Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 12, 2016 8:46 pm Hello all, we've got our contract presentation coming up with Metricon shortly, and we've got the blank HIA contract sent to us for perusal. Have people who have gone through this process had the contract looked at by a solicitor or someone similar? We don't currently have one and wondering if it's required. Any tips on things that we should get amended/removed/added? If we should get a solicitor to look over it and advise, anyone got any recommendations? Thank you in advance! Re: Metricon contract - solicitor required? Any recommendati 2Feb 12, 2016 9:27 pm We just went through this process very recently. Metricon sent us the blank HIA contract which is standard. It can't hurt to get a solicitor to look over your contract but wait until they email your actual contract prior to the presentation (usually a week prior to your presentation appointment) and then have it all looked over before you sign anything. A mistake we made was attending our contract signing without having viewed the final contract beforehand and there were many errors on the plans and in the contract that now need to be fixed via variation. This is time consuming and is holding up our lodgement to council. Please make sure they email you those plans and contract before your appointment and then check every single item and cross check it to the plans to make sure they match up. I would be very surprised if Metricon have everything one hundred per cent correct. Good Luck! https://metriconhenderson.wordpress.com Re: Metricon contract - solicitor required? Any recommendati 3Feb 13, 2016 7:50 am Thanks M and T, that's a very helpful suggestion. We had made the appointment for the contract signing the day after it will be ready (in anticipation of keeping things moving along as quickly as possible), but sounds like a good idea to be able to view it for a while first. Might try to shift our appointment in that case, to make sure we have everything covered. Thanks for your reply! Re: Metricon contract - solicitor required? Any recommendati 4Feb 13, 2016 9:49 am seedosrun Hello all, we've got our contract presentation coming up with Metricon shortly, and we've got the blank HIA contract sent to us for perusal. Have people who have gone through this process had the contract looked at by a solicitor or someone similar? We don't currently have one and wondering if it's required. Any tips on things that we should get amended/removed/added? If we should get a solicitor to look over it and advise, anyone got any recommendations? Thank you in advance! We didn't get a solicitor but if your unsure id recommend you get one. Contract day is pretty much the final day to make any changes without being charged (non-structural ones) The process is pretty straightforward and our person ran through the contract thoroughly and it took us about 4 hours, we had made 5 changes. Make sure you receive your copies before this day, we received ours 1 week before but after pushing it out extra month had plenty of time to look it over. Best of luck for the day viewtopic.php?t=79203 Re: Metricon contract - solicitor required? Any recommendati 6Nov 28, 2016 2:30 pm The main things to look at are the Essential Conditions which you must satisfy. These are the Metricon amendments to the HIA contract. Try and build in a contractual commitment to a start date (eg, within 10 business days of you satisfying all of the Essential Conditions). Other critical things where you will be dependant on them are: (1) the time they take to prepare your DA, (2) the scheduling of your Studio M appointments, (3) the creation of your variations post Studio M. Their delays here will really blow out your start date. It would be good to include a general obligation for Metricon to meet these obligations in a timely manner, noting that time is of the essence. And try and change the liquidated damages clause to reflect your actual damage if you will be paying rent during construction (the amount they have is manifestly inadequate and most likely unenforceable). One thing which annoys me is the fact that they get an extension for each delay due to rain yet our experience is that they have only been on site for the equivalent of 2 full weeks in 4 months since construction commenced. In my view, if they are only on site for say 50% of fine weather days, then they should only be entitled to an extension for 50% of delays caused by rain. The fact is Metricon are building twice the number of homes this year than they built last year (in Sydney at least) and they have over extended themselves and cannot get the trades they need to get the work done (so we were told by a Metricon employee). We signed up in Dec 2015 and we only just had our slab poured last week. So for us it has been a very painful experience, and error after error in the documentation. BTW, I suspect Metricon will not budge on any of the above, but it would be good to have documentary evidence of you having tried to get the above changes in to your contract, because if it heads to a dispute you can show the mediator that Metricon were unconscionable in not allowing you to amend the contract in a manner which reflects a more reasonable position. Good luck and I hope your pre-construction experience is different to ours. Mick You talk about deletions, are they variations or PS and PC adjustments? pleas list them 1 12047 Thanks for info, yes met with Power Utility, Builder's Site Supervisor and Electrician on site and aligned on the mains connection. Seems like the builder and Electrician… 2 10039 I know foam has been around since the 90's and CSR started manufacturing Hebel in 1989, so it's definitely possible 5 4123 |