Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 23, 2013 9:06 pm Hi all, I am new into this whole building journey. We are demolishing and building a single story house with Simmonds home. Some of the private inspector (eg: Building Expert, New Home Inspections and Final Inspect) provide service to review the contract. Has anyone had any experience with this company’s reviewing your building contract? Is it worth to have the building contract review? Does the reviewer give opinion on the site costs? Thanks Re: Building Contract review 2Apr 23, 2013 9:31 pm I would definately have someone review your contract. We chose our solicitor - who happens to have A) just built a home and B) is actually a contract lawyer so it was perfect for us. I strongly recommend, even if it takes a bit of time that you don't rush checking the contract again and again to ensure you completely understand it AND you are completely comfortable. Do you know what type of contract it is - a Fixed Lump Sum or ??? We chose a Cost Plus Contract, which has Pro's and Con's but "should" work out significantly cheaper for us than the same build on a Fixed Lump Sum would be. Re: Building Contract review 3Apr 24, 2013 2:45 pm I am not sure what type of contract is because Simmonds have not sent us the contract. What is the different with Fixed lump sum and cost plus contract? Should I get a solicitor to check the building contract or should I get some one that specialised in building like the company I mention above. http://www.newhomeinspections.com.au/pa ... stage.html I also have a concern regarding what is a fair site cost. Originally we were going to build with Burbank however after the soil test and site survey done. Burbank came back with an estimation of a site cost $38K, Simmonds came back with a site cost $30K. The report by Burrat engineer say our site is classified as “P” due to abnormal moisture condition and also have a slope between the front and back about 1 meter height different. However my friend builds with Porter Davis in Mt Waverley and their land have slope about 1.6 meter their site cost is about $24K. Is there any independent review for estimating the site cost? Re: Building Contract review 4Apr 24, 2013 7:50 pm Our site is on really good sand based soil. We did pay $1500 or something like that for geological testing and it came back good. We've got around 1.3m slope and have no additional costs because of the slope. I'm going with a custom build so they work a bit differently. We've had the one company (www.enviroarch.com.au) do the whole thing from design to construct (start construct next week). They are a two man company (practically). They itemised everything for us on a massive excel file. Our site costs Site Fencing $600 Silt Fence $300 Scaffolding $5000 (we've got double story) Toilet $916 Survey/Peg Outs $1705 Cranage $1760 Earth Works (Excavation & fill, footings, trenching, driveway fill) $4906 Other fill/Ag Drain ~$1000 So around $16 to $17k all up. Let me know if I've missed anything. Demolition cost $13,000 (was an old single story house on site lus a rear garage and more concrete paths than you could imagine). As part of the demo they not only removed everything, but left the entire block scraped clean to dirt. Cost Plus or Lump Sum Contract: I would think you would be looking at Lump Sum as to my knowledge no project builders work on cost plus. the basic difference is, with Lump Sum you have a fixed price for almost the entire costs. So the builder factors in a margin of error and material increases. Usually, it will work out in their favour in the end. with cost plus you pay costs for each item at the time + xx% builders margin. So for example, we've been quoted $1500 for concrete. If at the time we poor it is $1600 we pay the $1600. So costs are not as fixed, but there is also no buffer margin added in at the start by the builder. It is completely an open book process, we see each quote, invoice and item cost. We can also change items along the way if we are running short on budget. E.g. originally chose tiles for $45 sq/m but running short of cash we can choose cheaper ones, or if we change to glass splashback we can so long as we pay for it. There is no cost for making these changes along the way, only a cost if the architect has to redraw something. Cost Plus has a greater risk BUT if you are very detailed in planning and design you could save a stack because you're avoiding the extra sum the builder chucks on to make sure they come out on top. We haven't finished yet, I'll be doing a thorough review of how our cost plus contract went. We've developed a really good working relationship with our builder - which obviously is critical. But I would strongly recommend a solicitor look over your contracts. One that is familiar with building contracts. I personally don't know much about the other companies. But if you had a back injury, would you get it diagnosed by a massage therapist or physiotherapist? In your case, it can't hurt to do both? It's a half million dollar investment, spending a few thousand at the beginning is well worth it to ensure you don't lose money through naivety or oversight. Re: Building Contract review 5Apr 25, 2013 11:42 am Hi Animal, Thank you for your advice. I will definitely get my solicitor to look at it and probably get private inspector to review it also. Not sure which private inspector should I choose. Probably going to start another topic 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 8347 i thought the flipped plan initially but bec i want narrow pathway from entry to dining (dont like bend), also cannot fit the… 7 17284 It is true that a builder can ignore your independent inspection report as it is not part of the contractual arrangement but that is stupid because he cannot avoid fixing… 9 46869 |