Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 15, 2007 2:35 pm Hello everyone,
We are building with Henley and have just finished the contract stage and are about to embark on the construction phase. We signed final papers and delivered them to Henley last Thursday and were told that our file has gone to 'ordering' (where all the materials are being ordered) and that it will now be passed to our site supervisor and our new admin person. Our house was demolished about 5 weeks ago and the Building Permit was issued on July 15th. Henley states in the building 'book' that the give you at the beginning of the process, that they "must begin building within 31 days from the date of the building permit being issued." Monday (tomorrow) is the 31st day and even though it has moved to the next phase (just last Thurs. or Fri), I doubt work will actually begin tomorrow. Does anyone else have this type of language from their builder (Henley or not) and is there a penalty if they don't start work within the 31 days that they stated they must do? Just curious. I'm sure we'll hear from our new admin and get all the details about start and finish date, etc. and even though I'm quite sure work won't start tomorrow, I'm hopeful it will still be this week or very, very soon. Re: Transition Question - Contract to Construction 2Jul 15, 2007 10:26 pm The 31 days, to my knowledge, applies to you, not to them. That is you must have the block ready to be built on - knock down existing dwelling if applicable, clear the site.
The standard contract has nothing in it that states when the builder must make a start. It does have the time to completion from site start date, but doesn't normally specify when the start will be. My neighbour is building with Me3con, and he had to wait about 3 months after demolition before they have started the work on site. Currently Building in Bayside (Brighton East) Re: Transition Question - Contract to Construction 3Jul 15, 2007 10:41 pm To me the completion date in a contract should be a specific date, like 12th December 2007. This way there is no arguing about any start date. Of course, rain days need to be added to this, but this is easy to track against a hard reference date. Re: Transition Question - Contract to Construction 4Jul 16, 2007 11:19 am Casa2 To me the completion date in a contract should be a specific date, like 12th December 2007. This way there is no arguing about any start date. Of course, rain days need to be added to this, but this is easy to track against a hard reference date. Not many builders would give you that. The start date usually depends on a number of variables. If it's a knockdown - rebuid job, then there are even more variables. Currently Building in Bayside (Brighton East) Re: Transition Question - Contract to Construction 5Jul 16, 2007 11:39 am Vlad76 Casa2 To me the completion date in a contract should be a specific date, like 12th December 2007. This way there is no arguing about any start date. Of course, rain days need to be added to this, but this is easy to track against a hard reference date. Not many builders would give you that. The start date usually depends on a number of variables. If it's a knockdown - rebuid job, then there are even more variables. This is very poor form. The builder will order material and not worry too much about chasing things up. They will then wait until a convenient time to start and then guarantee an end date. The builder has certainty, you could get your house in a few years time! Re: Transition Question - Contract to Construction 6Jul 16, 2007 1:34 pm Personally, I didn't have any issues with start date. After I knocked down the old house on my block, the builder was able to do a final soil test, so I was promised the start will be made within 6 weeks of me knocking down the house. It ended up being 5 weeks.
After that, I have 280 days gurantee in my contract for a two storey house, which is fine with me. Currently Building in Bayside (Brighton East) Re: Transition Question - Contract to Construction 7Jul 16, 2007 1:35 pm Hi,
We sent our final contracts in to M'Con on the 30 June and got a call on the 2nd July that our site start will be 19th July. We were very impressed. Since then the site supervisor has called and introduced himself and told me to meet him onsite. I must admit that we were expecting to wait 4 weeks for site start given that in our contract it says that the builder must commence work within 4 weeks of receiving building approval. Good luck and I hope it doesn't take too long... Building for the 1st time with M3tricon Site Start was 19th July 07. It's been 2 weeks to Handover for the past 8 weeks. Go figure. Re: Transition Question - Contract to Construction 8Jul 16, 2007 11:07 pm Thanks everyone for your input and own stories.
For some further clarity, I have dug out the exact language in Henley's Home Manual. I'm aware this is only the manual and not the actual contract. In the 'Common questions and answers' page in the contract section there is the following: Q: "When will you start building?" A: "Once the contact becomes 'unconditional' Henley must commence building building within 31 days. For a contract to become 'unconditional' land must be settled, finance confirmed, full deposit paid and all approvals received, including permit." With regards to our specific land, finances, deposit, etc. everything was in place by June 9th (including the demolition of the house). The final piece was the Building Permit which we received in the mail with an approval date of which was June 15th. The second soil test was completed well before the building permit was issued. That would make the "31st day today" I called and spoke to our Admin. today who said that the 31 days stated in their manual (we are aware it's not stated in their contract), is really more of a 'guide' for Henley to go by. Usually they start within the 31 days, but sometime it's just outside of that. She assured us that the file has gone to the Supervisor (the end of last week), and he requested a couple of small changes (which is why he hasn't called and introduced himself yet), but the materials for the house have been ordered, the supervisor is busy organizing the trades people to do the work and will contact us shortly. I'm fairly confident we'll get started this week or early next at the latest, which is fine, but I'll keep you all posted. Once all this was explained, I didn't bother to ask the original question I had, which was if the 31 days is merely a guide, why would the language be written in such away. In other words, why would you write "must start within 31 days?" Why not write something like "does our best to start within 31 days..." or something like that? More curious about it than worried though.[/i][/u] You talk about deletions, are they variations or PS and PC adjustments? pleas list them 1 16565 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair That laser level looks lovely! We bought one for less than a quarter of that price off eBay. It worked really well for us and it's still going now, five years later. After… 1 16713 Hi, My home construction is complete, and the handover is scheduled next week. However the construction has been delayed and I have raised this to the builder. The… 0 5329 |