Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 01, 2015 6:28 am Recently I wrote about inspectors busy picking up trivial defects only to miss a whopper. Recently there have been instances on this forum of houses sited wrongly because of inaccurate site excavation. There is nothing new about this. On my pre purchase inspections I have seen hundreds of homes set too low on the land. Just recently driving in Point Cook there were at least half a dozen homes in one street set too low to the ground. But on recent inspections there was something else. Incomplete site cuts, where site is not fully excavated (to save few truckloads of soil removed from site) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ In the above case there was insufficient space to construct sub soil drainage away from slab edge and it is too close. When I compared cut to drawings there was at least another two metres of cut that should have been excavated No one else picked up on this Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: About Elephants and Fleas (2) 2Mar 11, 2015 11:33 pm What happens in this scenario then? Say the builder issues you with a progress payment and then it's pointed out that this still hasn't been taken away. Can you advise that no other works are to continue without this oversight being addressed and fixed first before proceeding? Or will they slug you for delays? Re: About Elephants and Fleas (2) 3Mar 11, 2015 11:41 pm We are still waiting for builder's response, in the meantime job has to go on and if a stage is reached it must be paid. Unfortunately owner does not have rights under standard contracts to withhold payment if a stage has been completed. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: About Elephants and Fleas (2) 4Mar 11, 2015 11:54 pm building-expert We are still waiting for builder's response, in the meantime job has to go on and if a stage is reached it must be paid. Unfortunately owner does not have rights under standard contracts to withhold payment if a stage has been completed. Prior to contract signing can owners specify a clause that progress should not continue if there are outstanding major issues from the previous stage? Re: About Elephants and Fleas (2) 5Mar 12, 2015 12:33 am That's a good question. We received a progress payment request that said 'Roof cover', however our roof had not been completed, there were entire sections of roof that had not been finished. I said that I was not going to pay roof cover stage payment until they finished the roof cover, at which stage they quoted the contract which said 'OR works to the value of' which basically meant even though they had not reached the stage, they had spent that much money so they needed more. And I was obliged to pay it. I did go through the contract with a reasonably fine toothed comb, but I missed a few things which turned out to be the 'sticking' points that they have used to stick it to me. Suffice to say, I'm trying to find a clause in the contract that actually says they will deliver what is signed off in the drawings, but I'm coming up short. I thought these kinds of things were just conscionable conduct, the sorts of things you should expect given the many verbal guarantees made throughout the sales and prestart process. Unfortunately it seems that unless you have a professional written report backing you up, the builders refuse to even acknowledge their work is faulty or not to specification. And even when you do have that report, if the cost of repair is too high, they refuse to do it because it's not practical for them. Certainly a case of elephants and fleas. Re: About Elephants and Fleas (2) 6Mar 12, 2015 6:58 am siapao building-expert We are still waiting for builder's response, in the meantime job has to go on and if a stage is reached it must be paid. Unfortunately owner does not have rights under standard contracts to withhold payment if a stage has been completed. Prior to contract signing can owners specify a clause that progress should not continue if there are outstanding major issues from the previous stage? There is no reason why standard contract cannot be varied with special conditions to give you more leverage however most builders are not stupid, they won't sigh off on that. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: About Elephants and Fleas (2) 7Mar 12, 2015 7:16 am enkayz That's a good question. We received a progress payment request that said 'Roof cover', however our roof had not been completed, there were entire sections of roof that had not been finished. I said that I was not going to pay roof cover stage payment until they finished the roof cover, at which stage they quoted the contract which said 'OR works to the value of' which basically meant even though they had not reached the stage, they had spent that much money so they needed more. And I was obliged to pay it. I did go through the contract with a reasonably fine toothed comb, but I missed a few things which turned out to be the 'sticking' points that they have used to stick it to me. Suffice to say, I'm trying to find a clause in the contract that actually says they will deliver what is signed off in the drawings, but I'm coming up short. I thought these kinds of things were just conscionable conduct, the sorts of things you should expect given the many verbal guarantees made throughout the sales and prestart process. Unfortunately it seems that unless you have a professional written report backing you up, the builders refuse to even acknowledge their work is faulty or not to specification. And even when you do have that report, if the cost of repair is too high, they refuse to do it because it's not practical for them. Certainly a case of elephants and fleas. Thanks for the feedback enkayz! Although hoping against hope that wasn't the case. Re: About Elephants and Fleas (2) 8Mar 12, 2015 7:58 am I tried to get some special clauses put into our "Standard HIA Contract" but the builder would not agree. I said to the builders Sales Manager that the Std Contract is written by the HIA, a builders association, for the protection of the builder and it did not equally protect the owner and he agreed. Maybe it is time that pressure was brought to bear on State Governments, to introduce a "Standard Building Contract" that gives equal protection to all parties. I recently went through a similar renovation and move scenario when updating our family home. We also swapped some rooms around and tackled a major… 2 10051 The HIA contract, in the term & conditions section states that "Commencment" is deemed when the drainage is started or the piers are dug or the slab is formed up (incase… 2 6183 Hi there, We've just build a new hardwood (Greybox) deck and am wondering whether firepit protective mats/surfaces are sufficient? I'm not sure that they're heat… 0 2118 |