confused - help please?

Hi
I'm going to be building with Homegroup WA. We've been waiting on land titles for a long time and I've been refining our design in that time, making changes to one of their standard designs. Every time I've made a change he's sent us new drawings for us to sign (i've done about 5 changes with no problems and no mention of money for making changes)

Land titles are due late september so our building rep told us he'd get together our building contracts and colour selection file now so once titles are out we can hit the ground running. He contacted us on monday and said it was ready to go so we have arranged to meet on thursday, so last night I was going over everything with a fine tooth comb to make sure i'd made all the changes I wanted before we finally sign off on it, I decided that we needed to add a door to the ensuite from the bedroom rather than a gap - I emailed this to him and asked to make that change before we sign contracts on thursday. He emailed back today saying to enclose the ensuite with a door is a structural change and can't be done.

What?? I'm confused... help please?

Hello bennycat,

Sounds like he doesnt want you to make any more changes that may delay locking you in if you know what I mean
Just wondering - do you have a door height opening or full height opening opening in the space where you want to put the door?

Ps. Welcome to the hgwa family

Forgot to add, you haven't signed your contracts yet so you should be able to change whatever you want.

I don't see why you couldn't fit the door, as (from memory) they cannot put your final plans in to the council until you have a portfolio number issued from the land titles. Doors and windows cannot be changed after the building permit has been issued.

That thought did cross my mind, that he didn't want to delay signing the contracts. But I don't want it without the door, and I don't want to end up having to pay to change it later?

We were considering putting a slider in ourselves later but when I was looking last night it'll be hard to do because it's a bigger than standard door size gap

Tell him. "No door, No signy". I bet it appears on a new plan.

+1
He's just trying to lock you in without any extra effort on his part.
You're doing the right thing by insisting on pricing for changes now before committing yourself.

So after speaking with him this afternoon, apparenty our build had reached 'category 1 status' (whatever that means??) and that's why changes aren't allowed.
However he has got approval for the change from management, so I will be getting my door to the ensuite and everything is good again

Thanks for your advice everyone!

lol it's only bluff. That's obviously their internal code for "Warning! Warning! Imminent contract signing ahead! Better bluff client by using obscure vague terms into not making any changes so it doesn't get delayed."

I'm sure there are plenty of people that would blink vacantly and say "oh, ok" if told "sorry you can't make changes because your planning stage is now SG-34/R2-0001 and the Flargen-Olfen compliance status is restricted by section 7a-18"

I'm going to come out of hiatus to answer this one for you. With HGWA you can't go to Cat 1 without having paid a deposit and signing of a building contract. He's telling you porkies. He just can't be bothered getting everything changed AGAIN {insert exasperated sigh by said sales consultant} because that means work.

How do I know? Because apparently we were Cat 1 from the beginning and it was meant to speed things up. Another lie. We were indeed Cat 1 but it meant nothing.

If you haven't signed anything then you can make all the changes in the world. I agree with twiggywiggy, no change, no sign! Welcome to the HGWA rollercoaster, fun one day, interesting the next!