Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 10, 2009 12:49 pm Hello All, Please advice us about payment. Our builder claims that he finished 50% works of the completion (final) stage and asked us to pay 50% of the final payment. In our contract the payment is progressive payment and I understand that means I will pay the final payment after the PCI and handover. Am I correct ? I am also very concern about the behaviour of my builder. He is a small builder Recently, he sacked two of his SS and became SS, however, he seldom visits site and very reluctant to see us at site. He broke the business partnership with one guy used to be a manager of big builder. I am not sure due to this fact, his invoices are in correct. He forgot about our payment and after many request he still send us the incorrect invoice. he forgot about $25K payment. We got the cheque book to prove that. His works recently are very slow. he sent his tradies to do jobs about one day a week. We become a virtual SS by requesting his tradies and himself what should be done. The house was constructed in two years already. He did not tell us when is the PCI and he verbally implied that he wants to get out of this project and even handover and get full payment although only about 95% completed. In this case, should I pay his claims for 50% final completion stage ? Should I engage a professional independent inspector to report at this stage. We really appreciate your advice, thought or experience to deal with this builder. Peace Re: Pay builder before handover and get independent inspection ? 2Dec 10, 2009 12:54 pm it should all be in your contract. If they are asking you to do something against what it says in the contract, don't do it. For the final payment, it is normal that the builder completes the work, obtains a certificate of occupancy / occupancy permit, and allows you to have an inspection. Your bank will probably need to do a valuation first and then they will release your final payment in the form of a bank cheque. Definitely do not give them money unless they have finished all the work according to your contract and plans. Current build Porter Davis Brookwater 49, Eucalypt Wollert Build: 24th Jul 2015 - Approx Mar 2016 Previous build DFH Columbia 21, Lyndarum Epping North Build:20th Jul 2009 - 18th Dec 2009 Re: Pay builder before handover and get independent inspection ? 3Dec 10, 2009 4:05 pm Asking for payment before the work is completed..... sacking staff and taking over the job themselves..... hard to get tradies on site. These are all pretty classic signs of cash flow problems and a builder that may be about to go under. DO NOT PAY ANY MONEY under any circumstances, until all work is completed. I'm not sure what state you are in, but I urge you to give consumer affairs a call and get some legal advice. All the warning signs are there, be proactive and prepare yourself by getting independant legal advice. Good luck and let us know how you go. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Yep, very good point. I’ll do more research and see what figures I get. Thank you! 8 2464 It is true that a builder can ignore your independent inspection report as it is not part of the contractual arrangement but that is stupid because he cannot avoid fixing… 9 40025 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 4551 |