Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 14, 2010 10:54 am Hi, Yesterday I had a call from our builder asking whether we were aware that we needed to organise & pay for the crossover on our block of land that we are building on this year. Is it normal that we are responsible for the crossover? There had been no mention of this from the Real Estate agent when we bought the land, and there is nothing in the contracts anywhere to suggest this would be the case. Our builder was very surprised and said he had never seen this situation before, saying that usually the developer organises this and it is included in the price of the land, and that we should go back to the developer to complain / discuss. If we do need to pay for it, that’s fine, I just would have liked to know up front from the Real Estate Agent. Has anyone had any experience with this? Not sure whether we should go back to the Agent and say we are not very happy about it, or whether we should have expected it and just get it organised. It will be our first house, so any input / ideas on what usually happens with crossovers would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance! Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 3Apr 14, 2010 11:36 am Do the other blocks in the estate have crossovers? Usually the land developer should put these in however in some circumstances i have seen blocks left with no crossovers. Sometimes people pay to put in new crossovers when it doesnt suit the layout and design of the home you are building ie changing it to the other side. You wouldnt be the only person this has happened to. Check out if the other blocks have it and maybe get in contact with the developer. Budde Design 3D Architecural Visualizations, Architectural Rendering, Artist Impressions, 2D & 3D floor plans http://www.buddedesign.com nathan@buddedesign.com Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 4Apr 14, 2010 11:44 am crossover as in driveway?? Most people here in WA have to pay for that themselves. Some are included in their building contract as part of it all. I had to pay a fair bit for ours. Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 5Apr 14, 2010 12:03 pm I am the same as chedesha....have to organise and pay for it myself. Council will reimburse some of the cost if it meets their regulations. I think Wanneroo council pays up to $300 back (even when crossover costs a little over $2000) Building "DOMAYNE" through COMMODORE HOMES in Pearsall WA Slab down 15-01-2010 Handover 16-06-2010 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=29049 Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 6Apr 14, 2010 12:05 pm Chedasha crossover as in driveway?? Most people here in WA have to pay for that themselves. Some are included in their building contract as part of it all. I had to pay a fair bit for ours. this is different. This is on your property. cross over is on the coucil property, and is used to connect road to private drive way Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 7Apr 14, 2010 12:08 pm We applied to have crossover moved through land developer. Was done at no cost as they had not started the works yet. Was restricted to where they had planned pits etc. Builder told us to do so as it was not included in house price, and proposed cross over on wrong side of house. Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 8Apr 14, 2010 12:11 pm borg Chedasha crossover as in driveway?? Most people here in WA have to pay for that themselves. Some are included in their building contract as part of it all. I had to pay a fair bit for ours. this is different. This is on your property. cross over is on the coucil property, and is used to connect road to private drive way No its the council crossover portion of the driveway that I was talking about. Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 9Apr 14, 2010 12:13 pm I'm in WA too and have to pay for our crossover, did on our first build as well. Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 10Apr 14, 2010 12:17 pm Just backing up Chedasha. We will have to pay for our cross over (on the Council bit of land) too. Builders will quote (at crazy prices) to do it along with the rest of the driveway. My brother paved his own after handover to save some money. (And he did a good job, we might have to employ him, LOL!) Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 11Apr 14, 2010 12:23 pm Same deal for us. It's included in the driveway costs provided by the builder. Didn't know it's something the council was responsible for. Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 12Apr 14, 2010 1:29 pm Thanks for everyone's responses. I'm in Vic btw @Borg - The land was subdivided, and I have looked again through the section 32, and the only thing I can find that relates to this is under Planning & Road Access, which says is that the responsible authority is the Council. I think I might just have to ring the Estate Agent & find out what her take on it all is, and go from there. Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 13Apr 14, 2010 2:38 pm Emmahi, As far as I know developers did used to provide crossovers as part of the land price but it was at a static location (ie: you didn't get to choose where) and often had to be moved to accommodate the actual setout of the house. So (in typical money hungry fashion) it's now the case that most developers don't provide any crossover at all and, as such, it's the responsibility of the owner after handover to put one in. Basically if it isn't in your contract the developer won't be liable to pay for it. I'm hoping that the low profile curbs in my estate will mean a crossover isn't necessary but I haven't got to that stage yet. Hope that helps. Grom40 Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 14Apr 14, 2010 2:40 pm I'm told by my builder that you can apply to the council for a permit to remove the current crossover and have it reinstated to the left hand side. There will be an application fee of approx $150 for the permit. Once you have the permit than after handover you will have to get quotes from concreters to remove the crossover and then make a new one on the left hand side. This will probably be the most costly option. If not, go back to the engineering plan and look at it - if its stated to be on the side you think it is, then you can take this up with the land developer. Good luck! Building The Amberlea 44 Fusion Home http://www.amberleadream.blogspot.com Land settled May 10!! Building commenced 30 Jun 10. Re: Who needs to pay for crossover?! Help! 15Apr 14, 2010 6:41 pm Emmahi Thanks for everyone's responses. I'm in Vic btw @Borg - The land was subdivided, and I have looked again through the section 32, and the only thing I can find that relates to this is under Planning & Road Access, which says is that the responsible authority is the Council. I think I might just have to ring the Estate Agent & find out what her take on it all is, and go from there. Emmahi, payment for construction of crossovers in Vic has historically always been the owner's responsibility, even though they're on council land. Our first house was in a new subdivision and none of us had crossovers. To get to our driveway from the road, we spread some gravel and just lived with that for the first year or so, then eventually got a permit and excavated and concreted the crossover ourselves (yes, we were stingy ). These days councils usually require developers of new estates to provide and pay for all infrastructure, including roads, street lights, parks, nature strip plantings and so on, and most developers usually do the crossover as part of the road/kerb/footpath construction. Depending on the council, it may be compulsory.... or it may not. I suggest you check with the council; they'll be able to tell you. It's a bit of a PITA if you have to do it, but not a huge big deal. There's the extra cost, but a few square metres of plain concrete can't cost that much.... You'll be able to get a permit application from the council and just find a concreter to do the work for you. Or maybe your builder will do it for a reasonable amount, as long as you've done the work with the permit. Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 20426 Hi there, long-time lurker but first time posting. I've bought a house 2 and a bit years ago and last year we had some major water damage on a converted pergola area… 0 7936 Yes, unless you are in a low intensity rainfall area or the area is protected from rain. Do you have access to NCC Part 2 or can you download it? I can email you a copy… 10 12525 |