Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 31, 2008 5:20 pm Hi everyone,
This is my first thread here, I and my partner are a pair of un-satisfied customers, we hav'nt even had our old house demolished yet and our builder C$$$$$don and thier subcontractors have wasted our time and our contract has expired. Now they are asking for extra money as the prices have just gone up. The stormwater consultant kept making a big fuss over our stormwater easement, the local council is not even concerned with this, they approved our DA in 6 weeks, probably a record time for our area, they have been great. The contractor kept telling us we needed to legally make sure we had the right to drain into the easement which was obvious we did after my numerous calls to the council and the fact our existing house has for 50 years. It took 6 weeks to get a survey of the pipe done. For 5 months they wasted our time before we sought legal advice from a competent solicitor, who in essence revealed nothing we did not already know. But one thing is for certain we had the contractor sort our issue out within a week after correspondence from our lawyer. Now we have our DA approved, council were wonderful, even after described them as "one of THE hardest to deal with, it is actually the other way around. We are demolishing next week and now C$$$$$don tell us they want "substantially more money". My partner told them it was thier contractors who delayed everything with misleading information which we have kept documentation of every correspondence and told them we are NOT paying more. I feel for everyone who has waited 2 years, we hav'nt even demolished yet. I am going to think about this and maybe go elsewhere, these people run you around in circles for months and then try to jack up the price. We are going to our lawyer, fair trading (a good friend works there) and the media (which we both work in) if they mess with us any more. I know when someone is having a lend of me and they certainly are. Anyway we'll see what happens, they are meant to get back to us today, which most likely means next week. We are going to really start bothering them everyday until completion if we still use them. They have proven themselves to us to be incompetent even before building has started. We are now onto our 3rd customer handling officer, every time we get a new 1 they want more money. We're not going to get angry, just even. We are hoping they will show us some goodwill and honour the original contract under which they wasted our time for months. If they do then I guess everything is ok, if they want more then I guess we are going to be arguing with them and making phone calls and writing letters. We are lucky enough that we could sell our place and buy an existing house or look for another builder to build something very similar. We don't want to move though as we have lived here a long time and love the block we have, just not the old asbestos house we live in so much anymore. It's a worst house in best street scenario. I'm just wondering what others may do in a similar situation? Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks Heath I copied this from my post in another thread, hope this is ok mods? Re: Problems before building has begun. 2Jul 31, 2008 6:46 pm If you signed a contract, then they have to build the house for the price in that contract, if it's their fault that the building hasn't started within the contract period - surely !!!!!!!!We signed up last June, for a December start, which came and went, and we ended up starting in March this year. PD had 2 price increases in that time, but we are only being charged the contract price, because....it's a legally binding contract!!!! Grr...these stories make me angry - go for it, H - I hope you do 'get even'!!! Solidarity, not solidity.......The Lexicon of Life Re: Problems before building has begun. 3Jul 31, 2008 7:31 pm I posted a response in the other thread, but have thought of some more for you!
We signed our 'contract to build' in June 2007. At that point they made changes to our plans (wrong changes and didn't advise us...) it then took what seems like weeks to get that sorted... That delayed us going to council. My husband had 2 pre-council lodgment meetings to make our time in council smooth... we gave clarendon all that information. Plans were finally submitted to council in August and then we discover that our house plans were in AHD levels and the Engineer that did our flood study prepared his plans in CAD (he did liaise with clarendon at the time??) Council needed the flood plans amended to AHD levels... more $$'s to the engineer and delays in council. Eventually we got council approval in January (unfortunately were help up due to xmas break).. Back to your situation with price rises, we should have had 2 as well, but put it all back on them for they kept us waiting and waiting many times... We actually think they are loosing money from us now... HA! What did work for us was that my husband kept 'turning up' at their head office in person and kind of making his point to the CSO or her manager at the time, in PUBLIC!!! Keep the fighting spirit... Re: Problems before building has begun. 4Jul 31, 2008 7:53 pm The really difficult thing is that when the builder starts delaying and/or breaching the contract the owner little immediate recourse.
Is there anything in the fine print of the contract that you signed that they can increase prices after x no of months? Also once you start building what if they use delaying tactics again.. What will you do especially when you have a half finished house. I am sorry to say this to you but I know of two others who buildt with your builder and ended up at the courts. becos the builder wouldnt finish on time and becos of defective work which the builder would not fix. They both say it was not worth going to court as the legal costs outweigh the win. Going to fair trading will may not get you the result you want. there has been lots of newspaper articles about how ineffective their consumer protection is. Beechwood home had 119 complaints and altho the whole industry knew they were in financial difficulty long before fair trading never informed the public. Have a look at this link http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/Committee/ ... /index.htm I have been watching the stories of people with building problems and the problems and costs can get huge. Fighting your building can be hard and long road unless he wants to be reasonable. Raz If you think you can, you can. Re: Problems before building has begun. 5Jul 31, 2008 7:54 pm Why does this happen? Some builders might be great at swinging a hammer, but when it comes to customer relations or understanding the legal obligations of both parties, they turn into liars and bullies. Our house was started by the date required in the 'fixed-price' contract and once the slab was down we got a 'variation' from the builder because materials had gone up. What gives?
Garn Re: Problems before building has begun. 6Aug 01, 2008 2:01 am Hi,
we are also building with Clarendon and they are indeed slow and have take probably too much work. However you have to weigh the issue very rationally and make a decision. Delays are very expensive since interest rates are high. Clarendon will not care if you leave them and move to another builder they have too much work already in the pipeline and you may be helping them by moving away. We weighed the same issue, put in a excel spreadsheet weighed evry possible cost for Clarendon Vs Another Small builder. At this stage going ahead with Clarendon was a no Brainer !! Hope that helps ... PM if you need to discuss more... Buildling a Clarendon Crestmead in Sydney DA Approved on 20/03/2008 Slab Poured on 02/09/2008 Frame Completed 15/10/2008 Brickwork Complete 2/02/2009 Roofwork Complete 05/03/2009 Re: Problems before building has begun. 7Aug 01, 2008 7:15 am Some builders have a rise and fall clause in their contract, it should be called rise and rise clause because ive never heard of any prices falling.
its probably in the fine print. if you havn't got this clause dont pay it. Re: Problems before building has begun. 8Aug 01, 2008 10:30 am basically most contracts say that they have the right to increase the price up to 15% but they need to notify you in writing and you will have to accept in writing.
Any increases that are higher than 15% of the total contract allows you to get out of the contract altogether. So it depends on how much of an increase they are trying to get out of you. Also if they do increase they need to demonstrate that the increase was due to an unforseen change in market forces or something that they could not of planned for. so at the end of the day just ask them to itemise every item per the requirement of the contract that the price has increased. That may deter them b/c it will cost them labour to do all that. good luck smeags. Re: Problems before building has begun. 9Aug 07, 2008 6:02 pm Thanks everyone for your honest comments and thoughts, they did give us a small window of time in which to have everything ready for building, which is a bit fairer than the previous communication with them.
Thing is we were not going to demolish our old house until everything was approved by council, understandably. The council moved quickly for us as it is a new dwelling and not a renovation. So yeah a small victory and a semi-fair one, a little more time would have been good but we did expect things to hopefully move quickly once the DA was approved. Anyway it looks like they do want to get going on it which is a good sign. So in all fairness I'll say they have given us a small break which is good as it was a moderate rise not a small one they were asking for. I understand prices will always go up and they should speculate this and adjust it into the quoted price, they'd probably make more money and customers would stay happy. The amount they tried to put on would not bust the bank but it makes it harder to factor in all costs after a delay and a deal is a deal after all. Sorry I hav'nt posted back until now as it's been a hectic week. Everyone else who has had time wasted, just don't get upset is all I can say, just stay firm and and get things resolved. I'm sure the builders are good but just the admin is frustrating, losing/not receiving documents and the like, not liaising with contractors. I'll be fair if they are, which they sort of are being now. If that makes sense. I am not a brick expert, but rendering would be 1 option, it would be costly to do the entire house though.... 2 6678 Hi all, has anyone been ask to do the weeds in their property while in the middle of build? We are under the impression that they are in control of the site while they… 0 2766 Have had a few issues with out recently done bathroom floor. Probably around 18 months old First there has been been a crack running through a grout line which I put… 0 2172 |