Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 28, 2009 11:49 am My wife and I would like to get our building contract (with M-tricon) looked over by a professional before we sign it. I've seen a few people mention they had building inspectors do this. Would it be better to have a lawyer or building inspector look over the contract? To my mind a lawyer seems like the better choice because they're likely to be more familiar with the legalese. But then, I'm a newbie, hence me asking for your advice. Also, we'd like to add a clause stating that we will be employing our own independent building inspector at the end of each of the main stages of the build. That way they can't get narky with us when we do it. I take it this is something we'd get our lawyer to add when M-tricon) give us the contracts? EDIT: I would that I'm still not 100% convinced that employing our own inspector is worthwhile. Argh! Re: Getting contract looked at before signing - by whom? 2Sep 28, 2009 1:46 pm I am planning to explain to the person in charge of the building, before it starts, that I will have an inspector at the end of each stage. And I'm expecting this strategy to achieve this: 1. As they haven't stuffed anything up yet, they don't have a strong motive to prevent access to an inspector. 2. Knowing that an independent inspector will be checking their work will have them do a better job. Instead of thinking "How can we con this sucker into thinking this is acceptable?", they will think "Oh no, the inspector will notice that, and then we'll have to fix it later. Might as well fix it now." And I'll be recording when the conversation occurred and with who, in case they forget that it happened. We didn't get a lawyer to look at the contract. Basically we don't have the time to stuff around with asking the contract to be changed - so effectively we have no power to change it anyway. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Getting contract looked at before signing - by whom? 3Sep 28, 2009 4:17 pm In my job I deal with contracts daily and I am a structural engineer (I don't work in residential building however). I think this holds me in good stead for reviewing the contract myself and the builder knows that I am engineer so I think and I have used this as a bit of an advantage during our current negotiations. I'm hoping that I can get away without needing outside assistance, however reading everything that is going on on this forum has certainly helped no end. View our blog at: http://room4acubby.blogspot.com/ Re: Getting contract looked at before signing - by whom? 4Sep 28, 2009 11:44 pm room4acubby In my job I deal with contracts daily and I am a structural engineer (I don't work in residential building however). I think this holds me in good stead for reviewing the contract myself and the builder knows that I am engineer so I think and I have used this as a bit of an advantage during our current negotiations. I'm hoping that I can get away without needing outside assistance, however reading everything that is going on on this forum has certainly helped no end. I think I'll 'happen to mention' that my Father-in-law is a draftsman and building engineer and I'll be consulting closely with him on the build. I'm also quite used to reading over contracts from my previous job editing law textbooks. I might exploit his contacts in the building industry to get their insight. Still, great as ever to get helpful comments from the good people here at H1! Been in a similar position and we decided to let the builder go. Some of the PSA money goes to engineering so we at least got those documents and they actually refunded us… 2 6082 You talk about deletions, are they variations or PS and PC adjustments? pleas list them 1 16455 Use a product like Equisol's Vitalise to clean the deck then coat with a penetrating timber oil. It will look 10 years younger and add value to your home. Visit for… 1 15762 |