Browse Forums General Discussion Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 75Jun 21, 2006 12:19 pm The blog of my home being built: http://glint-bladesong.blogspot.com/ Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 78Jul 04, 2006 10:14 am Totally agree Builda, as someone who is not a builder but works within the statutory requirement aspect of building, i often see both sides of the coin when problems arise. Can i say firstly that the majority of problems arise through ignorance of each parties rights & obligations in respect to the 'PARTICULAR CONTRACT SIGNED & AGREED TO'.
This is where i feel a great number of problems can be averted before they get a chance to arise. By both parties taking the extra time & effort at the beginning to understand the contract terms, then hopefully the project can move forward in a co-operative manner. I also agree with Newhome, there are builders out there who shouldn't be allowed to build a dog house & the larger organisations are really a law unto themselves when dealing with consumers. I have often talked with collegues about how this can be solved effectively & it always comes back to the root cause. POOR ADMINISTRATION & REGULATION ENFORCEMENT BY THOSE VESTED WITH THE RESPONSIBILITY! In NSW the Office of Fair Trading is responsible but is such a mickey mouse organisation that it should be disbanded & replaced. Our industry is plagued by the constant embaressment of a minority of shonks that give the mostly reputable builders a bad name. Remember, these people are just like yourselves. They are trying to run a business under the weight of enormous amounts of paperwork, unfair market conditions & a myriad of other things all the while trying to give their clients a quality product. It can be a tough business. The OFT has a lot to answer for & you can blame them for the current market conditions that are unfair to both parties in NSW. If by chance you are unlucky enough (& i mean UNLUCKY) to be sin binned from the industry for whatever reason you can simply rebadge yourself & continue to trade. There is a campaign going on right now to stop the Home Warranty Insurance rip off & to make first resort claims & dispute resolution priorities. You can check out www.builderscollective.org.au & join the fight. Queensland currently enjoys the best system in Australia for consumer protection & dispute resolution. Not to mention that they are the ONLY state in Oz that will ban a builder for life from the industry. Both builders & consumers will benefit from these attempts to make the industry a fairer & more accountable market. The fight is currently being waged by a small but vocal group & the need for fair minded & articulate people like yourself to get involved is paramount. Hope to have some positive fedback. Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 79Jul 04, 2006 10:26 am Do'h!! I have a bad habit if making every website a .com IT SHOULD READ... www.builderscollective.org.au
Sorry about that folks. Well worth a look to find out what is going on in the industry. Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 80Jul 04, 2006 12:09 pm Good call Paris and there are other links to that site on this forum.
Every other State has problems with this except Queensland and they are the only State where there is no private financial vested interest allowed to 'manage' consumer protection. Vic, NSW, Tas, WA, NT and to a lessor extent SA (other reasons for that) have a consumer protection fortress built on the jelly like foundation of insurance company profit margins. That is, Governments have decided to protect their profit margins or else the insurers desert the industry. Then we have the HIA and MBA who sell this insurance for commission - another vested interest working against consumers and often even their own members. Financial vested interest in consumer protection regimes is really at the core of the problem but unfortunately it will take nothing more than a consumer revolt to change it. There are people on this forum that have tried to access help from BACV in Victoria only to discover it too is a toothless tiger like the OFT in NSW. I can only encourage consumers to write to the insurers, the Trade Associations (HIA and MBA) and most importantly your local State Member(s) of Parliament. These are the bodies responsible - MAKE them responsible! Sorry but you have a crap builder. Probably too late now. For our last build I only spoke to builders who would allow me easy access (at no cost). I used my own sparky… 10 9748 I apologise for any confusion, but your understanding is correct. We approached our situation differently based on advice from… 11 53101 Hi All, I have been dealing with icare for insurance in completing our house after our original builder went bust. We have gotten to tender stage and one of the companies… 0 20745 |