Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 20, 2013 12:05 pm Hi, After a long and winding journey, we finally signed our contract with Simonds Homes on the 10th July. Simonds start working on our site (in Clayton, Victoria) on the 19th July by cutting and filling the soil, installing temporary fence and temporary toilet. However, on the 13th August we received a letter from Simonds advising that the building is on hold due to unmanageable soil, which will extend the completion date. They claimed the soil was too wet to cut and fill, because the land was not compacted by our demolisher. They suggested an installation for screw piles to ensure the building process is progressing, which create extra cost to the contract value. Should not Simonds do a due diligence prior commencing any work at the site on the 19th July? Also, should not any additional cost to complete the building be beared by Simonds, since we signed a fixed contract? According to our contract the building should be completed by 24 February 2014, does anyone has any suggestion/advise how we deal Simonds? Thanks all for your advise. Re: Unmanageable soil - Screw Pile 2Aug 20, 2013 1:12 pm If you have a fixed price for your site cots, then yes I can not see why the builder would like to charge you more for something that is fixed. Check your contract, ensure that the site works are marked as fixed and not a provisional figure. After the demolition, the builder should have done their second soil survey, this would of told them that your land required compacting etc.. Re: Unmanageable soil - Screw Pile 3Aug 20, 2013 1:14 pm Had Simonds done a soil test prior to you signing the final contract? If so they should have known what the soil was like, so I don't see how they could now ask for extra. If not I don't see how they could have offered you a fixed price contract. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65498 Deposit 17/02/13 Contract 12/04 Slab 17/05 Roof 06/06 Bricks, Lockup and Fixing 04/07 PCI 22/08 Handover 29/08 Moved in 07/09! Re: Unmanageable soil - Screw Pile 5Aug 20, 2013 10:20 pm I agree with both Ch0p and Hamilton23 if you have signed a fixed price contract they cannot charge you more. Ask Simonds to provide you soil test reports. If what you describe is correct then the brick wall has been dry lined with villa board. That basically means that the villa board is glued to the brick wall with… 3 8310 I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 13091 We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37139 |