Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 11, 2009 2:51 pm We are currently waiting on our land to settle and have finalised all contracts with the builder, We submitted our design approval to the developer only to have it declined as the property right next door to us ( although fronting onto another street and in a separate subdivion of the estate ) has the exact same facade. surely when the sales person and then admin staff check to see if the facade we chose was going to clash they would have checked the block next door?? so now we find ourselves paying $1000 to change to a facade we dont really like after we had 3 months to get used to the facade we originally chose. so frustrating! Re: design approval declined, admin mistake costing us 3Sep 11, 2009 3:12 pm I don't really understand!! If the house next door isn't even facing in the same direction does it really matter?? You'd have thought your builder/developer would have checked this out *before* submitting plans!! viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22766 - my build thread! Time waits for no man. Unless that man is Chuck Norris. Re: design approval declined, admin mistake costing us 4Sep 11, 2009 3:13 pm Unfortunately this can happen. Our builder told us that it can happen from time to time (although our sales rep told us she had only come across one other case). You should have been warned about it at least! Building the Talbot with the big M!! Re: design approval declined, admin mistake costing us 5Sep 12, 2009 1:21 am jeremy_ville surely when the sales person and then admin staff check to see if the facade we chose was going to clash they would have checked the block next door?? I dont think its reasonable to expect the admin staff to complete checks to determine if your facade would clash with your neighbours? This is the developer's function and why plans are submitted to them for approval, to ensure the design guidelines of the estate are met, difference in facade being one of them? In any case, considering the houses are facing different directions I am disappointed for you that they couldn't relax the guidelines somewhat and come up with an alternative so you could have kept the facade you chose. calzo You should have been warned about it at least! IMO there is an onus on the owner to understand what is in the design guidelines and what impact they may have, as it can affect a lot of what you are allowed to do, even after the builder is a distant memory. Everything from the type and design of the driveway and fence you can install, placement of antennas on your roof to the type and colour of your letterbox!! Re: design approval declined, admin mistake costing us 6Sep 12, 2009 1:35 am The covenant at my estate has that mentioned too. The builder also mentioned that if your garage sits next to the fence and within close proximity to your neighbours house the second house up pays for underpinning. It pays to get in early Gravity. Its the law. At lock-up stage(lock-up stage) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=25438 Re: design approval declined, admin mistake costing us 7Sep 12, 2009 10:03 am Thanks for the replies people, We knew full well the design guidelines of the estate hence our dissappiontment is directed at the admin, when we first sat down with the sc he looked back through his entire sales book to "check" if anyone else had the same facade, and if admin had of double checked then we would have done a colour selection for the facade we would end up with. My point was if they had of said 3 months ago that facade had been chosen next door we would have said ok then we choose this one. Now we just feel like were not getting something we had and wanted. I'll look into different shower heads and ask the plumber about some engineering and see what he says. Thanks 2 9564 Unless there were unforeseeable issues with the site, I dont think you should have to pay for contractors errors or poor planning. I'd probably try and be reasonable and… 5 4537 |