Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15787May 24, 2020 11:07 am Norfolk @femstar did you agree to accept this Incomplete works in your Wisdom Homes contract? What other key items are incomplete at PCI and handover? What do other members have written about this in their contracts? They were minor issues that could be completed after handover, e.g Fan not working as expected, chipped mirror that needed to be replaced, etc. They were already booked in to be fixed before handover and I had dates of tradies visiting to fix them. If you are waiting for everything to be 100% before moving in then you will end up paying more rent and it will be come more expensive for you. As long as they are not structural and major issue. In my case they were all minor issues. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15788May 24, 2020 11:18 am femstar looks like you plan to move in quite soon after handover to save rent. Besides the external hot water service are any internal appliances like cooktop, oven, built in microwave etc also planned to be installed by wisdom homes after handover? Was this a special condition in your contract? Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15789May 24, 2020 11:20 am Norfolk @femstar looks like you plan to move in quite soon after handover to save rent. Besides the external hot water service are any internal appliances etc also planned to be installed by wisdom homes after handover? Was this a special condition in your contract? Gas cooker, Dishwasher, Microwave all installed a day after handover. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15791May 24, 2020 11:30 am Norfolk Was this a special condition of your contract? Yes, clause says to be installed 2 working days after settlement to prevent theft or subsequent damages. I personally also feel it works for owners advantage as warranty kicks in from date installed. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15792May 24, 2020 11:39 am Yes, owners can receive the security of an extra few days of the manufacturers warranty, which is usually flexible in consumers favour anyway, according Australian Consumer Law and most reputable manufacturers' desire to maintain goodwill. However, personally I think there is nothing like the incentive of final payment to prompt a builder to complete the works and ensure everything works for their clients so they don't have to chase the builder, installers or appliance suppliers later. We know how much fun this can be! Interesting how Wisdom Homes has modified the standard HIA contract definition of 'Practical Completion' to transfer the risks and burdens of faulty installation, defective products, and theft to the homeowner. I am not sure, on balance, that this special contract clause in Wisdom Homes' contracts in any way works to the owners advantage. I am wondering if other forum members have accepted this type of special contract clause? Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15793May 25, 2020 12:16 pm Two months since PCI and still waiting for handover? That seems longer than normal? I thought it would be a couple of weeks with a max of a month. Was there something you picked up during PCI that would impact your handover? Funk52 - have you moved in yet? One It’s been nearly 2 months since our PCI and still waiting for handover. I am concerned that our 90 days maintenance period will lapse before we even move in or have a chance to settle. Our SS said that the 90 days starts from handover but contract says from PCI. We didn’t understand the implications of signing the PCI. Not sure what the consumer law says but it seems awfully unfair that the maintenance period can start before handover as we don’t even have access into the house to find what issues there are. Our SS didn’t let us in when I asked in Feb saying we were so close to PCI, either, now we are another 2 months in and kept being told that’s it’s close. What can we do? Also, is there anything Wisdom will not fix during this maintenance period? Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15794May 25, 2020 12:27 pm M4bath Two months since PCI and still waiting for handover? That seems longer than normal? I thought it would be a couple of weeks with a max of a month. Was there something you picked up during PCI that would impact your handover? Funk52 - have you moved in yet? One It’s been nearly 2 months since our PCI and still waiting for handover. I am concerned that our 90 days maintenance period will lapse before we even move in or have a chance to settle. Our SS said that the 90 days starts from handover but contract says from PCI. We didn’t understand the implications of signing the PCI. Not sure what the consumer law says but it seems awfully unfair that the maintenance period can start before handover as we don’t even have access into the house to find what issues there are. Our SS didn’t let us in when I asked in Feb saying we were so close to PCI, either, now we are another 2 months in and kept being told that’s it’s close. What can we do? Also, is there anything Wisdom will not fix during this maintenance period? Not yet. I'm waiting for SBAC to hurry up and arrange an inspection so I can get the interim occupation certificate. After 2.5 years of waiting my patience has run out. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15795May 25, 2020 12:35 pm Oh? What’s still missing to get the full OC? It sounded like you got most of not all the things completed to obtain the OC. How long have you been waiting for the inspector? Funk52 M4bath Two months since PCI and still waiting for handover? That seems longer than normal? I thought it would be a couple of weeks with a max of a month. Was there something you picked up during PCI that would impact your handover? Funk52 - have you moved in yet? One It’s been nearly 2 months since our PCI and still waiting for handover. I am concerned that our 90 days maintenance period will lapse before we even move in or have a chance to settle. Our SS said that the 90 days starts from handover but contract says from PCI. We didn’t understand the implications of signing the PCI. Not sure what the consumer law says but it seems awfully unfair that the maintenance period can start before handover as we don’t even have access into the house to find what issues there are. Our SS didn’t let us in when I asked in Feb saying we were so close to PCI, either, now we are another 2 months in and kept being told that’s it’s close. What can we do? Also, is there anything Wisdom will not fix during this maintenance period? Not yet. I'm waiting for SBAC to hurry up and arrange an inspection so I can get the interim occupation certificate. After 2.5 years of waiting my patience has run out. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15796May 25, 2020 1:05 pm M4bath Oh? What’s still missing to get the full OC? It sounded like you got most of not all the things completed to obtain the OC. How long have you been waiting for the inspector? What took time is having to get the driveway done, waiting for Council to issue the certificate, then getting the stormwater system inspected. All before I can get the interim occupation certificate. I got the landscaping done at the same time because the driveway got delayed. I have jumped through their hoops and given them everything they asked for. Driveway certificate, stormwater certificates etc. After doing this they send me a letter with everything that's required and it's just a list of all those items again that I have already done. You can never get in touch with the inspectors directly, it's always leave a message with admin and you will get a call back in a couple of days. If they would just give you a call at the same time the letter is sent this could all be resolved in a few minutes and the inspection could be booked in. I think SBAC's inspectors intentionally go out of their way to put up roadblocks in front of you. A Clarendon house on the same street is about to get their interim certificate and they didn't have to build the driveway yet or submit stormwater certificates. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15797May 25, 2020 1:08 pm Funk52 M4bath Oh? What’s still missing to get the full OC? It sounded like you got most of not all the things completed to obtain the OC. How long have you been waiting for the inspector? What took time is having to get the driveway done, waiting for Council to issue the certificate, then getting the stormwater system inspected. All before I can get the interim occupation certificate. I got the landscaping done at the same time because the driveway got delayed. I have jumped through their hoops and given them everything they asked for. Driveway certificate, stormwater certificates etc. After doing this they send me a letter with everything that's required and it's just a list of all those items again that I have already done. You can never get in touch with the inspectors directly, it's always leave a message with admin and you will get a call back in a couple of days. If they would just give you a call at the same time the letter is sent this could all be resolved in a few minutes and the inspection could be booked in. I think SBAC's inspectors intentionally go out of their way to put up roadblocks in front of you. A Clarendon house on the same street is about to get their interim certificate and they didn't have to build the driveway yet or submit stormwater certificates. From my experience SBAC is useless. They always will put up roadblocks. They did for me before construction certificate was issued also with OC. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15798May 25, 2020 1:16 pm Check your specific contracts, however my understanding that if there is a significant delay from practical completion to handover - more than a reasonable few weeks, and if it is the responsibility of the builder, they can be required to reimburse you the full substantiated costs of the delay like rent and storage etc. For example, a couple of months here could be $10K. Under common law its unlimited, not like the token liquidated damages amount in the contract. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15799May 25, 2020 8:59 pm M4bath Two months since PCI and still waiting for handover? That seems longer than normal? I thought it would be a couple of weeks with a max of a month. Was there something you picked up during PCI that would impact your handover? Funk52 - have you moved in yet? One It’s been nearly 2 months since our PCI and still waiting for handover. I am concerned that our 90 days maintenance period will lapse before we even move in or have a chance to settle. Our SS said that the 90 days starts from handover but contract says from PCI. We didn’t understand the implications of signing the PCI. Not sure what the consumer law says but it seems awfully unfair that the maintenance period can start before handover as we don’t even have access into the house to find what issues there are. Our SS didn’t let us in when I asked in Feb saying we were so close to PCI, either, now we are another 2 months in and kept being told that’s it’s close. What can we do? Also, is there anything Wisdom will not fix during this maintenance period? Our PCI report from independent inspector indicated quite a few issues. The list was sent to SS prior to PCI, we had no idea that there was an option not to sign the PCI on the spot nor did we realise that contracted build period would stop counting from that date. It has now been more than 13 months since the start of construction! I was surprised that SS didn't do his own checks prior to PCI, but used our report instead. I am not sure what would have happened if we didn't engage in an independent inspector. Initially, SS advised that we didn't need privacy screen to get interim OC (nor were we given the option during admin), but our CSR advised that privacy screen was required. Our bank also requires OC to release funds. Between PCI to now, we'd been waiting to get the privacy screen organised, hydraulic (and/or stormwater) certificate which came back with additional work required, then it was a certificate for our retaining wall, then we were told that OC should be ready end of last week, then Monday, we still don't have OC. It has been an incredibly long process. Another house on our street started 6 months after us are at the same stage as us. Re: Building with Wisdom Homes 15800May 25, 2020 9:13 pm one Wisdom Home's low cost business model does not support any quality assurance checks by the SS during the build, or prior to PC. That’s not his job, sadly. I hope they did not indicate to you otherwise? Pretty unfortunate for a Japanese owned company that you would expect to demonstrate a better attitude to quality. Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? We… 0 18473 In fairness nobody gave a crap about the ACCC and the gag clauses continued in the pro forma templates of a few other builders after the ACCC took on Wisdom, and more… 19 73525 Hi Everyone, I am exploring builder in NSW and received a very tempting quote from Wisdom home for their momentum series. I just want to know experience of building… 0 8242 |