Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 28, 2013 7:09 pm on our preliminary contract it states "deposit is non-refundable" but realistically I know that consumer law prevails over what is written on a contract, can anyone point me in the right direction of whom I should speak to to try and get all or part of it back, our preliminary stage didn't go well for us Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 4Apr 28, 2013 8:52 pm how much have they done? prelim deposit is usually for footing estimates and soil reports, did you get that far? Initial Deposit 28/09/2012 // Prelim Contract Signed 25/11/2012 Selections 21/1/2013 to 23/1/2013 // Contract Signed 22/2/2013 Site Start 21/5/2013 // Slabbed 30/5/2013 Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 5Apr 29, 2013 12:05 am Wouldn't count on it We did a preliminary preparation of plans but within a few days found out we couldn't get finance, so there was no way they had time to do soil tests or anything else. They tried to tell me they had spent even more than the $2k on things (as a veiled threat that they would be asking for the difference if I pursued it) didn't know enough about the industry then to take it further. But in the end dodged a bullet by not using that builder! Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 7Apr 29, 2013 5:50 am we awaited a long time for our first builder to get act together even paying 1500 deposit they demanded. only managed to get 600 back as we were able to use the soil report that they did. we think ourselves lucky as we could have lost alot more going with the first builder . Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 8Apr 29, 2013 11:42 am if they have done any soil test etc, at least get those test reports from them. these reports you can use later on when you build with another builder and the other builder might give you some discount as they won't need to redo those tests etc. Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 9Apr 29, 2013 11:46 am As others have said it all depends what work they have already done. The deposit is payment towards site tests being done as well as doing up the drawings for your contract. If they have already done those things and you don't want to continue it is likely you won't be able to get it back. If none of that has been done yet it is possible they might refund part of it.... Our sales guy mentioned that some sales people had a reputation of getting people to sign they knew were unlikely to get finance approval just so they could get their deposit. Not a nice thought but I am assuming they get paid at least something for getting you to sign.... Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 11Apr 29, 2013 5:49 pm JB1 Unless they have mislead you before signing the contract and paying the deposit, why would you think non-refundable would mean anything else? I think it would depend on what was delivered? ie. they put that clause in there so they don't prepare a quote or tender, have people change their minds & reject the quot/tender while demanding their "deposit" back. However, it's always possible that the builder hasn't delivered on their side? It wasn't a deposit in our case, but when the builder decided after 8 months that our build was too hard & they weren't interested, we did get back the fee we'd been charged to prepare the full tender (or at least the portion we hadn't "used" on reports etc) ... although admittedly they agreed to refund us that money a month or so ago & it hasn't been deposited yet, hmm ... it was hard enough chasing-up any answers when we were about to spend half a million dollars with them, getting a "where's that money you owe us" answer might be near impossible. Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 12May 01, 2013 12:54 pm fmac As others have said it all depends what work they have already done. The deposit is payment towards site tests being done as well as doing up the drawings for your contract. If they have already done those things and you don't want to continue it is likely you won't be able to get it back. If none of that has been done yet it is possible they might refund part of it.... Our sales guy mentioned that some sales people had a reputation of getting people to sign they knew were unlikely to get finance approval just so they could get their deposit. Not a nice thought but I am assuming they get paid at least something for getting you to sign.... Yes we were one of them, he was full of guarantees that his broker could help anyone! Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 13May 01, 2013 1:05 pm Following. Ive just had a bill from a builder I fired - they want me to pay for things they never provided me with despite numerous requests & drawing work that was never done /provided to me. Building with 101 Residential in Falcon. Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 14May 01, 2013 1:12 pm Tell them you will check with a the REI and a lawyer, they may back off. They try it on Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 15May 01, 2013 2:38 pm Homebody99 Following. Ive just had a bill from a builder I fired - they want me to pay for things they never provided me with despite numerous requests & drawing work that was never done /provided to me. Did you pay a PPA fee? I was under the impression that initial payment was meant to cover site report, survey, and working drawings? Or are they requesting on top of that? Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 16May 07, 2013 9:11 pm I am interested to know what the 2k that i paid actually covered verbally we were told the builder goes half with the site works with us? yes we had sitework report done, the preliminary came back as abnormally high, we notified property developer, who wanted to know more specifically what it will be, so we went back to builder to ask for specific site work cost for the slab etc which was rushed through so that we could use it to try and get a price reduction on the land. then today i receive a letter from the builder to say congrats your building permit has been approved (cost of $650 balance owing) when I cancelled everything a week ago and 3 days prior to when i got an email from the council stating that i had a link i could click on to follow the status of the application. So many strange happenings, already vented to the builder company this afternoon over it! Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 17May 07, 2013 9:15 pm They can't charge any more than the agreed cost of the PPA - prob trying it on because you cancelled Re: Has anyone ever gotten their deposit back? 18May 08, 2013 9:51 am I got my initial deposit back today, so it can happen. Although ours wasn't "non refundable" until they did soil tests etc, and we were going by the one completed by the developer initially. Good luck. I hope you get it sorted. In NSW the maximum deposit for building work is 5% until the builder provides HBCF insurance 1 4814 Hi All, we are starting to think of building with Masterpiece Builders in Victoria, has anyone had any feedback or experience with them 0 13567 Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. We have signed mid range built contract but identified that a lot of things are not included.… 0 645 |