Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 11, 2017 2:45 pm Hi all! Just looking for advice. Basically building a brand new home. We started the process last year, beginning with seeing an ad for a house and land package from a builder. Had all the standard descriptions including fixed price, no hidden costs, etc. They advertised a particular house on a block of land, and after looking at display homes, we decided to go with what they advertised and advised us we can fit that house no problems on that block of land. We paid our deposits, they surveyed the land, drew up all their plans, went through all the electrical and colours appointments, etc. The final plans in pre-construction, both builder and us signed, included cut and fill of our land to build that house on it. There is a slight slope from the front left of our lot down to the rear right diagonally. Also a retaining wall around the whole lot. We signed the validation letter and final plans and builder put us into construction phase after about 10 months or so from the beginning. The construction fence around the block went up. A week or so later, the port-a-loo was delivered. After just over a month of waiting for something to happen, we get a call from SS asking if the office have called us. Seems he didn't know what we going on either. At the end of the week, office finally calls us and asks us to come in as there is a problem, hence why work hasn't started yet. The problem is, since our house pretty much occupies up to the maximum we can go next to the edge of our lot (3m rear and 1m each side), they advised that they can't excavate and cut to the depth they wanted as it's too close to the retaining wall and it'll compromise the wall. Their only solution to build this house that we signed for is to make it split level due to the slope of our land. Not once in the last 10 months have they mentioned anything about a split level, let alone not being able to cut what they wanted to level the land because it was next to the retaining wall. Now they want us to pay over $30k to make it split level. Just wondering what we can do about this? What our rights are? We can't afford to pay any more and the bank won't simply top-up our loan. Can we approach fair trading or some other authority to make them cover the cost of their mistake? The builder agreed it was not our fault and that someone stuffed up while doing the plans, and nobody even picked it up. But they still think we can't get it for free. I think we shouldn't had to pay anything. What can we do? Re: Advice needed: From construction phase back to drafting? 2Jun 12, 2017 7:13 pm Don't take their answer about compromised wall so esay, yes theirs regulations to follow, but check for yourself, get a retaining wall tradesman out on site and ask him and get an inspector also, don't be surprised to learn about other solutions. Re: Advice needed: From construction phase back to drafting? 4Jun 12, 2017 7:53 pm The builder is probably right in terms of building near retaining wall. For concrete panel or any regular retaining wall, they are not suppose to have any significant machinery closer than 1 meter to the retaining. And for any higher retaining wall, you are not supposed to put any significant load near the height of the retaining wall. (eg. you cant have significant load within 2m of a 2m high retaining wall) story might be different for a engineered retaining wall but based on your case i dont think the original retaining wall was engineered to suit the build. The builder is most likely to be the one to blame due to their negligence and pretty much failed to perform the contract. Since you are already into the building phase, builder they will have to worry about completion time frame and liquidate damage. Thus you should be the last one to worry about situation. But that being said, I`m not a legal person so please do your duty and get some proper advice. however, i would first try pressure the builder genteelly a little bit with legal proceeding or media exposure. Re: Advice needed: From construction phase back to drafting? 5Jun 12, 2017 8:28 pm If a contract has been signed and they cannot fulfill what they are contracted to do, then they're in breach of the contract??? I think they are trying to get you to pay for their stuff up. I'd be seeking legal advice as to what your entitlements are to be honest. Re: Advice needed: From construction phase back to drafting? 6Jun 12, 2017 8:58 pm I agree with our_urban_treehouse and yes you can get the lawyer or experienced building consultant to assist you dealing with the builder and to guide you as to the best solution for you. Builder has to fix this and you should not have to pay extra. I think they are just trying to see if they can roll you. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Advice needed: From construction phase back to drafting? 7Jun 12, 2017 10:55 pm Thank you all for your replies! It has given me confidence to tell the builder that we should not be paying for their stuff up! We will have another meeting with them soon to see what they've come up with in terms of fixing the issue. Hopefully they have come to their senses and might fix it for free, but I'm not confident on that. And they did say we can end the contract, however, yes, we've invested almost a year of our time on this and we really don't want to end it unless we really had to. And I would want a full refund because it isn't our fault, but I dunno if they would give us a full refund either. As for the retaining wall, this was actually built with the lots in the whole estate, so the land developer was responsible for this. So maybe they were engineered? I'm not sure on that one... 1 62015 Hi All, I engaged a tradie to install concrete retaining wall 600-800mm high over 32 meters in Victoria. Sleepers are 200*75*2000 mm installed over 17 steel posts. I… 0 6889 Building Standards; Getting It Right! Don't think they are designed for double brick. WA has a particular way of building and unfortunately that's the way a large amount of sills are finished. 3 6996 |