Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 22, 2011 9:26 am Hi all, I have been visiting this forum time to time from the day we decided to build our own house. This is my first post on this forum an hope you all will help me in completing our house. For the last couple of months we are working with Dennis Family Homes for our new home. The plan is Charlton291 with additional room and a bit of other changes. Due to the addition of the new room and the layout it was very hard to decide on the facade/windows and other details so agreed with DFH that once the plans are finished we can have a look and make any changes required. We recieved the draft plans after a couple of weeks but with the notice that changes can only be done to the plans once the contract document is issued. However from the draft plans, we already decided what changes we need to make, as we realised that the layout changes and some of our original ideas are not going to match each other. Now we got our contract document yesterday but DFH asked us to sign the document anyway before making any variations. My question is, as we already know what the changes we need in the plans, can we ask DFH to make the changes before we sign the document or is this THE usual procedure on any contract ie. we sign the contract and make the variation? Thank you all in advance for your replies. Regards, Meetoo Re: Signing the Contract with Known future variations 2Jun 22, 2011 3:28 pm I can't say about your particular contract but with our house (built with big M) we signed the contract for the standard home and almost all of the changes we made were post-contract variations. I understand this to be quite a standard practice - and maybe others who have built with DFH can help - but it's always best to confirm with your solicitor if you have questions related to your contract. Re: Signing the Contract with Known future variations 3Jun 22, 2011 4:02 pm Make them work for your business. If they want to make a sale they'll put in the effort to work out the cost of changes now. So, no, don't sign the contract yet. 23 Aug 2011: Land settlement 14 Sep 2011: Block levelled 20 Oct 2011: Slab 3 Nov 2011: Frame 10 Feb 2012: Handover http://s1098.photobucket.com/albums/g372/Dazzab6/ Re: Signing the Contract with Known future variations 4Jun 22, 2011 6:20 pm Make sure you don't get stung with any post contract variation fees per change like some builders charge. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ All new built homes look like display homes... until the furniture goes in. Re: Signing the Contract with Known future variations 5Jun 22, 2011 10:05 pm I didnt sign contract until everything was in it. Any variation we make from contract point onwards costs us $200 admin fee as well as 7 days added to end date so I made sure I took the extra time before contract. I am sure every builder has there own rules but if things are already known why would they not add them in prior to signing Re: Signing the Contract with Known future variations 6Jun 22, 2011 11:56 pm meetoo. Absolutely have variations included and priced prior to signing the contract. We were in the same situation as you last year and pirces escalated after contract signing for variations already decided but not included in the contract document. There was a long unpleasant withdrawl from the contract when increases in prices of over $12000 due to 'variations'. led to our dissatisfaction with the buikder (another story) Anyhow, Homecenter in Perth run courses for people conisdering a new house and one absolute from a lawyer speaking there was do not sign unpriced documents. Re: Signing the Contract with Known future variations 7Jun 23, 2011 10:43 am Hi All, Interestingly (during my last night reading) I noticed a clause allowing us to make 2 variations, one during the color selection and the other on signing the contract document, without any additional cost. I believe this is for avoiding delays and changes made everytime and then. firefly, I will get all my variation priced and spec'd before signing the contract so I know exactly how much it will cost me more. thanks all for your advices Re: Signing the Contract with Known future variations 8Jun 23, 2011 10:48 am Ours was a bit of both. We did all the changes that required changes to the foot print of the house (extending rooms to the eves, total remodelling of the wet areas, extending the kitchen and alfresco etc) pre contract, then post contract is niggly things like changing window sizes, making a shower recess bigger, etc. Re: Signing the Contract with Known future variations 9Jul 13, 2011 9:51 pm Hi, this is a good thread. Almost the same case here. Our builder informed us that the building permit has been approved. We have signed the post contract variation like changing the style of windows in the facade, brickwork on top of the garage, however when we received our drawings we couldn't see these changes. Do we need to request from them to change the drawings? Or this doesn't matter, any changes that are not showing in the drawings are just fine since the post contract variation will prevail? Please help. Many thanks! Re: Signing the Contract with Known future variations 10Jul 13, 2011 11:59 pm melbournevicau Hi, this is a good thread. Almost the same case here. Our builder informed us that the building permit has been approved. We have signed the post contract variation like changing the style of windows in the facade, brickwork on top of the garage, however when we received our drawings we couldn't see these changes. Do we need to request from them to change the drawings? Or this doesn't matter, any changes that are not showing in the drawings are just fine since the post contract variation will prevail? Please help. Many thanks! Have you received a copy of your post contract variation that shows that the builder has countersigned it? Your builder should ALWAYS give you a countersigned copy - without that, you don't know that they have accepted and made the change. If you have received a copy of the variation showing that they have signed off, I wouldn't worry about the plans as you have a variation confirming that they agreed with it. If you haven't received a mutually signed variation, make sure you get a copy of it or a copy of the plans that state they are the latest as of "x" date. You could also check if the builder has made the change to your addenda - if there are ever any issues or disagreements, the addenda always takes legal precedence over plans or costings. It seems very clear to me that your contract states that a security account does NOT need to be established so the answer to the builder is NO. If in doubt find a contract… 1 8511 So AFAIk the outcomes of the BAL ratings form part of a clause that allows them to pass these costs on to you. However the more relevant detail is how did it go from 19… 1 9166 Scientists have used random matrix theory to demonstrate theoretically that the neutrino mass hierarchy can be explained mathematically. When a substance is fragmented… 21 20673 |