Hi all,
This is my first time building a house so I'm not very experienced so seeking advice from you who have built before:
- Rawson homes started on site for my new house beginning of September 2018 and did the slab frame and bricks all before Christmas
- After this they basically did nothing for over a month, which was the end of year shut down
- Pre-lining inspection came in Feb 2019, there's some minor defects involving wrong positions of exhaust outlets and door furniture but nothing major
- PCI was then mid June 2019
At the PCI the SS basically said handover would be in two week's time, so beginning of July. We identified some defects but again nothing major.
However and this is what I'm frustrated about - the two weeks between PCI and handover turned into 9 weeks, and now we are in mid August and I still don't have my keys. Apparently the certifier withheld the interim OC pending site clean up and certain doors needing to be bolted shut from their height off the ground. But seriously, should this take two months to finalise?
My contract states that if the time it takes to get to practical completion exceed 43 weeks then the builder would be liable to pay us delay fees. But when I questioned Rawson about this they just said practical completion was already reached before the 43 weeks was up and they have closed out all the defects raised at PCI. I just find this a bit ridiculous if they can simply say PC was reached in an email and take their sweet time to get to handover. The two months of delays has cost me a five figure amount in mortgage and lost rental income so I want to pursue delay fees. Do you guys think I have a chance?