Fighting the "insurance issue"

staceyd · Jun 22, 2013 2:38 pm

So we're now with our second builder for this build and same as the last, they are not letting me supply my own oven/cooktop/cooker/range etc due to "insurance issues"

Would anyone have any insight as to what these vague insurance issues might be, and how we can solve the problem so that I don't have to have tecknika appliances in my kitchen...
Or am I going to have to get the builders standard then renovate my kitchen upon handover to put my preferred appliances in?

fmac · Jun 22, 2013 3:29 pm

My understanding is the issue is it not being covered by insurance.
You could remove apiances and give measurements for what you'll install after handover.
Or consider not taking them out, the credit probably isn't much but do like above and tell them not to install do measure for what you'll buy and sell those peovided by builder...
Ask builder to upgrade to appliances you want but be charged a fortune...

staceyd · Jun 22, 2013 4:04 pm

See, if thats all it is then it seems like a pretty lame excuse. Surely I could sign a waiver saying I understand supplying my own kitchen appliances means they are not covered by the builders insurance.
I was thinking maybe if it was installed then somehow blew up before handover and voided their insurance then it was a stretch but technically understandable.

It just seems ridiculous that you can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house, yet not be "allowed" to put in the kitchen appliances you want, at least not without a lot of hassle.

I guess this turned into a bit of a rant! Sorry! But i do feel a little better having got it all out!

AussieMark · Jun 22, 2013 4:46 pm

Another way is to have them installed at handover. My builder is letting me change to what ever I want and they are pretty good about it. There are insurance issues for sure but what I had said was I supply and they install. The problem is if they are stolen they are not covered, hence you get it done on the handover date.

Back Pocket · Jun 22, 2013 10:35 pm

We are getting our own range installed after handover. As it is post handover it's not covered by their warranty or insurance and if my trades damage anything installing it, it's my problem. The builder gave us a credit for their standard stove.

CuttingEdgeKitchens · Jun 24, 2013 5:33 pm

What a joke!

As long as your sign a waiver then its a non issue. My wife and I had a house built by a spec builder and I supplied and installed every internal fitting myself including kitchen, bathrooms and appliances!

Some builders are funny about it though. Not sure why.

Serenity_Now · Aug 15, 2013 4:32 pm

From my experience, some builders can be quite against it if you are looking to have a glass splashback that goes behind the rangehood. As the glass cutouts are different for each rangehood, it means that they may need to deviate from their usual templates to accommodate your rangehood model and if there are mistakes then they're liable and you can't just change one panel of glass (due to the paint colour variation) so they would need to re-do all the glass panels.

staceyd · Aug 20, 2013 10:05 am

I should have come back and updated! In the end they have removed the included appliances and agreed to leave a gap for a 900mm oven and range. The credit was pretty lame, but it saves lots of mucking around post build so is worth it. I would have liked to look at perhaps getting a couple of 600mm ovens and a gas cooktop, but without having the specifics of which oven/cooktop etc it was easier when getting plans for the kitchen to just go with the 900mm. There are 6 of us though, so its not a huge issue, it will definitely get used!

Oh, and we've got 200mm of tiles then a window as splashback, so the splashback wasn't the issue.