Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 30, 2018 3:33 pm Hi all, Looking for some advice/experiences, I'm looking to build with Fair Haven Homes and wondering what the worst scenario will be apart from losing my deposit ($1500) should I decide to cancel before I go to Tender. The preliminary contract has conditions from the actual contract (after tender) so yeah pretty daunting like liable to pay 20% of the price should I cancel at any stage. Now, I got in writing from them that the worst case will be losing deposit should finances fall-through but they want to get a comfort letter now from Vanguard to begin with. is this normal? Do I need to watch out for something here? I also wanted the assurance should I change my mind and decide to go with a different builder altogether where finance is not an issue, I have heard generally it ok as long as I haven't gone to Tender/Contract, but want peoples advice/guidance My block doesn't title until June 2019 TIA Re: Worst Case Scenario after initial deposit- FairHaven Hom 2Oct 30, 2018 9:13 pm If you bail after tender, you should only be out of pocket what you'd paid up until then. That $1500 isn't typically a deposit, it's to pay for the tender work (site surveys etc). Have you signed a preliminary contract? what does it say? Once past tender and you sign the residential building contract, then you up for some serious obligation, but up until then each step should be paid for with the understanding you can stop anytime, and you would have paid them for the work they've done. I wouldn't go into it if the process if you are obligated to 20% price (of the build?) when the whole point is to work that out. Re: Worst Case Scenario after initial deposit- FairHaven Hom 3Oct 31, 2018 2:04 pm Thanks for the clarification and info. I'm going to signing the preliminary contract this Saturday. I have copied the general and special conditions which have had me a little concerned but they say it's pretty standard, see below, my bad it's 20 % of builders margin it is + admin fee. So does this sound standard to you? GC-2b. Fairhaven Homes and the Owner agree that all prices and promotional items shown on this Estimate are valid on untitled land for up to for 365 days for the Bridgewater and Simplicity range and up to 180 days for the Elegance range from the day of payment of the initial deposit on the condition that the Owner: (i) Pays the $1,500 initial deposit for all Greenfield new home orders or $3,000 for all other new home orders (e.g. Demolition sites or any established areas) within 7 days of the creation of this Preliminary Estimate. (ii) Provides the following to their Sales Consultant within 21 days of payment of the initial deposit which is non-refundable. * The finalised and signed preliminary estimate and; * All associated and required documentation as specified by Fairhaven Homes. (iii) Is aware the Fairhaven Homes ordering, and construction process is required to begin immediately after the land is titled and available. If any of the above conditions are not satisfied, Fairhaven Homes reserves the right to review prices, promotions or items included in this document or withdraw the Offer completely. (iiii) If this agreement is brought to an end by the Person/persons nominated on this document, prior to or after Contract signing, Fairhaven Homes is entitled to claim any cost incurred plus 20% builders margin and an administration fee Re: Worst Case Scenario after initial deposit- FairHaven Hom 4Oct 31, 2018 7:39 pm Hi Samex, There is quite a bit in this and you should probably get some professional advice before signing. In regards to the 20%, it says your liable to pay any costs they incur, plus 20%. This is fairly standard for typical project home builder contracts. Just be aware of any special conditions they add into the contract, typically these are added for their benefit, not yours. If it’s a custom contract, then it will very likely be amended in their favor. Hope this helps. Danny Re: Worst Case Scenario after initial deposit- FairHaven Hom 6Oct 31, 2018 8:16 pm Hi Samex, they are saying their margin is 20%, which covers their admin and profit. In a typical builders contract (say for example Master Builders) has the standard margin as 20%. So you will pay whatever their costs are + 20% of this cost Eg/ if it’s $1,000, you’d pay an extra $200 Re: Worst Case Scenario after initial deposit- FairHaven Hom 7Oct 31, 2018 9:01 pm thanks, good pick-up, also, strangely enough, they don't have any special conditions on the preliminary estimate/quote, so the above-mentioned conditions are only the gotchas I need to worry about for now. so if my quote of $250,000, have already paid $1500 intial + another $2000 at Tenders, and then decide to cancel, how much would I be put of pocket by? The sales guy has said to me that if I cancel AFTER signing the contract I'd loss around $6K in total and rest will be returned to me as my 5% is 12.5K, but the 20% condition says otherwise. I have an email from his manger stating that if I can obtain a comfort letter (which my fair haven sales guy is organising for me) + deposit $1500 asap - I can stilll get in before their eminent price rise from Nov 1 - tomorrow (possibly a sales tactic although could be true) and will ONLY lose my initial $1500 deposit, but unsure how legal binding an email would if it comes down to that. Would you move forward in the case if you're willing to lose $1500 but not more. I can think straight atm lol Re: Worst Case Scenario after initial deposit- FairHaven Hom 8Nov 01, 2018 8:08 am Hi Samex, How that clause reads to me is that charge you whatever costs they incurred up until the point in time you decide to cancel. This could be, at the stage I understand your job to be at: - documentation costs - admin costs - soil reports - surveys - approval costs Again I don’t know the ins and the outs of where you’re at, what they’ve done, just remember that costs are incurred in construction prior to any works actually starting on site. Hope this helps, Danny Re: Worst Case Scenario after initial deposit- FairHaven Hom 10Nov 02, 2018 8:23 am samex1962 Hi all, Looking for some advice/experiences, I'm looking to build with Fair Haven Homes and wondering what the worst scenario will be apart from losing my deposit ($1500) should I decide to cancel before I go to Tender. The preliminary contract has conditions from the actual contract (after tender) so yeah pretty daunting like liable to pay 20% of the price should I cancel at any stage. Now, I got in writing from them that the worst case will be losing deposit should finances fall-through but they want to get a comfort letter now from Vanguard to begin with. is this normal? Do I need to watch out for something here? I also wanted the assurance should I change my mind and decide to go with a different builder altogether where finance is not an issue, I have heard generally it ok as long as I haven't gone to Tender/Contract, but want peoples advice/guidance My block doesn't title until June 2019 TIA Hi, Apart from the finance issues. I would suggest you to confirm your title date. My title was expected Feb 2018. Hasn't happened yet. It may be delayed till next year and i am paying $1000 per month of delay to the builder. 8 out of 10 people i know had their title delayed for at least 6 months. Big developers like Lendlease or Stockland are okay. But i would not trust anyone else. Hope that will help. Re: Worst Case Scenario after initial deposit- FairHaven Hom 11Feb 12, 2019 10:53 am For anyone looking at this for information these are the standard terms with any builder. I began the same process with another builder and left before tender and lost my initial deposit until i fought it. I was given it back due the house i wanted not fitting on the block like the sales consultant had said it would so their error not mine. I also have built with fairhaven and paid my deposit under similar circumstances above and Fairhaven honoured their word and did not charge the build price increase the day after i paid my deposit. As to when i come to title dates, you need to evaluate the price increase in the build cost and the price holding fee together. I personally found that paying the holding fee for going 4 months over time before site start was thousands of dollars less than the holding fee i paid. 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