Browse Forums General Discussion Re: What to know before signing a building contract 2Sep 11, 2015 5:48 am The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: What to know before signing a building contract 4Sep 11, 2015 7:22 am The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: What to know before signing a building contract 11Sep 12, 2015 6:59 pm Lindeli How long do the builders give you to go over the contract and sign? It's a contract! Take as long as you like to review it. If they use high pressure, walk away. What to know before signing a building contract 12Sep 12, 2015 7:01 pm bashworth Lots of builders want you to go to their office see the contract and sign the best day. . . NOT A GOOD IDEA! The better ones send it a few days early. Yes we are using a custom builder. He delivered the (standard MBA) contract to our house and just said, take your time and have a look. Let me know if you have any questions. We dealt with some of the project homes. If any of them had tried to pressure me to sign quickly I would have walked away. Re: What to know before signing a building contract 13Sep 13, 2015 1:16 am Well i am going through contract signing now. I took a good two or three weeks to read through and fully understand and send through questions. In the end most of the HIA contractual clauses are fixed, i queried some but noluck. I confirmed with a lawyer if it was worth engaging her services and she bluntly ans honestly mentioned these hia building contracts are pretty much fixed. Tough luck. So id focus on reading and understanding it head to toe. More importantly go over the drafted plans which tbh for me wasnt rocket science. Get a ruler and follow the markings onto the plan and confirm number by number its as per your initial planning. Ipicked up a few rooms where additional 100mm were shaved off accidentally or to comply and cross checked this with my contract quotation to pick out inconsistencies. I also had to correct contract quotation amounts incorrect. So id focus on your floor plan, contract plans(elevations and the drawings of each room etc) and your contract quotation (prices) as to pick up errors and get things fixed. Im about to create a thread on it but from what i needed to clarify i believe the protocol is we haveto sign all these contract documentation up front regardless of changes then they will get us to sign variation requests. Why they don't just edit and reprint corrected drawings, contract details and quotation prices and signoff only once is beyond me. Re: What to know before signing a building contract 14Sep 13, 2015 1:18 am Cr partners- how can you possibly negotiate a builders hia schedule 1 amounts for interest or days to make progress payments? These appear to be fixed areas volume builders standardise and don't change.on a regular basis.... I agree at my prestart i get the standard list of specs addenda. Along with my selections id triple check its exactly what you wanted and chose. I also think its good for the builder to let you know but your ultimately responsible on knowing frisge recess sized, ceilings etc. I personally know now what a course means and how to measure it. Midland brick even give you a coursing size chart. Based off this and simple qs to my sales rep i can read window sizing teminology and work out how many courses from ceiling its written downwards, to how wide. I then tape measured in my current house and did all my window sizing corrections and checks that way. I also scanned a few catologues and got a feel for rough fridge dimensions. Based off that i know for a fact any height up to 1800 mm will get every fridge you'll likely see in. Most fridges are circa 700 to 780mm deep max. So most will just out of the standard 600mm deep recess. Width is commonly 700-820 for most decent sizes, some odd ones hitting the 9s. So my fridge recess is 950mm wide so i know im safe also. This is one aspect of self educating yourself. I probably wrote 10 essays before i got to contracts, im surprised my sales rep even tolerated it. For that i know id recommend him onwards because most people dont even spend more than 30 mins a display let alone 15. I was one of few who spent hours,askef questions. You'll be surprised at what people dont do. When i bought my land the developer commented i was the only one asking all these questions or taking the time to sit there and read it in the office than sign. So obviously 9/10 pplz dont! I was also the only one who ever emailed back askinf for the list of landscapers due to it being in contact /follow up letters. Apparently know one else ever asked for details or followed up and i was promptly updated on that none was chosen and process had changed (we'll now be advised of landscaper closer to settlement) than upfront at signing. My point is, like building most peoples angst and bad reviews is probably their lack of education and detail. That said i still got caught with an odd cost i missed. But clearly my rep let this slip. I caught the vast majority so before i even signed my PPA agreements with the sales rep to engage them i already had all the site costs and potential additional costs down. DyOR and you'll be well off. Good luck! Re: What to know before signing a building contract 15Sep 13, 2015 4:42 pm Hi Saberx, Good work and, if everybody went through the due diligence you seem to have done, I'm sure there would be less angst and problems in the "building world". It is unbelievable how many clients we talk to that are "expecting" things to be right. unfortunately things do get missed, errors made and things not explained in detail. What some people think they understand isn't always the case for eg, a floor plan showing a fridge opening of 900mm means your fridge space will actually be 844mm. The note on the plan states "dimensions are taken from frame" so, not everyone will understand that 20mm for plaster and 36mm for skirting boards needs to be subtracted from the original 900mm (sounds simple, but it does happen). The result... a fridge that doesn't fit and a builder that reminds you that "you signed the plans!" In regards to negotiating schedule 1, there are numerous points that can be negotiated and we have done successfully for quite some time (although most builders will try with "no we cant do that" at the beginning). Points 6, 7, 8, 9,10, 11 and 12 CAN all be negotiated just to name a few. The reality is, most builders will have these already typed out, tell you its a "standard contract" (which it is.... excluding the parts typed in) and expect you to sign without allowing you to take them away and do your research. As stated earlier, one of the biggest area we find errors is in the colour selection/specifications. As you can imagine, your average home owner will not check every single thing chosen. As a simple example, Clarke Monaco sinks have 4 different models which only has 2 different letters in the part numbers distinguishing one from the other... can be confusing! regards, 7 4243 You talk about deletions, are they variations or PS and PC adjustments? pleas list them 1 17249 Building a fence now will help limit people dumping rubbish and soil on your property. Many houses in suburbia on small lots have fences up before a build. I moved into a… 1 4689 |