Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 23, 2017 1:49 pm Would love some suggestions / advice - We are doing a knock down rebuild in SE Melbourne. We sorted out plan, picked our colours etc. We signed contract 26/06/17 and payed deposit of just under $15000 on top of the initial $1500 deposit. All good. Upon signing contract they advised us they would then apply for the building permit while we found a rental and moved out of the house. 1 month after contract I contacted our CRC to get an update. She told me we needed to have demolished the house before they could apply for the permit. She was quite adamant that they required the second soil and survey to be done. Not impressed about this as it differed from what we were originally told and had wasted 4 weeks. We had the house demolished 10/08/17. Advised CRC straight away. She said she'd organise the 2nd soil and survey. As of today this hasn't been done 23/08/17. However even though this hasn't been done she has told me that they have applied to the council for our approvals. So this now has us thinking she outright deceived us about needing the soil and survey done. In an email this morning I asked her for a new ETA to be on site (previous ETA was August). Her response "my permits department said it should be done by November". That doesn't tell me when they'll be on site. So our issue is we are paying rent and all these delays are going to cost us more. Maybe we should get out now and go to a different builder but can we get out of the contract, how much $ would we lose out? We aren't impressed with our CRC at all. It seems like she doesn't do anything until we email asking. Re: Signed building contract and paid deposit, can we cancel 2Aug 23, 2017 2:29 pm Bri1234 That's rubbish...Where are you suppose to live and what position does that put you in if you demolished the House without approvals & a signed contract, ready to start?.. LOL, stuck up "ship creek" without a paddle and no one to call? OT....It sounds like you are being delayed why 1. Builder has too much work..so you have to wait in the queue 2. The Deposit doesn't guarantee you anything 3. You may also be liable for any price increase that the builder asks for 4. Read the contracts you might consider getting out 5. You should be entitled to a refund for the monies that hasn't been spent..act fast though Goodluck Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Signed building contract and paid deposit, can we cancel 3Aug 23, 2017 2:37 pm Thing that you have to weigh up carefully though Brit - how long did it take you to get to permit stage with your builder? If you have to go through that again, you'll be paying dead rent all through that period. The admin stage is often the most frustrating out of any build, and if you read through the threads here it's a common theme. I'd be more inclined to raise a complaint to head office, and ask to have a review / change of CRC, putting all the facts forward with dates etc. Re: Signed building contract and paid deposit, can we cancel 4Aug 23, 2017 3:00 pm StructuralBIMGuy @Bri1234 That's rubbish...Where are you suppose to live and what position does that put you in if you demolished the House without approvals & a signed contract, ready to start?.. LOL, stuck up "ship creek" without a paddle and no one to call? OT....It sounds like you are being delayed why 1. Builder has too much work..so you have to wait in the queue 2. The Deposit doesn't guarantee you anything 3. You may also be liable for any price increase that the builder asks for 4. Read the contracts you might consider getting out 5. You should be entitled to a refund for the monies that hasn't been spent..act fast though Goodluck Thanks StructuralBIMGuy We're thinking option 1, they have too much on. CRC isn't able to manage her workload. I've emailed her to say we aren't happy and are considering taking our business elsewhere. We'll see what she says but frankly I'm thinking going by other conversations she'll make up excuses. Re: Signed building contract and paid deposit, can we cancel 5Aug 23, 2017 3:05 pm PVBuild Thing that you have to weigh up carefully though Brit - how long did it take you to get to permit stage with your builder? If you have to go through that again, you'll be paying dead rent all through that period. The admin stage is often the most frustrating out of any build, and if you read through the threads here it's a common theme. I'd be more inclined to raise a complaint to head office, and ask to have a review / change of CRC, putting all the facts forward with dates etc. Thank PVBuild At this stage I guess we can continue with them. Wait out the times she's saying the permit will take and hope there are no more delays. Or cut our loses and go elsewhere. At this point I think we've done the hard work. House is demolished, new crossover in and ready, power pit in. We know what colours etc we want. Soil and survey already done etc. The hard part would be finding another builder / house plan we like and that suites are block. Re: Signed building contract and paid deposit, can we cancel 6Aug 23, 2017 3:10 pm Yes, but another builder won't use your previous builders soil, survey etc. They will do their own, and you'll find that your first builder won't relinquish the soil reports either (although you can push hard for that if you don't get your deposit back). We went with 2 other building companies (1 custom, 1 project builder) before settling on our third and final choice. To get to prelim contract with the 2nd builder took 3+ months, and that was only prelim costing. 3rd builder, even though we had all the other documentation, took 8 months from initial talks to getting the builder onsite. And that's fast, by all accounts. Re: Signed building contract and paid deposit, can we cancel 7Aug 23, 2017 3:40 pm BTW..The squeaky wheel (doesn't necessarily) always get the oil first Stick to your (grease) guns...and get ready to walk OT here in perth when things were going gang busters several years ago A number of builders racked up several years of work and then waited for things to slow down, contracts in hand, before they started to build. Not only did they (Battlers & Punters) pay Top Dollar, pay rent for yet another year,when the build rates dropped and building material become plentiful and cheap...those builders made a killing Not so the homeowners whose properties have dropped in value and are worth 15% less now. Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Signed building contract and paid deposit, can we cancel 8Aug 26, 2017 11:50 am We kind of stepped back from it all for a few days to clear our heads. No more Mrs and Mr Nice! Monday I'm going to start making calls to follow up what's going on and make sure the CRC has actually done what she's saying she has. Depending on that we're thinking about asking for a new CRC. I just don't have any faith in what she's telling us now and she's not very forthcoming with information. We really like our house plan and would like to continue with it so fingers crossed. Re: Signed building contract and paid deposit, can we cancel 9Aug 26, 2017 11:59 am Is there a starting date in your contract? They could be in breach of contract Re: Signed building contract and paid deposit, can we cancel 10Aug 26, 2017 7:05 pm If you have signed building contract then the option to walk away could be very expensive for you. If you do (in breach of contract), builder will be entitled to the profit he would have made on the house (20%) without actually building it. Then you will have problems with plan copyrights, delays in re- starting the project with another builder and so on. My advice is get a very experienced building consultant to assist you, it will cost you, but not as much as hair replacement or a financial funeral. This has not started well and now is the time to get back in control. 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 Thanks for the response! However, it's have been sorted. But for others benefit here is what we had to do. Unfortunately, it's not straightforward. BCC washed their hands… 3 7185 Hi All, We signed a prelim agreement last year (May 2022) and paid deposit to a builder. However, we didn't go ahead with them and never signed a contract. We ended going… 0 2288 You talk about deletions, are they variations or PS and PC adjustments? pleas list them 1 16542 |