Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Vandals and Thieves 21Aug 04, 2007 11:12 am Terrible news YSSIM (for anyone building really), no matter when it occurs. Insurance is a beautiful thing in these situations and really pays off when little punks, thugs and total losers take advantage of hard working Australians (and ex-pats like me)! We are only in the cut/fill stage so far and will have our slab poured in a couple of weeks, so this topic is very interesting to me as we move toward frame and lock up stages.
It seems like the majority of these vandalisms and thefts occur in the larger development areas and less in suburbs that are currently 'built up,' though I'm not so naive to believe that they don't happen in these areas either! Curious to know who has had this happen to them in a built up area as that is our situation. We have demolished and are the only 'new development' on our street. Reading the posts of those keeping an eye on eBay and various other places for their 'stuff' caused me to wonder how many people out their just monitor and watch these forums, lurking around to find out what stage people are at when it might be best to 'strike.' Quite possible they use your blogs to find out where you are and what stage you are at? Don't know, but something to think about! By the way for those doing just that, I STRONGLY advise against planning that on our lot. We have an excellent relationship with all of our neighbours and most of them check the lot daily to follow progress etc. so it wouldn't really be a good idea, unless you really like the thought of jail. One of our neighbors is a private investigator (how lucky are we!) and told me 'mate, don't worry about it...' Come to think about it, perhaps I should encourage you fools to 'do your thing' at my place. I mean, we're covered anyway and there's a very, very good chance of you getting caught! Might save some others on this forum the heartache. OK, I'm done with the rant....for now. http://fundingthedream.blogspot.com/ Re: Vandals and Thieves 22Aug 04, 2007 11:50 am YSSIM Oh, had no idea you could put the word 'bastard' on the forum. But then again, you're a mod so you can probably do whatever you want. Hehe Hey, maybe your supervisor took your aircon? Haha JK! Looks like we'll end up sleeping at the house the night of handover. Hi YSSIM, you too can type bastards, go one give it a try My supervisor couldnt get the aircon off, not without a heap of mates. i think the fact he was really annoyed at spending the day in the cop shop showed he wasnt involved. Ours was professinal, they even stacked the tiles. How can you tell a professional johb? by the LACK of damage when things are removed. Genreally speaking, they will know how things go in, and equally how they can come out. Adrian B Re: Vandals and Thieves 23Aug 04, 2007 1:18 pm We live a good 45 min drive from our block - so we won't be able to get down there every day.
Is there anything stopping us from putting a tent/caravan on our land and living there during construction? Would be easy to organise a port-a-loo. Re: Vandals and Thieves 24Aug 06, 2007 12:20 am Totally know how you feel. I've told our woeful tales of theft & vandalism before but (just in case you missed them the first time round), here's a summary of what happened to our house:
*Multiple windows smashed...at several different times *Braceboard kicked in *Uninstalled double-glazed window stolen *Wooden sliding door stolen once (when uninstalled)...attempted theft again once installed (removed from upstairs door, lowered over balcony & stashed in garage but we found it before it could be removed from the property...it was damaged & now has to be replaced) *Nails on entire set of wooden, double-glazed windows at front of house were loosened/removed in an attempt to steal the windows after they were installed...twice *Kitchen sink stolen twice (actually three times if you count the replacement sink that was delivered to our neighbours in error...by the time someone found it & told us & we told the supervisor, it had been stolen) *Air conditioning unit stolen off roof...damaging internal ceiling in the process (& the builder only found out prior to handover...even though I told him months earlier when it actually happened) *Two of the three shower heads in the house stolen *Every single pane of glass downstairs (& we have a lot of windows...many with multiple panes) & one panel of the garage door were scratched with obsenities just prior to handover...not just grafittied but actually scratched with a rock or brick. This took ages for the building company to decide how they were going to fix it as we have double glazing & laminated safety glass - so was almost going to be cheaper to just replace the windows We caught two sets of kids in our house at different times - one got the police called on them (we knew who they were because my daughter recognised them from school & we were pretty sure they were resposible for the vandalism) & the othes got physically caught by hubby & he phoned their parents. We speculate the theft was from other builders or subbies. Our site supervisor said he'd come in every day & it was obvious someone had broken in - every single morning the drawers would be open slightly from someone going through them to see if there was anything worth stealing. Our neighbours-to-be ended up employing a guard to come round each day & unlock their gates...not even the building company has a key. The guard also does random night-time inspections. Seems to have worked. Re: Vandals and Thieves 25Aug 06, 2007 8:54 am epiphany, i caught bits and pieces of your posts before regarding the stuff done at your house. But when you put it all together in one post all I can say is, "What the...?!" [sneakersss] Re: Vandals and Thieves 26Aug 06, 2007 9:07 am epiphany,
Missy has summed it up! That is an inordinant amount of damge to one property. Were there other houses around you? If not can you think of any reason your house was targeted? Are you a nasty person?? Re: Vandals and Thieves 28Aug 06, 2007 7:00 pm Our neighbours-to-be & us were the only houses in the street & the subdivision was brand new - so no one around to deter the theives/vandals. And our street gets a reasonable amount of traffic...plus lots of people walk past daily because it overlooks a lake. So lots of people going past, seeing the empty house + no one to deter them.
But if you think our list is bad...the night our house got grafittied, our site supervisor had two other properties broken into as well. One had concrete poured down all the sewerage outlets & another one had concrete splattered all over the upstairs walls (after plastering). On another occaision, one of the houses round the corner had all the copper wiring & other bits & pieces stripped out of it...$10,000 (or maybe it was $30,000...can't remember now) worth of damage done in one night. Scary stuff. Heck...I was onsite once & a couple walked past, not realising anyone was here...& the hubby started walking round the house (inside the fence), obviously looking for stuff to pinch. When my friend confronted him (I was heavily pregnant at the time), he claimed he was "looking at the house plan." Yeah, right. He also refused to leave the property until my friend got grumpy with him. We still see suspicious vehicles driving past the other houses...& I've caught someone stealing off another site round the corner just recently. But it stops as soon as someone moves in. I don't think I've offended anyone But, as my hubby pointed out, all the obscenities were female-oriented. Maybe someone doesn't like me *shrug*. Our site supervisor speculated that between the damage, theft, & replacing the splashback & ensuite benchtop that they mucked up, PD didn't make much off our house Next door had problems with people dumping all sorts of revolting rubbish in their skip (including unbagged, pooy nappies...bleurgh). But very little theft. I'm still convinced that somewhere is a half-finished house with a couple of wooden windows (but not enough because they unsuccessfully tried to steal the others) & a couple of nice new sinks, etc...but it only has two showers (otherwise they'd have stolen the third showerhead). Sigh. Re: Vandals and Thieves 29Aug 06, 2007 7:08 pm After reading that posts I seriously don't know what to feel??
Epiphany, I hope that is all you have to endure! Thats enough for 1 lifetime. Re: Vandals and Thieves 30Aug 06, 2007 8:49 pm I am thankful that we are building in a semi established estate. Our street is fully built, we are the last to build. People at the other end of the estate had there front doors stolen. The building company says alot of the time its tradies from other companies building next door or a couple of sites up , they see it all go in and they look the part no one would ever question them.
I cant imagine stealing someones front door and then putting it on my house. Then everyday for the rest of my life living there I could walk through the door and think WOW I stole that aren't I clever. That cant be good Karma. Office people take home stationary (paper, pens) from the company supplies, tradies take half a bloody house. Re: Vandals and Thieves 31Aug 08, 2007 12:44 pm Yikes!!!! something all home owners dread!!! Sorry YSSIM!!!! I really think HomeOne should seriously consider having this forum for members only so there is no lurking ...I recall noticing some of the blogs have very detailed plans and even addresses of their properties...dont mean to scare anyone but the plans give the thieves the fastest and safest route in and out of your property especially when they know exactly where your bedrooms are...
Fingers crossed as we are the second last ones to build in the estate so hope all ends well!!!! Re: Vandals and Thieves 32Aug 08, 2007 5:09 pm I plan on camping at my house as soon as they put externall doors on and windows in (yeah like we all have time for that) I wish i could though just so i could catch the so and so's and take them to the police and get the $1000 reward moneythat crime stoppers pays for building site theft. Re: Vandals and Thieves 33Aug 09, 2007 8:58 am off2theburbs,
You would probably get beaten up and stabbed - I think they come in packs like wild dogs. Better to keep away and let the building co sort it out or fork out for a security guard. Re: Vandals and Thieves 34Aug 09, 2007 9:04 am You could always electrify the security fence - all it takes is a car battery I recently went through a similar renovation and move scenario when updating our family home. We also swapped some rooms around and tackled a major… 2 9871 OK it's been a little while! I've been busy getting time where I can to work on this. I started by grading a pad (borrowing a… 26 19966 Unless the room is for storage then it's non compliant BCA V2 2019 S3 P3.8 You have 2 options 1. The builder deconstructs the section and rebuilds as per plan /… 7 10658 |