Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 12, 2017 12:50 pm We are building a house, small independent project builder. We are at the stage of excavations and boxing up for the slab to be poured, but I have changed my mind about a couple of elements. Nothing structural, I want a bigger mirror and to extend the feature tiling in the bathroom, and a full tile (rather than half) for the laundry splashback. Is this out of the ordinary? The sales consultant can get a little touchy about changes, even when we had to make some changes to the plans due to mistakes on their part. And she did send me a rather terse email about making up my mind and sticking to it as any changes would be variations and would incur a fee (which I fully understand and accept). Has anyone built without making any changes at all along the way? Re: How common are variations? 2Dec 12, 2017 1:08 pm Hey! We made many changes and variations (mostly due to prestart changes not being drawn up), but these were prior to construction. Our last variation was followed up by an email saying that any further variations would incur a fee (which our builder could have charged us many times but thankfully didn’t). We haven’t made any changes post scheduling. I think changes during construction would be quite common, but the builder would make them worth their while ($$) as it would be quite inconvenient for them to contact suppliers and change the addenda. Seems like you’re across the fees though. Re: How common are variations? 3Dec 12, 2017 1:13 pm We've just sent in another variation today! So I think they are pretty common - and they charge you a high fee to make a change so really they can't complain too much. If they didn't accept variations there would be no fee and it would be a blanket "no" to any requests. You are the customer, you can do what you like within reason - shocking that you got such a response! It seems very clear to me that your contract states that a security account does NOT need to be established so the answer to the builder is NO. If in doubt find a contract… 1 8501 The fastest thing a builder will do is bank your cheque, those systems work perfectly with lightning speed, everything else is slow burn. Just the way it is. 1 8702 Can someone please offer some advice? Im DESPERATE. Because I'm completely and utterly exhausted. How long are variations taking with other companies at the moment? We… 0 18435 |