Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 13, 2011 7:53 pm My block of land is currently vacant but the people next to me are currently in the middle of building. Last week I drove past and noticed the builders had a large truck parked on my block. It appeared to be pumping concrete up for the second storey flooring. Today I visited my site and noticed the truck has left deep tyre marks in my block followed by large chunks of footpath missing and big cracks in what is left. I have photos of my block before they started building which clearly shows the footpath in A1 condition. So who is liable to fix this? Council because it's their property? Me, because it's out the front of my land? Or the builders who caused the damage? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Custom build Perth Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44112 Purchased block: May 2009 Building approval: July 2011 Bricks complete: Jan 2012 Re: Who's liable to fix this? 2Mar 13, 2011 8:42 pm I would suggest that you contact your council immediately telling them what you saw and providing them with before and after photos. With any luck they will chase next door's builder for rectification and not you. Re: Who's liable to fix this? 3Mar 14, 2011 11:56 pm I sent an email to the council last night but I haven't received a response yet. My builder said he is unsure on who would be liable so I'm hoping the council will get back to me soon. Custom build Perth Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44112 Purchased block: May 2009 Building approval: July 2011 Bricks complete: Jan 2012 Re: Who's liable to fix this? 4Mar 15, 2011 11:26 am I'm certainly no expert but I'd imagine your neighbour's builder would be liable for that, since he caused the damage. One of the trucks for our build damaged the concrete footpath in much the same way out the front of our house, and our builder told us that they will be fixing it up prior to handover because council require them to do that. Hopefully the same should apply for your situation. You might want to think about getting an acknowledge that they caused the damage in writing. Another thought - perhaps they're leaving the damage there 'for now' and will fix it at the end of the build, in case they just break it again when the next truck drives over it. I know that's what our builder is doing. Good luck! Re: Who's liable to fix this? 5Mar 15, 2011 12:32 pm As StartingOut mentioned, it would be your neighbour's builder who is liable. Contact that builder, and provide the photo evidence. I'm sure they will cover the costs to repair the damage. As an excuse/delay, they may wait until their build, and possibly your build has finished though Re: Who's liable to fix this? 6Mar 16, 2011 9:31 am We've just been through a 4 month battle to rectify damage done by our neighbours' builder. They were very reluctant to fix what they had (admittedly) done. Hopefully you can benefit from our experience.
I would contact the other builder in writing and get them to respond in writing admitting that they were responsible for the damage. Something along the lines of: "on March X your builder drove their truck onto my block to pump concrete and in the process damaged the footpath. I have photographs to prove this. When do you intend to rectify the damage?". Also I would request a written response within 48hours to show that you are serious. Call the builder's switchboard and get the name, number and email address of the site supervisor for the build. Send the email to someone as high up in the organisation as possible, and cc the site supervisor. Get "read receipts" for the emails. I wonder if it the same mob as did the damage on our block? If so I'd have contact details for the relevant people. Feel free to PM me and we'll swap notes. Cheers, Avion. Re: Who's liable to fix this? 7Mar 16, 2011 12:24 pm It is possible that your builder prepared a "Kerb/Footpath/Gutter Condition Report" (or something called similar to that) - ie. the part of council property which is aligned with your side boundaries. This report - if done - is probably not part of your contract documentation, but hopefully you can find this out by calling council or the builder (or sometimes you can find it yourself on council's website where your application is accessible online - that's what I would try first if your app has been lodged). The report would highlight any damaged areas at the early stages of your app. It gives you even more "evidence" (on top of the pics). My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Hey guys, what’s everyone opinion on James Hardie linea direct fix to frame? Would this be the most common method and anybody ever had any problems down the track? 0 5151 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair If the railhead is so poorly fixed it is also likely that the railhead is also non compliant, what about overflows and sealing railhead to the gutters?. 3 5972 |