Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 11, 2006 9:25 am Hi all,
After replying to a PM,I thought I would post some tips pre contract signing for those about to embark on the journey. Here goes. * Get as many people as possible to look a them, including your bank manager, and someone who has a legalish background. * Look at what you said you didnt want, go back to the display centre, and double check. Saves a lot of mucking around later. We changed our minds twice, god it was painful. * Keep going to the display house you looked at, take the contract, and check every thing, especially the plans. Take people with you as well, this helps see things you dont see anymore, and may take for granted (light switch locations). * Get another 100 people to check your electrical plan. Check where light switches are going to go. * Make sure you have a phone point near the a powerpoint, and visa versa. This is so if you use cordless, the base station needs power. Just realised I forgot about that one, will need to cross the palm of the sparkie wioth somemagic folding paper. * Bricks, here is a good one. Ring the supplier (Boral, Austral whoever) explain you are building with(insert name of builder), and ask them for a couple of locations where they have recently delivered the bricks you have chosen. Do a driveby and make sure you are happy with what it looks like on a house, rather than a couple of bricks on a piece of card. We found the color we wanted by doing this. Just to make sure you are happy with your choice. * If you are not happy with the contract, do not sign it. * If you see issues and they say, thats ok, we'll fix that later, do not sign it, because they will come back and say "Well the contract says this". * Think about your telephone points carefully. * The bigest dog I have with volume builders, is that you need to keep chasing them up. I have the luxury of living near our builder's head office, so if they do not answer my call, I go down there and *** them off as much as they do to me. I do it nicely, but I make sure I make the point. * Do not be afraid to hold back funds. They say "oh,. but you are signing a contract etc etc. The minute you hand over cash, you start to lose control. Tell them that there are outstanding issues that need to be resolved prior to payment, and that they should resolve them quickly. Be careful though, and do choose tyour battles. * If you are wall mounting the Dryer, get an extra noggin put in for the bracket. * Arrange acces with your builder prior to plaster, so you can take photos of all of your walls with the electricals in. Handy reference later. * Keep a copy of all of your correspondence, and log phone calls. Just in case they pull the "well I never saw that" or we didnt get your message card, not that I have needed it yet. As soon as you get passed the contracts point, the exceitement gets going when your permits are issued. We went from clear block to frame and bricks in 2 months. Hope these help. BTW, alot, but not all builders are like this, but I chose mine because of their design, and quality. I would rather rant and rave and get a great house, than have great customer service, and a crap one... Adrian B A more things to think about 2Sep 20, 2006 5:22 pm Good tips Adrian.
Others I have heard of that I wouldn't have naturally thought of myself: make the powerpoints doubles (you can never have too many powerpoints) If you can foresee yourself using a drier, then get an exhause fan put in the laundry. The fridge uses much less power if it's well ventilated, so get ventilation put underneath your fridge space. Skye Re: Pre Contract Signing tips 3Oct 09, 2006 3:19 pm Hi guys
All great tips. But just to show my ignorance, what does “ventilation” mean in this case Skye? Just a wooden frame for the fridge to sit on and so be lifted off the solid floor or something more complicated? Re: Pre Contract Signing tips 4Oct 09, 2006 11:56 pm Hehe, now I'll show my ignorance - I don't know!!
I haven't found my perfect block yet, but just have done a reasonable amount of research. Okay, some googling: http://oikos.com/esb/31/refrigerator.html Ventilation around the refrigerator itself is also important. In new kitchens, the refrigerator is often surrounded by cabinets with very little clearance. This tight fit restricts air flow that would carry heat away from the condenser coils. That makes the compressor work harder. To prevent this problem, design cabinets to allow several inches of space around and above the refrigerator. If a tight fit is unavoidable, consider providing a channel for air to flow behind the refrigerator. A path for warmer air to escape over the top is most important. Pre-signing contract 5Nov 06, 2006 1:21 am Hello, I'm about to embark on pre-contract signing journey, a little nervously.
The building company we're dealing with have a Purchasing Procedure which involves the customer taking a copy of the unsigned standard HIA building contract away with them at their tender appointment. A follow up appointment is then arranged when the final contract is presented to the customer along with detailed plans and specs. The customer is expected to sign at this appointment. My concern is that the copy of the standard contract we receive at the tenderappointment, may be significantly different from the final, complete contract that the builder presents to us at the follow up appointment. My concern is that they're expecting us to sign at the second appointment without allowing us to take away the detailed plans and specs away with contract for independent evaluation by our solicitor. When I questioned them about why the company won't allow us to take detailed plans and specs away before signing the contract, the manager replied that their company never allows their plans and drawings to leave before the client signs, for reasons of intellectual property / copyright. My feeling is that this situation favours the builder, in that it places pressure on the customer to sign at the second appointment so as to " Clinch" the sale for the company. I Don't think it's a level playing field...Any thoughts? What's common practise as far as taking away contracts, plans and specifications before signing? Re: Pre-signing contract 6Nov 06, 2006 3:21 pm Homeboy When I questioned them about why the company won't allow us to take detailed plans and specs away before signing the contract, the manager replied that their company never allows their plans and drawings to leave before the client signs, for reasons of intellectual property / copyright. My feeling is that this situation favours the builder, in that it places pressure on the customer to sign at the second appointment so as to " Clinch" the sale for the company. I Don't think it's a level playing field...Any thoughts? What's common practise as far as taking away contracts, plans and specifications before signing? Hi homeboy.DO NOT SIGN IT!!! What an absolute load of crab from your builder. The minute the drawings are done by the architect, they are the legal property of the builder, even if you designed the house. Any builder who copies their plans in a fool, as the designing builder will close them down through breach of copyright. They all know that. You have every right to take the contract home with you, discuss it, look at it, show friends etc etc et, and I encourage you to. it is areally important part of the process that the plans, the specs, the wording and the inclusions / non inclusions are correct for both parties. If they do not let you this, I would question their trust in you, and as you said, ask the question what are they trying to hide?? I am not questioning the integrity of the builder, it is merely being aware that you are signning a legally binding contract. Now lets talk about the plans. My contract forgot 3 powerpoints, they forgot a door, had incorrect flooring and wrong items in the description. In short DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING UNTIL YOU FULLY UNDERSTNAD IT, iITS OBLIGATIONS ON BOTH PARTIES, UNTIL IT IS CORRECT, AND THAT YOU ARE HAPPY WITH IT. The builder I am with wanted me to sign a contract that spelt my name wrong, had wrong plans, and incorrect inclusions. It took them 5 goes and a threat to walk away to get it right. Adrian B Re: Pre Contract Signing tips 8Nov 07, 2006 11:56 am If you were wandering, Homeboy, whether all builders do this - they do not. We've taken everything away, the contract is being checked by our solicitor and I've had plans and inclusions/specifications for months now. The "final" copy was delivered to us by a courier straight from our bulder. Re: Pre Contract Signing tips 9Dec 06, 2006 3:47 pm We can add a couple of things to the list...
In relation to the electrical plan. Make sure that a few of the "100" people who look at it are actually electricians. Only an electrician can suggest things like 2-way switching and functional operation. Don't just go into a lighting shop and ask them to do you a lighting plan...they'll try to overload your house with lights if they're not confident in lighting design. Also be aware that you can ask for things that aren't necassarily part of the "package". We got all colorbond gutters and downpipes even when our prestart rep stupidly tried to say that we couldn't because they had supply troubles (this was completely false and just a naive answer to a request not many people make). Do your homework... and be organised and all is good. Been in a similar position and we decided to let the builder go. Some of the PSA money goes to engineering so we at least got those documents and they actually refunded us… 2 4547 The worst thing you can do is sign a building contract without a pre contract review. Over the years many people have come to me with disputes where they just signed… 0 5597 You talk about deletions, are they variations or PS and PC adjustments? pleas list them 1 11984 |