Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 10, 2010 7:10 pm Hey Guys I was wondering if anyone knows the process to complain about a builder We have just cancelled building with a company in nsw (custom builder) but we had paid an initial deposit for $22,214.00 they couldnt get the house approved at council and to comply with council regulations they increased the price of our house by $25000+ which was the deal breaker for us so lomg story short, we put in writing that we wanted to cancel and get a refund of the unused funds. Of the $22,214 we only got a refund of $7759.56 but the cheque we recieved in the mail had an even lower amount refunded to us. They havent given details of what they used the money for. We just wanted to know what our rights are and who we can take this to Thanks in advance for any advise Re: complaints against builders 2Feb 10, 2010 7:49 pm The least they need to do is provide proof of how they came to the refunded amount. Try fair trading in NSW ? http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/About ... ating.html Re: complaints against builders 4Feb 10, 2010 8:29 pm Pretty sure they need to itemize expenses I'd be asking for that before threatening them with Legal Counsel. You will need them to try and justify their expenses... ...and this will make them think of what could come next. Be poker faced Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: complaints against builders 5Feb 10, 2010 9:23 pm Hi confused1, We are considering doing the same thing at the moment - we have paid almost $20k. Builder has said they will pass on a price increase because we are at the end of our 120 day timeline to contract signing (out of our control due to council approval issues)... anyway.... Just wondering, what did you get to keep? Plans/designs? Surveys? Re: complaints against builders 6Feb 11, 2010 11:15 am hey guys thanks for all the advise really appreciate it Hey mcniks of the $22,214.00 we paid they sent us a refund of $7759.56 but the cheque they sent to us only had an amount of $5959.88 which again is even less...lets just say im not very happy the letter they sent us only includes what we havent been charged for but the $14,454.44 which is missing, they havent sent us a list of what theyve spent that money on. We still have the designs, we gave them the contour plans and the thing that really bugged me is we did more work than they did. Council had knocked back the plans and we were the ones that called the council and had a meeting with them to find out what we needed to do to fix the house to get it approved, the builder and DA didnt do anything and when we told the builder what the issues were they charged us $25000+ to comply with council...you wouldnt believe me if i told u what the $25000 was for but good luck i hope it goes smoother for u Re: complaints against builders 7Feb 11, 2010 12:35 pm Oh it sounds so familiar!!! We are building on an established block (knock down rebuild) and had to go through town planning - we bought this block with endorsed plans however we decided to amend these so our new plans had to be resubmitted. Our issue is builder didn't give them enough info so council needs more docs (even though we gave them everything that was required for the initial approval - box diagrams, landscape plans, engineering plans, colours/materials to be used etc) so now we are behind 3 months while they get their s*1t together. Builder then says because it is taking so long they will pass on a price increase. Just not fair seeing this is all out of our control. On top of that they now need to hire a town planning 'expert' to help them with our amendment = $4000!!!!!!!!!! I agree with other comments - they should, and are supposed to be giving you a break down on what the money has been spent on - they can't just give you a random amount back. If we go ahead with cancelling with our builder we will most likely just take our plans to an architect/draftsman and also hire an independent Town Planner, get all this initial stuff sorted out then once approved take our drawings to a builder for the construction - MUCH simpler! Best of luck to you. Let me know of your outcome. Re: complaints against builders 8Feb 12, 2010 7:09 pm I have been leaving messages for the manager to call me back...and nothing... so i called again this morning and asked them where all our money had gone and was told that they went to pay relevant tradespeople and when i asked for the invoice they said no its their property i cant have it are they allowed to do this?? so after i told her ill be complaining to the Dpt of fair trading i was told to do what ever i wanted!!!!! Re: complaints against builders 9Feb 12, 2010 9:13 pm Looks like they want to play hard so you give up. Your only course of action now is to send them written request asking them to itemised the charges by x date (give a reasonable time). Also not forget to add that you will be taking the matter to fair trading if you don't hear from them. (which is unlikely from their reaction) In the mean time call up fair trading and ask if they are the relevant people to lodge the complaint to. If not they should be able to advise you what / who to see. Re: complaints against builders 10Feb 12, 2010 9:40 pm I have always thought a hard ball gets hit for 6 easier than a soft one I am a N00B at this but I'd do a freebee... turn up at the office (registered office) Ask to speak to the CEO, Managing Director, Owner, Whom ever is the one that controls things. and say ... Unfortunately your representative did not take me seriously, I want the receipts that make up the cost of what you have done for us, failing me collecting them, Legal Counsel will be contacting you regarding the invoices that make up the outstanding funds, do you have a Litigation Lawyer that we could pass the details onto or shall we send the bluey to you, which ever you prefer? Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: complaints against builders 11Feb 15, 2010 4:02 pm Hi Confused1, Guess what??????????? after paying almost as much as you we have been told we will only get $1500 back!!!! We were also told we could gain copyright of our plans but it will cost us (as they put it) "well into the tens of thousands of dollars". We are now asking for justification (they gave us a vague breakdown but no itemized figures). We will wait for this, then take it from there. Re: complaints against builders 12Feb 16, 2010 12:26 pm onc_artisan i think my ex builder is a little worried now so i guess i didnt have to go and surprise them... we recieved a express post envelope in the mail yesterday with another cheque taking our refund total up to just over $10,000.00 but still no invoices and no explanation of where all our money went which is about $12,000.00 .... so now im in the process of putting in a complaint to dept of fair trading what i hate is that they dont do anything till you start making threats to take it further and thats when they get scared and start doing something for us mcniks im so sorry to hear that...thats a load of crap from the builders end. have u considered putting in a complaint? Can you have the plans without getting a copyright Re: complaints against builders 13Feb 16, 2010 2:52 pm Hi, You need to issue them with a letter of demand, which details exactly what they have to achieve. If they don't comply, then you have grounds to begin legal action. Here is an edited version of the letter I sent my builder: _____________________________________________________________ Dear ***, I am writing concerning the building works on ****, for which your company, ****, is currently contracted to build on and you are my Registered Building Practitioner. I enclose a copy of ****(relevant documentation - like photocopy of cheque in your case, together with copy/print out of letter/email you sent requesting itemized breakdown). I demand a written response to this request, which *****(provides an itemized breakdown of costs incurred by you between xx and yy) within 7 days from the date of this letter. If this matter is not resolved by the time specified above, I reserve the right to commence legal proceedings without further notice to you and this letter may be tendered in court as evidence of your failure to comply. Yours sincerely Re: complaints against builders 16Feb 16, 2010 8:48 pm We got a breakdown today via email, so now we are asking for invoices etc as evidence. We get a copy of our plans however we cannot use them (we can't build the house). We are questioning this as these drawings are based on plans we received and took ownership of at settlement of land - the footprint is virtually the same. Not sure if we will get anywhere with this but it's worth a shot. I guess if our builder comes back with evidence of expenditure we can't really dispute it? We are getting a quote from another small builder at the moment (a recommendation) - so far we are very impressed with this builders attitude and approach - if this quote comes in at what his verbal figure was we will be very happy. We will be saving money in the long run. Re: complaints against builders 19Feb 23, 2010 3:55 pm Hi Confused1, Just an update on our situation, we may not be getting much money back but they have agreed to release copyright on our plans and will be giving us everything to date (CAD drawings, Engineering etc) Yay! so we don't have to resdesign now which is great as 1. we were really happy with the layout and 2. wont be spending as much getting new designs done. Hope your fight is going to plan... Re: complaints against builders 20Mar 30, 2010 9:10 am thought i would give an update our issue could not get resolved and have been recommended to take it to a tribunal to see if we can recover anything...does anyone have any advise on this or if u have been thought this before??? DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair I'm in WA and our sandy soils make drainage a bit easier but this is what I'd be doing. Dig down to your footings and let the wall dry out. 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