Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 11, 2017 4:32 pm Wondering if anybody has had a similar experience or is in a position to offer advise. My new home build in Victoria has been completed they are just doing finishing touches. Two days ago they had the building surveyor come through who said everything was fine except that they will not give certificate of occupancy unless a retaining wall is built along the site cut (I have built on a slope). My builder is wanting me to provide evidence I will be completing the retaining wall after handover in the hopes the surveyor will accept this. There is a chance this is not sufficient, my builder has not indicated what will happen if this is the case. I am hesitant to get the builder for the retaining wall on site the same time as my house builder as if something gets damaged or go wrong I can envision problems with who is to blame etc. I am a little annoyed because this means that I effectively signed a contact which has given me a house I cannot even live in?! The wall is quite significant and I am wanting to build it from concrete sleepers so I don't have to worry about maintenance later on so cost including engineering and permits is around 35k. How could they design my house and not be aware of the laws surrounding certificate of occupancy and also I'm a little annoyed as a retaining wall went in and out of my contract a few times and it wasn't until after I did my final contract signing I realised it had been deleted (but copped it on the chin as it was my own fault for not noticing). Any suggestions? It could potentially be a stale mate if I refuse to provide documents stating I will be doing it however i feel I shouldn't have to do that as they haven't done their due diligence to check everything is up to scratch design wise, Any help would be appreciated! I'll speak to VBA on Monday but any further info would come in handy Re: Certificate of occupancy declined 2Feb 11, 2017 6:15 pm I would be interested in how it turns out. My plan which was approved by council has retaining walls marked on it to be built by customer (me). My SC said that I have to build the retaining wall before the slab is laid. My SM said it can be done post handover. I took his advise to build it afterwards. Turns out to be a good decision because the height of the retaining wall has decreased after my neighbour cut their site to almost same as mine. Now I need to build a 0.25m wall instead of 0.75m wall. But I might end up in the same position as you for occupancy certificate. I think your surveyor is asking to build the retaining wall because your wall might need to be more than 1m (as you mentioned you need it to be engineered). Site which has been cut more than 1m isn't safe without retaining wall as the walls would break and wash away during rain. NabeelC | Metricon Merricks 38 | Queensland http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=86276 NabeelC | Metricon Merricks 38 | https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=86276 Certificate of occupancy declined 4Feb 11, 2017 8:14 pm I would of thought you could get a interim occupancy certificate and just not get the final one until the wall is complete Re: Certificate of occupancy declined 5Feb 11, 2017 10:17 pm alex_and_emma I would of thought you could get a interim occupancy certificate and just not get the final one until the wall is complete Will be interesting to see how it pans out... what if I say I'm not doing one? Surveyor won't issue any sort of Cert of occupancy then what? At a stalemate? Until April when they need to start paying me costs for going over contract. How on earth can a builder produce a contract that doesn't result in a liveable dwelling is what I'm getting at? Re: Certificate of occupancy declined 6Feb 11, 2017 11:14 pm With our last build (NSW) we moved in with an Interim Occupancy Certificate as there was still a fair bit of work to be done before we could be issued an Occupancy Certificate. The builder went broke towards the end of our build so we finished it off. We just had certain conditions we had to meet e.g. Works must be complete within X amount of months. I can't remember exactly how long we had but it was pretty decent. Re: Certificate of occupancy declined 7Feb 12, 2017 10:28 am MoodyBlue With our last build (NSW) we moved in with an Interim Occupancy Certificate as there was still a fair bit of work to be done before we could be issued an Occupancy Certificate. The builder went broke towards the end of our build so we finished it off. We just had certain conditions we had to meet e.g. Works must be complete within X amount of months. I can't remember exactly how long we had but it was pretty decent. I feel like builder going broke is a bit of a different scenario... mine hasn't so they have no excuse to build a house that I legally can't live in? Re: Certificate of occupancy declined 8Feb 12, 2017 10:34 am No, council didn't know they went bust. We found out from a few of their contractors who weren't getting paid. We approached the builder and said we wanted to finish the house off as we knew they couldn't fund it. They did an early handover, deducted some $$$ from our final payment and got the certificates from council. They continued operating for about 6 months after until they they officially declared and were liquidated. Re: Certificate of occupancy declined 9Feb 12, 2017 11:19 am peaches21 MoodyBlue With our last build (NSW) we moved in with an Interim Occupancy Certificate as there was still a fair bit of work to be done before we could be issued an Occupancy Certificate. The builder went broke towards the end of our build so we finished it off. We just had certain conditions we had to meet e.g. Works must be complete within X amount of months. I can't remember exactly how long we had but it was pretty decent. I feel like builder going broke is a bit of a different scenario... mine hasn't so they have no excuse to build a house that I legally can't live in? Depends what the contract states. We had to do our own walls, septic tank and water tanks. Without all of these the house is unlivable so I think it's standard practice what they are doing to you. They will just say owner supplied on the paperwork and the rest is up to you to get done Re: Certificate of occupancy declined 10Feb 12, 2017 12:18 pm alex_and_emma peaches21 MoodyBlue With our last build (NSW) we moved in with an Interim Occupancy Certificate as there was still a fair bit of work to be done before we could be issued an Occupancy Certificate. The builder went broke towards the end of our build so we finished it off. We just had certain conditions we had to meet e.g. Works must be complete within X amount of months. I can't remember exactly how long we had but it was pretty decent. I feel like builder going broke is a bit of a different scenario... mine hasn't so they have no excuse to build a house that I legally can't live in? Depends what the contract states. We had to do our own walls, septic tank and water tanks. Without all of these the house is unlivable so I think it's standard practice what they are doing to you. They will just say owner supplied on the paperwork and the rest is up to you to get done Nothing anywhere says owner supplied ? For my carpet yes and for fencing yes but nothing about retaining We are in NSW and require 2 positive covenants to be placed on the property didnt really underdtand this but apparently it will take a few months, and have just been… 2 7653 0 5841 I don’t think so as the floor area over 300 square meters then it is class 3…. 12 18163 |