Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 02, 2008 3:30 pm Hi everyone,
We bought land and it wont settle until June 09. At the moment, we were going to build a house with M. We put down a deposit back in June to lock in prices, promo etc. When we put down this ititial deposit, we were told by our SC that M will hold the price of the house for 5 months. When we asked her whether the 5 months countdown starts at ititial deposit, she wasn't making it clear to us whether it did. All she said was that M look at each situation as a case by case scenario and accesses according. All in all, she would committ to telling us when the 5 months countdown started. We were happy with this, thinking that the countdown might start later. We just came back from our PC1 meeting and we were told by our CSR that to have a build date of July 09, they will charge us an extra $10k ontop of our contract price. This being that the 5 months countdown started at ititial depsit (June) and it's 8 months until build. 8 months x 0.5% of our contract price and it equals $10k When we heard this, we were shocked. We knew we had to pay a certain amount as the cost of building do go up, but by this much? We know for a fact that PD and Carlisle Homes are willing to cap the price increase to only an extra $3k. That is a big different from what M want to charge us. Has anyone been through this? Does the price seem quite excessive? We dont know what to do, by this rate, we dont think we will be able to afford to build with M anymore Sorry about the long post, I'm just so atm!! Thanks Re: Price increase because we are building next year!! 2Oct 02, 2008 3:47 pm wonderland, remember when you first signed and you asked me about this? This is their policy, five months from deposit, 0.05% for each month and part thereof after five months.
Sometimes you can stretch it out and get away with more. You're actually lucky, they're letting you go to thirteen months. At twelve months from deposit, they are within their rights to cancel your contract and start all over with current prices and promos. I know you're p*ssed off, but it shouldn't have been a complete surprise because you knew their policy. They're not my favourite company at the moment either, but it's hard to be too p*ssed when you knew this was a possibility. Try to negotiate with them. Tell them that 10k will completely break your budget, and see if something can be worked out. Unfortunately, the reality is everywhere else will have gone up since you signed and you may not be better off to go elsewhere. Our house has gone up over 15k since we signed. Jo I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Price increase because we are building next year!! 3Oct 02, 2008 4:23 pm Yes they have the same with us 0.5% after 5 months.
We were told upfront about it and factored it into our budget. PD were cheaper with capping but were more expensive in other areas. I guess you have to look at the overall picture. Maybe if you let them know you werent expecting it to be so high they might do something for you but if prices have gone up since you signed I wouldn't expect them to do any deals for you. Good luck with it Re: Price increase because we are building next year!! 4Oct 02, 2008 4:26 pm Wonderland..... check your paperwork.... if there's nothing in there to explain the situation, you can argue it wasn't fully explained... you may have a better shot. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Price increase because we are building next year!! 5Oct 02, 2008 4:54 pm Hey guys, thanks for your replies.
Jo, I do remember you telling me about the 5 months and the 0.5% charge. But what is really getting to me is that the SC wasn't being specific, she probably intentionally avoided directly answering that question. I feel it's abit unfair that they evaded the question with promises of 'depending on your case, the 5 months might be pushed out a little' and 'we should be able to work something out for you' and 'every case is looked as a case by case and it will be dealt with differently' and 'the worst case scenario is 0.5% of your contract price, but that's worst case scenario' and 'we should we able to work something out for you'. Its those kind of empty promises which are making us really angry at the moment! By making us fork out $10k, they are using their worst case scenario on us. What ever they can get from us, they are going to try. I know about the 5 months at ititial deposit and building cost going up. I am not expecting not to pay anything as i know that it's hard for them to keep a price when building materials DO go up. But I'm just disppointed that they werent straight with us from the beginning. We are happy to pay for a price increase, but we want them to come to a compromise and help us a little. M is refusing to cap either the site cost or house cost. PD are willing to do both. I would be happy if M did one. But they refuse to budge. We've tried to negotiate with them, telling them that there is a big chance we wont go ahead with the build because of this, but they refuse to budge. Just to makea point about this, an approach that some people have found sucessful in negotiating these rises down, Is to provide some workings to the builder, specifying… 4 81718 Fair Trading can issue orders to rectify and complete but once the matter goes to NCAT these orders are automatically vacated. You will have to terminate contract and sue… 21 29713 How are you doing Ben? Extremely interested in hearing what you are doing or plan to do! 12 15156 |