Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Demo before CDC approval 9Sep 06, 2019 8:49 am Norfolk Be wary of the ‘hidden asbestos’ scam in Sydney. Its a confidence trick. Some demo companies may win your trust, commence the job, then find non existent hidden asbestos, send you a few fake photos whilst you are at work etc, and charge you extra $ to remove and dispose of it. Extra fiddly manual labour ‘emu picking’ etc. They will say they are saving you money with their particular removal process. As well as hold you to ransom by not providing the clearance certificate required by your builder. If you want to avoid this trick make sure you get written into the demolition contract that you or someone needs to actually see the hidden asbestos on site to confirm it’s actually there before authorising additional work. Turn up a few times unannounced to check the claimed additional work required is actually being done. Visually confirm what they say. Ask for the EPA Wastelocate system asbestos consignment number and check the facts yourself online. Ask the neighbours to look out for you too. Gopro cameras on the site may also be worthwhile. They are good at it! don’t be scammed, no matter how nice and trustworthy they seem! Thanks for the heads up! yes I've heard of this kind of trick that some demo companies play!! we have booked in with company that's actually recommended by the majority of the project builders so hoping for no nasty surprises there. so many tricks.to look out for when ur building! very stressful!! ps u wouldnt know of the names of these bad ones would u? if so please PM me the names.to make sure mine isnt one!! Re: Demo before CDC approval 10Sep 06, 2019 5:53 pm I have only had experience with one demolition company that used this trick. I have contacted others who have experienced the same, or very similar tricks by this company. They have also kept records. Both Fair Trading and the EPA are aware. Sorry, but it’s not appropriate or prudent to name the company at this time. Like any industry there will be a mix of demolition companies out there ranging from good to bad and with different focus, capabilities and ethics. As the building industry is not effectively regulated it really is a case of buyer beware with demolition services.
Be careful about any comments or recommendations made by the builder's salesperson or pre construction admin staff as they probably will not be in a position of experience, nor have the knowledge to reliably recommend or not recommend a particular demolition company. All they need is a clear block and an asbestos clearance certificate to start building. Volume builders do not usually manage or get involved in KDR demolition services. Just passing you some brochures, cards or weblinks etc does constitute an official or reliable recommendation. Balanced comments by real customers are a much more reliable source to consider. Also be cautious with online testimonials in your research, try to ascertain if they are real, be particularly suspicious of the overly positive ones with no substance or facts included. Some key watch-outs are: Reviews from people who have only ever posted one review. No substance to the reviews, just generic comments with no specifics. Reviews that look like adaptations of a template. No balance of positive and negative aspects.that most realistic reviews would have. The company's personnel are repeatably named and praised. Reviews of companies that pay 'management' service fees to the website. Reviews that repeatably praise the 'honesty' of the company's staff. Reviews that disparage the company's competitors in general, or the industry collectively. Spend time reading the reviews of each company both positive and negative. Look for patterns. Do not just accept the star ratings or the gushing copy you read! It may be a good idea to actually contact some of the review posters privately and ask for more specific details of the demolition to be reasonably confident the reviews are real. The best defence against these tricks however is to read the contract carefully, question and understand all the fine print, plus observe and keep your wits about you during the demolition process. What extra fees might be payable? What’s your exposure? What notice to you of extra work and what approvals from you are required? Etc If someone demands more money from you make sure you can independently verify their story (both the extra labour costs and additional disposal amount & fees) before even considering their claim. If in doubt you can get an independent hygienist to inspect and issue the clearance certificate required by the builder so you are not held to ransom over this. The demolition company’s approach and tactics are plausible, smooth, as well as integrated with their promotion, their documentation and various 3rd parties etc, having been well practiced over years on eager, anxious and naive first time knock down rebuild clients. Like other confidence tricks, they win your trust first. Most victims probably won’t realise they have been tricked until it’s too late and the extra hidden asbestos money is paid, if they even realise at all. They will probably believe the demolition company's approach to manage the 'hidden asbestos' has saved them significant money! Re: Demo before CDC approval 11Sep 06, 2019 6:01 pm lozsyd Site demolition are excellent and most volume builders recommend them. The asbestos scam is commonly used when they have under quoted the job. This is made worse when the majority of especially first time builders choose the cheapest qoute I have both used them as well as lived next door to a property that was demolished by them just recently and they are extremely quick and efficient Re: Demo before CDC approval 13Sep 07, 2019 5:10 pm Do not demo until you have DA or CDC approved. We did KDR. We had to do our own demo as builder will not organise for us. (most of them don't) So we demo old house before receiving DA approval. Our land was empty for one and half years before building start Jan 2017. Our Council took one and half years to approved DA. I also agree with Norfolk. our Demo guy charged us extra $$ ended up paying nearly 40k for demo. Good luck. Re: Demo before CDC approval 14Sep 07, 2019 8:18 pm shazaw Do not demo until you have DA or CDC approved. We did KDR. We had to do our own demo as builder will not organise for us. (most of them don't) So we demo old house before receiving DA approval. Our land was empty for one and half years before building start Jan 2017. Our Council took one and half years to approved DA. I also agree with Norfolk. our Demo guy charged us extra $$ ended up paying nearly 40k for demo. Good luck. Thanks for the advice! hmm yeah i might have to think about this one. Oh how come you demolished before DA approval? Our builder said if going thru DA we have to wait for approval to come first as they don'w know how long it will take. But as we're going with CDC they said it is upto us and that it usually takes about 4-5 weeks for approval to come through. Oh no that's not good about having to fork out so much for the demo!! Yeah so many hidden costs with building isnt there. I'm assuming you have finished your build by now? ru happy with it? Re: Demo before CDC approval 15Sep 07, 2019 9:21 pm lozsyd shazaw Do not demo until you have DA or CDC approved. We did KDR. We had to do our own demo as builder will not organise for us. (most of them don't) So we demo old house before receiving DA approval. Our land was empty for one and half years before building start Jan 2017. Our Council took one and half years to approved DA. I also agree with Norfolk. our Demo guy charged us extra $$ ended up paying nearly 40k for demo. Good luck. Thanks for the advice! hmm yeah i might have to think about this one. Oh how come you demolished before DA approval? Our builder said if going thru DA we have to wait for approval to come first as they don'w know how long it will take. But as we're going with CDC they said it is upto us and that it usually takes about 4-5 weeks for approval to come through. Oh no that's not good about having to fork out so much for the demo!! Yeah so many hidden costs with building isnt there. I'm assuming you have finished your build by now? ru happy with it? CDC is 10 days typically. Mine was delayed a lot of back and forth and took 13 days Re: Demo before CDC approval 16Sep 08, 2019 12:11 am lozsyd Thanks for the advice! hmm yeah i might have to think about this one. Oh how come you demolished before DA approval? Our builder said if going thru DA we have to wait for approval to come first as they don'w know how long it will take. But as we're going with CDC they said it is upto us and that it usually takes about 4-5 weeks for approval to come through. Oh no that's not good about having to fork out so much for the demo!! Yeah so many hidden costs with building isnt there. I'm assuming you have finished your build by now? ru happy with it? We were too naive. In our minds we simply thought that every things will be smooth run. We honestly believed that council will take three months to approved DA, but we run into so much problems with the design of storm water detention also required easement to be registered on neighbouring properties titles. Ps We move out July 2015 and Demo house March 2016. "Our Council took one and half years to approved DA." I should say one and half years to get to the stage of Certificate of Construction ( CC ). lozsyd I'm assuming you have finished your build by now? ru happy with it? Yes very happy with this house. All dramas we had with council and during construction with builder were.... simply in the past now. Just try to enjoy the process of building. Build thread : viewtopic.php?=31&t=81624 Re: Demo before CDC approval 17Sep 08, 2019 2:01 pm Manhattan52 lozsyd shazaw Do not demo until you have DA or CDC approved. We did KDR. We had to do our own demo as builder will not organise for us. (most of them don't) So we demo old house before receiving DA approval. Our land was empty for one and half years before building start Jan 2017. Our Council took one and half years to approved DA. I also agree with Norfolk. our Demo guy charged us extra $$ ended up paying nearly 40k for demo. Good luck. Thanks for the advice! hmm yeah i might have to think about this one. Oh how come you demolished before DA approval? Our builder said if going thru DA we have to wait for approval to come first as they don'w know how long it will take. But as we're going with CDC they said it is upto us and that it usually takes about 4-5 weeks for approval to come through. Oh no that's not good about having to fork out so much for the demo!! Yeah so many hidden costs with building isnt there. I'm assuming you have finished your build by now? ru happy with it? CDC is 10 days typically. Mine was delayed a lot of back and forth and took 13 days Wow ur CDC was so fast!! I asked my CSC if any chance CDC will be approved sooner and she said the notification period only is 10 working days? and that she expects it to take full 4 weeks? Was ur one on a vacant land? Ours is KDRB. Re: Demo before CDC approval 18Sep 08, 2019 2:03 pm shazaw lozsyd Thanks for the advice! hmm yeah i might have to think about this one. Oh how come you demolished before DA approval? Our builder said if going thru DA we have to wait for approval to come first as they don'w know how long it will take. But as we're going with CDC they said it is upto us and that it usually takes about 4-5 weeks for approval to come through. Oh no that's not good about having to fork out so much for the demo!! Yeah so many hidden costs with building isnt there. I'm assuming you have finished your build by now? ru happy with it? We were too naive. In our minds we simply thought that every things will be smooth run. We honestly believed that council will take three months to approved DA, but we run into so much problems with the design of storm water detention also required easement to be registered on neighbouring properties titles. Ps We move out July 2015 and Demo house March 2016. "Our Council took one and half years to approved DA." I should say one and half years to get to the stage of Certificate of Construction ( CC ). lozsyd I'm assuming you have finished your build by now? ru happy with it? Yes very happy with this house. All dramas we had with council and during construction with builder were.... simply in the past now. Just try to enjoy the process of building. Build thread : viewtopic.php?=31&t=81624 I just checked out your build thread!! What a journey you have had!!! my gosh!! ur finished product looks good thou! I see you got to build with sekisui before they stopped doing residential!! I had heard good things about them when they were still doing houses. I'm hoping our build will have less dramas then yours! fingers crossed!! Hi Minho I have heaps of experience in Ku-ring-gai with both DAs and CDC ( this is the main area we build in). DA's are taking 12-18months and CDC's we have been doing… 1 3148 1 2965 Hi All, see above image. The required setback from the rear boundary in my case is 5m, as you can see the shape of the site and location of the boundary is slightly… 0 8432 |