Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 20, 2012 1:06 pm Hello all My family have decided to build on our existing block. It is a slight upslope so would suit a split level / tri level home. We have met with a local volume builder and agreed to go ahead with one of their designs. We met in the sales office and went over their brochure plans and made a bunch of changes. By the time our tender came back we had met with sever builder / industry mates who had given us advice and ran a dumpy over the block. With this new information and our minds changed a bit on layout we requested further changes to our tender. Our builder told us to pay a deposit to action any further changes. Yes I know time is money bah blah blah so we paid a deposit of $7.5K. Ok so now we are what I call financial. We have now received our latest tender and It is rubbish. All our upgrades we discussed in their office are double, three times the amount they gave us a verbal on. There is a major variation which is a MUST for me and my family and it has been left out. There are also prices for brickwork (why is it not included in the brochure price I do not know) which we have queried. The reply from the builder was we can be more accurate when drafting is done. My issue is they are basically doing no further work EG drafting until we sign off on the tender price supplied. So do I not understand this tender process and it can all be changed when drafting goes ahead OR does my signing the tender price negate any room to move on pricing. I am feeling a little pressured to sign off on a tender that is not right for me and my family. Am I freaking out over nothing or should I definitely not sign “proceed to drafting” documents until I am happy with design and price? Thanks in advance Hack Re: The sign up process - please help 2Jun 20, 2012 1:19 pm I would not pay them another cent until they get the plan right or at least fix it to what was previously discussed. $7.5k does sound on the high end, this should be more than enough to get finalised plans that are exactly what you want. I would also be concerned about the cost blow out you have mentioned. I would query all of it and don't hand over any more cash. With our builder, during the initial estimate he quoted each item (site costs plus extras) on the high side so when the actual costs came in it wasn't a huge shock and was mostly ballpark. Volume builders seem more to quote low to get the sale (or just dont have a clue?) then unfortunately the actual costs end up much higher. My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: The sign up process - please help 3Jun 20, 2012 2:37 pm Hi Cinder Thanks for the reply It is not a cash issue YET. They are not asking for more money as yet but to sign off on a tender document I am not happy with both price wise and design wise. They are suggesting they can fix those issue later but i am unsure of the legal rights of signing such a document. Re: The sign up process - please help 4Jun 21, 2012 12:18 am I wouldn't count on it. Is it the actual contract they are wanting you to sign? We took ours to a company that inspects contracts and if you want is involved all the way thru the build from a quality assurance perspective. I'm sure they would do tenders as well. As you've stated I wouldn't feel comfortsble signing something where the requirements and costings aren't even close to being right. If you have a bad feeling about something, listen to yourself. These people should be working a lot harder if they want your business. My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: The sign up process - please help 5Jun 21, 2012 12:26 am Hi Cinder This is my confusion. It is a "proceed to drafting" Tender agreement. blurb states Now you have accepted your tender we will submit to drafting for plan preparations. This preparation takes ........... Cheers Hack The sign up process - please help 6Jun 21, 2012 7:32 am Usually the tender forms part of the contract, which is usually signed after architectural drawings which are also part of contract. While they are doing the drawings, which could take a few weeks, ask that the tender items are fixed. Don't sign the contract unless these items are fixed. We built the Wisdom Majestic 40 - moved in! Our blog - http://ourwisdommajestic40.blogspot.com.au/ Our H1 thread - viewtopic.php?t=54156 Re: The sign up process - please help 7Jun 21, 2012 2:02 pm I dont know if every builder is different but my understanding is when you sign the Tender you are accepting the tender offer they are making (which is the price) you can make further changes to these but depending on the changes they may be additional costs. I'm guessing onces it goes to drafting they can see if the cost can be reduced based on the drawings, if the item has "provisional cost" next to be careful, coz it may also mean that cost can go up depending on the drawings. So I would say if you are disputing the cost of items on that tender then dont sign it until they have been discussed because if you sign it means you are happy with that price they've given you. Building Henley Monaco Nouveau Q1 - Mernda Villages https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=57810 http://razbuild.blogspot.com.au/ Re: The sign up process - please help 8Jun 21, 2012 11:11 pm Once you are signed, you have less power... so change early. 1 1343 I apologise for any confusion, but your understanding is correct. We approached our situation differently based on advice from… 11 37497 Thanks very much! And would the landscaper/contractor generally involve the engineer or is that something the client would do? Thanks for your help 2 6737 |