bit of protection to clients. Sounds like they're trying to reduce that. Reread mine recently and discovered they'd changed the normal date for end of builder's insurance - handover - to practical completion. Several days after I should have therefore got my own insurance, when I thought I still had over a week Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 12Jul 07, 2009 8:37 pm Building with DFH and nothing crossed out. I was under the impression HIA contracts could not be edited but i'm no professional - i would recommend calling HIA consumer affairs and asking the question - its free! [b]Contract signed 3rd May --> Handover mid FEB Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 14Jul 08, 2009 2:04 pm Ari - dont suppose your HIA contract also had clause 20.0 through to 20.5 for Insurance crossed out? I've called Henley, HIA, and now hold with the Building Commission... Re: Standard HIA contract - clauses crossed out! 15Jul 08, 2009 2:43 pm Hey, In regards to the pegs, Our salesperson at H3nley told us on the day the land settles to go out and put some of the plastic plumbers pipe around our pegs so that they don't get knocked by any tradies from the sites around us. Apparently they think they could be plumbing and stay right away from them! I would get it checked in regards to the insurance issue by a solicitor. What happens (highly unlikely) that they go bust and you are stuck with a half finished house and no insurance to get it finished. Or someone falls on your site and is badly injured? From experience-make sure you understand it all! My in-laws learnt the hard way unfortunatly. But in saying that, H3nley is too big a company to fool around with stuff like that. It could cost them a packet in publicity if we kicked up enough stick. Still get it checked. Hope this helps a bit? Keep us posted. Building a H3nl3y Charleton- its a home, not a house. Re: Standard HIA contract - Insurance clause crossed out! 16Jul 08, 2009 3:59 pm Hmm... ok... Just emailed all the docs to a builder who works for my dad. (Dad is a building surveyor, so would run all this by him if he wasn't in London right now!) There is a certificate of currency in the tender documents, this covers the insurance issue. However as I understand it the HIA contract overwrites all other contracts... so I think what we need is a notation in the HIA contract to say to refer to the tender docs for insurance information? Geez, how much trouble are we having and we haven't even start the actual build. Re: Standard HIA contract - Insurance clause crossed out! 19Jul 08, 2009 7:16 pm I wonder why they'd treat our insurance different to yours! They'll be kicking themselves when they realise they havent covered their own butts in regards to our own contractors on site. Unless there is something in special conditions the builder does not have to give you timeline. If your demolition contractor has not removed Asbestos and it was found… 12 22627 You talk about deletions, are they variations or PS and PC adjustments? pleas list them 1 12029 10 9785 |