Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 01, 2007 4:45 pm Hi All
We are building our home in Queensland and our contract stipulates that late completion damages will be paid at the rate of $20 per day. However, the builing is still going past the allowed time, and now the builder has told us that the usual process is for them to wait until the house is complete (approx two months late) and then deduct the damages from the final invoice. I have contacted the BSA who advise that the legislation does not specify how and when the damages should be paid, just that we are entitiled the them. We would prefer regualr payments from them from now as an encouragement for them to finish the work, but there is no guidline on when they have to pay us so I guess we'll just have to wait. The cash would be handy now though to offset some of our rental and interest costs - we hadn't budgeted to have a delay this long. Any advice? Pleb Re: How to get payment of 'Late Completion Damages' 2Oct 01, 2007 5:03 pm Personally, I would deduct the $20 per day from the final payment. It would become a real problem if the penalties amounted to more than the final payment, but it would probably take being more than a year late for that to happen.
$20 per day is a bit light on. The builder can be a year behind and all you get is $7200. Not much of an incentive there. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: How to get payment of 'Late Completion Damages' 3Oct 01, 2007 5:11 pm Casa2 $20 per day is a bit light on. The builder can be a year behind and all you get is $7200. Not much of an incentive there. It is - I think the HIA contacts used by most builders have $250 per week as the minimum allowed!? And I believe to make adjustments to the final invoice is common practice (rather than actually paying you anything). Built Porter Davis "Dromana" 2007. Re: How to get payment of 'Late Completion Damages' 4Oct 01, 2007 6:27 pm Our house went into liquidated damages and our builder deducted it from the final invoice. Re: How to get payment of 'Late Completion Damages' 5Oct 01, 2007 10:48 pm vanderlay Casa2 $20 per day is a bit light on. The builder can be a year behind and all you get is $7200. Not much of an incentive there. It is - I think the HIA contacts used by most builders have $250 per week as the minimum allowed!? And I believe to make adjustments to the final invoice is common practice (rather than actually paying you anything). Ditto - ours is $250/week after the set time period allowed - which is a very generous time frame anyhow. I thought this was standard. $140/week is pathetic. Even $250/week isn't a lot considering that you would probably still be paying rent somewhere and very likely have drawn most of the loan which is being charged interest. Ray. Second Time 'Round Re: How to get payment of 'Late Completion Damages' 6Oct 02, 2007 10:57 am I don't suppose there is any way of negotiating an increase on the previously agreed liquidated damages figure. I suppose legally both parties would have to agree to it as an amendment to the contract.
Would be good if there is anyone with legal brains who could shed light on this. Our damages are only going to be $15/day if they are late - and for the last 5 weeks they have done nothing so being late I think is inevitable. I wish we had asked for a higher figure when we signed the contract. Building for the 1st time with M3tricon Site Start was 19th July 07. It's been 2 weeks to Handover for the past 8 weeks. Go figure. Re: How to get payment of 'Late Completion Damages' 7Oct 02, 2007 11:43 am Have you calculated how many raining days in that past X months during your constructions? Also, depending on the contracts, like in ours the builder added a clause saying for every raining day it requires another day for it to dry.
So if you minus the number of raining days, may be it hasn't reach the specified construction periods yet?? Like I said the Occupancy Certificate is not the tollgate that marks the completion of the house. The contract defines… 7 10720 It worked for me in getting all non notified rain days removed from the builders claim, although the LDs was only $50/day 7 5939 |