We are building with Mimosa home and tomorrow (Thursday 28/02/2019) is our handover.
The problem is that they are trying to handover the house to us without fixing all the defects that were listed and agreed during the pre handover inspection.
- We went to the site last Sunday and saw the outdoor defects were not fixed. We didn't mind as there were three business days remaining for the handover.
- We went to have a look yesterday(Tuesday) outside of business hours. The defects were still not fixed.
- We got in touch with the supervisor straight away, asking him to confirm that all defects will be fixed before handover.
- Received a reply from him saying "all will be sorted it takes 5 minutes" and something along the lines - handover is on Thursday and as I have said all will be fixed. Undertone message was - you guys are so fussed, I told you it will be ready for the handover, why are you hassling me.
- We wrote an email to our CSO saying that if all the defects are not fixed or wont be fixed for Thursday handover we wont accept the property. We have asked her to send us the pictures with fixed defects as an assurance by COB today (Wednesday) otherwise we wont attend the hand over. Getting time off is hard as is, and it will be unfair if they expect us to take a day-off when the property is not up to the mark.
- She replies saying they can't move the handover. it will go ahead as per the schedule. and that whatever is not fixed, will be fixed later.
- Final payment has already gone through as they want the payment to be clear a day before the handover.
My question is that can we refuse to attend the handover if they haven't confirmed that all defects have been fixed? Please bear in mind that they have received the final payment.
Are there certain things that can qualify to be fixed after the handover? Or is it that if these tasks are in the pre inspection report and we have signed it, then it means we are well within our rights to refuse the handover.
Also, can I hire an independent building inspector now (assuming handover wont be tomorrow so we may have a week's worth of time) or is it too late?
The experience with Mimosa is going downhill and the supervisor is behaving a bit weird too.
Any input is appreciated. Thanks for reading guys.