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Alright, I do have a minor update, our developer has come back and said our settlement is due the 24th of Jan (YAY.) know that we have a settlement date HBC has come back to us with the correct amount for our late settlement, they a had previously told us 12k around when I asked in early Dec. Its come in about 8k, and during this time they have told us the bushfire provision for my block has been cancelled too, so a credit of 7k is due. So after all the stress of "pretty high" price protection costing it worked out to be about 1k, such a relief!
May I ask how long your land was delay for? HBC is asking me for 8K for a 6 months delay, this is not reasonable for me.
We signed the PWC in June 16 originally for settlement in March 17, which was pushed to September, which was pushed to December, and finally now in Jan 18. So ours was 4 months passed for 8k, which I don't think is completely unreasonable, comes down to, compared to your 6 months passed I'm paying too much. Realistically speaking though, I expected prices to fluctuate a little at least, it may come down to what finishes have been chosen as to what makes a price difference? I'm not 100% sure.
Hey guys,
So our block of land has finally titled after 7 months of delay. Homebuyers has come back to us and said that due to the land title being delayed outside of 6 months, we are liable to pay for the increase in prices of construction. The price increase is 15k but they said they were happy to split the difference and make us pay 7.5k.
Unfortunately I didn't look through the fine print when signing the contract with regards to delays in land title. They quoted Special Conditions #11 of the HIA contract which states that "if title for the land does not register within 6 months of the Estimated Title Registration contained in the PWC, the Builder may terminate this contract by notice in writing to the Owner."
I have been reading up on the Building Contracts on the Consumers Affairs VIC website and they said that Building contracts cannot include a "cost escalation clause", which states that:
"a cost escalation or ‘rise and fall’ clause, unless the contract price exceeds $1 million. The onus is on the builder to calculate into the contract price any likely rise in costs caused by inflation, wage increases and the like. If the builder wants to include a cost escalation clause, the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria must approve it. The director has not yet approved any cost escalation clauses."
Just wondering whether anyone has any experience in this area and whether I have any legs to stand on with regards to fighting this?
I think not much people have fight for it, I tried but no respond. Have you tried to quote what you saw on the website to them?
Hi there, Any updates on this going forward?
This is currently happening to my husband and I. Our loan has already been approved and they have only just contacted us regarding the increase. Our land titled yesterday and was delayed also however we have not yet been given the exact amount due.
Hey guys,
So our block of land has finally titled after 7 months of delay. Homebuyers has come back to us and said that due to the land title being delayed outside of 6 months, we are liable to pay for the increase in prices of construction. The price increase is 15k but they said they were happy to split the difference and make us pay 7.5k.
Unfortunately I didn't look through the fine print when signing the contract with regards to delays in land title. They quoted Special Conditions #11 of the HIA contract which states that "if title for the land does not register within 6 months of the Estimated Title Registration contained in the PWC, the Builder may terminate this contract by notice in writing to the Owner."
I have been reading up on the Building Contracts on the Consumers Affairs VIC website and they said that Building contracts cannot include a "cost escalation clause", which states that:
"a cost escalation or ‘rise and fall’ clause, unless the contract price exceeds $1 million. The onus is on the builder to calculate into the contract price any likely rise in costs caused by inflation, wage increases and the like. If the builder wants to include a cost escalation clause, the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria must approve it. The director has not yet approved any cost escalation clauses."
Just wondering whether anyone has any experience in this area and whether I have any legs to stand on with regards to fighting this?
Hi everyone,
Just looking for advice. So I have moved into my newly built home by Homebuyers (Jasper17). And as happens you find things your not happy with. I have found on the bathroom/toilet floors there is what I think is grout on the tiles that despite scrubbing I haven't managed to get off. Any advice or tips on how to get it off. Oh and also I have found spots of paint on the carpet. anyone know how I can get paint off the carpet???
Hi Anna, I know this is a bit of a silly question, but have you considered contacting HBC and seeing what they say? surely they wouldn't just leave excess grout and paint around and think its normal? how bad are the spots?
Hi everyone,
Just looking for advice. So I have moved into my newly built home by Homebuyers (Jasper17). And as happens you find things your not happy with. I have found on the bathroom/toilet floors there is what I think is grout on the tiles that despite scrubbing I haven't managed to get off. Any advice or tips on how to get it off. Oh and also I have found spots of paint on the carpet. anyone know how I can get paint off the carpet???
Complain to them. They have to fix it. I had a few issues i wasnt happy with and they fixed it.
Hi All,
If you jump on instagram (if you have it) and search for Jasper17 or homebuyers a few come up
just an FYI to see photos etc.
Thankyou for all that recommended Darbecca. The builder at homebuyers centre joined my house to the neighbours house (both homebuyers) with bricks. There is an entire row of bricks that are layed horizontally between our properties even though they are meant to be completely separate dwellings, but walls flush to each other.
Thankfully they picked it up, but I wouldn't have noticed it. The bank only passed our loan approval originally because the dwellings were separate. There is pushback from the builder as they are trying to find ways around pulling the brick wall down, but I'm fighting them on it.
I’ve got a question for anyone with a Jasper 17 or anyone else really, what size are your kitchen cabinets with a 900 wide oven, I’ve seen pics of peoples with three lower cupboards lower and 2 upper, that would drive my OCD mental. Has anyone had any luck having homebuyers put in two cupboards? Does anyone else have a kitchen with 55cm wide doors? Just wondering if homebuyers do them in that size?
Has anyone had any experience with going through HBC using “My Home Plan”? What was the process you went through? I’m still getting my deposit ready, so no land has been locked down yet.. but how did it go for you? How soon after locking down land did you end up going for colour selections?
Hello hope someone can help..we have approached HBC for a quote on the Indigo 22. We were quoted 249 with just minor upgrades like adding in a Walkin Pantry, doors to ensuite, cupboards above splashback. I thought the price higher than what I expected. Altho they said they did offer as a 5k bonus promo with stone benchtop, 900 applliance and front landscaping which we like but the reason was high is bec of the fixed site costs of 22K.. I would rather spend a lot on other upgrades if we were to spend that much for build price. Can anyone share their thoughts? Reading on the forum I saw someone being quoted 235 with upgrades for same size house? Am I wrong to assume they overquoted?
Site costs vary for everyone, and this is where the costs from client to client can be extremely different. 22k does not sound too extreme. We paid 22k for our site costs with Boutique. Our land was flat, however we had poor soil.
Just had our pre-plaster inspection and even though we were told by our site supervisor that they had fixed all issues found in the frame stage, Darbecca are telling me that most of it is still outstanding including walls that needed to be completely reworked.
I've emailed abngroup to tell them I'm not happy and want them to pay for Darbecca to reinspect after the issues are rectified and to not move forward on the plastering until the issues are fixed.
So Homebuyers are refusing to fix most of the issues on the report saying that Darbecca are going by the letter and that homebuyers have alternate ways of doing things. One of the issues is below.
It was noted that the boundary brick wall adjacent to the bathroom presented
as considerably bowed / out of plumb. The cavity measured approximately
15mm to some areas and 40mm to other areas.
Homebuyers say they are allowed to do 15mm, even though the building code specifies a minimum of 25mm.
They wanted me to come onsite without Darbecca to give them the ok to continue after they show me how they have rectified it. I told them that they need to put in writing the reasons why they aren't fixing it and I can forward it to Darbecca along with getting another report done.
Update
The regional manager advised all issues out of the 29 on the report were corrected. I paid for Darbecca to come back onsite at my own cost to reinspect. They passed 3 issues with 26 still outstanding. The inspector was incredibly unimpressed and told me that it's getting to the point where I may need to contact DBDVR to hear my issues.
I warned Homebuyers that this will be my next course of action and they are going to have the building manager contact me on Wednesday.
I've also contacted the building surveyor of the build to find out how they are passing the work as it's obvious there are outstanding issues. I feel bad for all other 12 people building in the same line of houses with homebuyers centre as I'm the only person with an independent inspector. Most likely all issues on my house are also on theirs and they have no idea.
I’m not going to lie I actually found the building process difficult and hard. I also had Darbecca and it was great as they identified quite a lot of issues. It’s awful to think homes are made with so many defects and without private building inspections issues just left and likely to cause issues later on. I believe Mostly mine were fixed. Can I tell you with %100 certainty that all defects were fixed NO :/ . Unless Darbecca picked it up on the next inspection ( as they look for any outstanding issues not fixed on the following inspections ) often I was taking the builders word that it had been fixed. And unfortunately I didn’t have the money to pay for reinspections. I think your experience is disgusting as now you have lost all faith in your builder. I have no idea who DBDVR are but if that’s what Darbecca recommend...do it.
Took some patience and some arguing, but most of our issues were sorted. Took about a month to get there.
House is almost finished with completion being end of the month. Looking forward to this being behind us and getting into our house.
Hi All,
I have enjoyed spending the last few hours reading through this thread. It has opened my eyes about a lot of things.
We have just purchased a block of land outside of Geelong in Curlewis. We looked at a number display homes but after working out our budget the only builder that made sense to us was HBC. I loved the fact that they include a whole heap of stuff standard which you don't get with the big volume builders.
So far we are at the PWC stage. We have a rather large block, 553sqm so pretty much all their plans would fit. After looking through them we made a decision to go with the breakaway 26. We have made quite a few changes (all of which came in less that 5k.) We have removed the tiny little pantry and added a walk in Pantry. This reduced the size of the alfresco but a WIP was a 100% necessity (according to the Mrs.) This was actually a change someone else had made previously so it was already in the system. I've attached a copy of the original plan vs our changes. Also we have made the gargage 700mm wider and added a roller door to go through to the back on the property. I also wanted to have the theater have one entrance so i had them fill one entrance in. The final 2 changes were modifying the walk in robe and adding a sliding door to the ensuite. I also really want eves on the house. i reckon the 5k will be worth it, anyone agree?
Unfortunately we are in a Bushfire zone so that is 4500k down the toilet. They have come back with fixed site costs of 13800 for us but also include about 2k of stuff like fencing site bins etc. I'm going to fight some of this as our property already has fencing one 3 sides. don't see why i should need to pay for a full fence. Also we are an opticomm estate and they have quoted for the NBN package. I know the opticomm pack is about 2k so i need to get this added into the PWC.
Things which this thread has made me think about is heating and cooling. Pooks83, you have been a wealth of knowledge about the process. You have also given me some ideas. I have already emailed our SC to inquire about upgrading our heating to a 5 star unit and getting the add-on cooling unit. Does anyone know the average cost of the cooling unit? is it cheaper to just get the provision for it and put it in after handover?
Also, has anyone requested a riser in the theater? I want the back row of seats to be higher. I know most builders offer it for an extra 1k or something.
Also i'm glad i read about getting allowances put into the PWC. I will make sure i get 5k added in just to make sure.
I think that is about it for now. think my head is about to explode.
Hi
We are too looking at building in Curlewis but I’m nervous about the fall/slope on some of the blocks there - your site costs are really reasonable. Can I ask if you had much of a slope on your block? (Or if you looked into any other builders site costs there?)
So many issues with HBC, wish I didn't build with them. They are horrible