Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 17, 2012 1:29 pm We have recently decided to cancel our contract with our builder. Construction has not started yet, as the land that we are purchasing from a developer is not ready and settlement is in about a month. We have had a lot of trouble with this builder; firstly we were rushed into signing the contract to be eligible for a promotion that they were running. We skipped the electrical selections naively believing the sales person that we could easily do it later. After signing the contract, we had selections for electricals and we were then told that the house that we are building can't have downlights due to energy rating regulations - even though the house on display had them. We were disappointed yet, we made a compromise and we moved on. We had a lot of other trouble with them, the last straw being that they asked the developers to flip the driveway around to fit the plan of the house when we had a verbal agreement with the salesperson that the house plans were going to be inverted. Also they did so without our written consent. On cancellation of our contract they have given me a list of expenses we are liable for, the one that seemed most unreasonable is Commission paid to staff of $5,000. I thought that was an agreement between the employer and employee, also it is not mentioned in the contract. If anyone has gone through this before, could you please advise me? Re: Cancelling Building Contract 2Oct 17, 2012 1:33 pm THere has been a lot of people in a similar situation as yourself and im sure youve heard it before but the best advice anyone here can give you is to seek legal advice. I know lots of contracts state that should ehte contract be terminated there are fees payable for work already completed. Sorry i cant be much more help than this Oct 10 - Council Approval Oct 23 - Site scrape Oct 29 - Footings and Prelay OCT 30 - Slabbed Nov 6 - Bricks Delivered Nov 13 - Brickwork started Re: Cancelling Building Contract 3Oct 17, 2012 1:47 pm Thanks anyway mate. They sent through a list of expenses payable to them. Most of them, although inflated, seem understandable at first. Then i later found that that the CITB levy that they are charging us $1500 for is actually refundable to them if the project is cancelled. They took that off the list when i asked them about it. Now I am just wary about all the other charges on the list. You talk about deletions, are they variations or PS and PC adjustments? pleas list them 1 12009 i wouldn't be worried, you'll definitely miss something, no matter how many times you review. we've spent close to 5 months ensuring everything got reflected in the… 5 9441 I've decided, after a period of confusion (my building broker told me it's probably not worth it to use a lawyer, but others have said it is a must) that I definitely will… 7 26373 |