Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 17, 2009 10:14 am Hi, were currently building through a small builder in an inner suburb of Melb (6 kms out of city). Our contract has all fittings and fixtures included however only has an allowance against items i.e $3,000 for oven, ragehood and cooktop etc. $100 for bath taps etc all from the builders range. Through the process of our build we have realised that some allowances were just not enough. This was not because you could not purchase a bath tap for $100 but purely because what you could get for $100 and what the builder has in his range we did not like. We spoke to our builder and agreed that we could go out and purchase our own fittings and appliances and that he would just give us the allowance specified for that item. We have since purchased a few items (none yet to be installed).. however am wondering if there is some kind of legal document that we need to have in place of this agreement. Similar to a variation I suppose... The builder has said that we will work out the total that he owes us in the end. My concern is that we get to the end of the build and that our builder won't pay us or deduct the items that we have paid for from the the fittings/ fixing stage invoice... I also don't want to be out of pocket for some of the larger/ expensive items for very long. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated... particularly from a legal perspective? Re: owner variations 2Dec 17, 2009 10:22 am Hi there..interested to know about your builder..Which one are you building with? Re: owner variations 3Dec 17, 2009 10:26 am If the items are listed as "allowance" or provisional allowance, you will get it back and you are legally covered as well. If you are providing your own appliances or tapware etc, get everything in writing .. send a letter stating you have provided this yourself and the allowance should be credited back to you .. Get the builder to acknowledge this and you'll be covered .. Hopefully your builder won't chuck a tanty saying installation is extra .. but do ask them that returning the allowance means they will still install it .. also ask them clearly when is the stuff needed .. a delay on your part will create lots of problems as they need to plan their work .. Cheers! --- I don't have a signature - just this sentence saying that I don't have one - that'll do! Re: owner variations 4Dec 17, 2009 11:05 am We had ours written into our contract - ie owner to provide ..........., builder to install. Make sure you ask exactly when everything will be needed by - a lot of items need to be ordered and as a PP said you could end up delaying the timeframe unnecessarily, ie our shower heads and mixers needed to be ordered in - creating a delay. I would always advise buying what you need straight away so as to have them on hand. Even things like toilets needed to be viewed by the plumber at set out time on the slab to make sure the pipes were all in the right position. Plus what you think you might be buying may become sold out by the time you get around to purchase them - for eg the toilets we chose completely sold out within NSW. A very small container load was coming in but my DH had to travel to Sydney to secure enough as the Newcastle area sold out really quickly. Some things are worth waiting for. It seems very clear to me that your contract states that a security account does NOT need to be established so the answer to the builder is NO. If in doubt find a contract… 1 8504 The fastest thing a builder will do is bank your cheque, those systems work perfectly with lightning speed, everything else is slow burn. Just the way it is. 1 8704 Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? We… 0 18446 |