Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 18, 2008 3:57 pm Hi everyone, I wanted to know what your experiences were with start date delays. We're building with Perrys, had council approval etc all tied up end of May, given a date in our contract for start date 2 June or 20 working days from that point (CSR said it's usually 30 days from when council approval is given that they give start date) provided all criteria met.
All criteria was met and sorted so we were told end of June should be fine, then by end of July then Mid August. I have phoned head office in Tweed Heads, no help whatsoever (said two weeks ago that I'd have a letter within the week for a start date) and she referred me back to my CSR. He today has said he cannot understand what is going on and is on the case...am waiting for a call back from him tomorrow. It is incredibly frustrating particularly being stuck in Hong Kong and I am wondering if there is any liability on the builders side regarding such a delay on the start date. I noted amusingly in the contract there are plenty of clauses to penalise the owner to the benefit of the builders should there be any delays..... Please advise what happened with you.... Thanks Re: Start date delay - input please! 2Aug 18, 2008 6:56 pm Anyone want to give there experience on this? Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: Start date delay - input please! 5Aug 18, 2008 9:21 pm Depends on what is in your contract.
If you have the standard HIA contract you have 14 days from signing till the builder has to apply for a building permit. Once the builder has received the permit they have 21 days to commence construction. If they fail to do so in that time then you have a right to terminate the contract. There are more details in regards to whether you have to pay the builder anything and who has responsibility but if the builder is 100% at fault you can walk away. But if you don't have the HIA contract then anything goes - you have to read the fine print. The way it seems to work is that builders know that if you terminate the contract you are going to have to sign up with another builder and go throught the whole process again taking a few more months. So they rely on you just hanging in there. Depending on how much they have p!ssed you off it may be worth terminating things before they get any worse and you end up wishing you had walked away when you still could. Re: Start date delay - input please! 6Aug 18, 2008 9:27 pm interesting brisvegas, our perry's salesperson told us last weekend that it is no more than about 20 days once back from council which would match with mozzie - seems head office have a lot to answer for...
GOODLUCK!!!!! I hope it is resolved quickly - and I hope this doesn't happen to us too! Kylie handover happened 15/6/09...love living on an acre but still so much to do! Re: Start date delay - input please! 7Aug 19, 2008 9:02 am Ours is an MBAV contract, and it says that builder shall do 'everything possible' to start within 14 days of receiving the last approval required (usually the building permit) ... but there's no penalty if they don't start within that period, and the owner is still bound by the contract.
Our builder took 30 days to start, but in fairness to them, they told us it will take that much time, even before we sign the contract. Re: Start date delay - input please! 8Aug 19, 2008 12:24 pm You should have received a letter saying they had permits and construction was due to commence etc.
The Perrys/HIA contract gives the company 20 days to commence work after the date of receipt of council permits etc. If they don't start by then they're in breach. However, there are lots of get-outs for them, including weather delays etc. Realistically there's not much you can do except make a nuisance of yourself. In our case the 20 days took us up to last Xmas so nothing happened until the 3rd week of January but they did start then, and completed the job just within the number of days allocated (which is pretty generous to them). Once they got started there were no delays other than a week or two of bad weather. I suspect Perrys are getting a little overloaded. Their standard has begun to slip. I suggest that you immediately write to Tweed Heads (although they're pretty damn useless up there) and tell them they're in breach and you are considering terminating the contract. In my experience they need to be pushed and to know that you are not going to stand any nonsense. They do then get things happening. Re: Start date delay - input please! 9Aug 19, 2008 5:03 pm Hi all, yes contract is HIA. The fine print all of which I read is totally geared towards damages in favour of the builder if the owner causes delays - there seems to be no protection for the owner.
Thanks AM re breach of contract I have tried to speak to HO just get voicemail. Have left messages and emailed them along with the Sales consultant. The cherry on cake and something that pretty much sums up their overwhelming incompetence was after a discussion with the sales rep yesterday who promised to get back to me and didn't , I received an email from someone in admin asking me to complete the attached 'urgent variations' so that the file could be passed to the site supervisor. These variations (one from 18 June and the other 30 July) were dealt with weeks ago so that has really fired me up I swear if I wasn't in Hong Kong I would drive to head office and not leave until it was sorted. The problem of us being here just adds to the stress because we need the handover to be by Xmas and if they've not even started yet I can't see how they will finish by Xmas. Who did you deal with at Head office, the only names I have are Leanne and Sonia - the latter is just admin I believe..... Hi, My home construction is complete, and the handover is scheduled next week. However the construction has been delayed and I have raised this to the builder. The… 0 5320 1 7926 Hi We have finally decided to complete a KDR on our corner plot in NE Melbourne suburbs. Given its a corner plot approx. 400 sqm just a standard design may not fit the… 0 8550 |