Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building Delays Central West NSW 3Mar 31, 2022 4:01 pm Hi Beckers. We eventually ended up moving in on the 30th of October, but it did not happen easily. What I ended up doing was finding a construction lawyer that offered a free telephone consultation to have a chat with. Because we were so close to the end, he did recommend trying to sort it out with the builder as it just wasn’t worth spending money on legal costs if we could avoid it. So what I did was to send an email pointing out that we were now out of the completion timeframe stated in the contract. I also stated that I wanted an estimated finish date, as I am entitled to according to the contract. I explained that I wasn’t trying to be unreasonable and obviously I understand that delays were possible and could change that date, but in such an event I expected to be notified of the delay, which I am also entitled to according to the contract. The goal was to get everything in writing from this point forward because I felt that they would be less likely to claim a delay that they couldn’t later prove if need be. In our case they did state at the initial quote meeting that they were already familiar with the Covid delays, so they could anticipate them and just order our stuff earlier than they would normally, they didn’t do this however so then it is not really “out of their control” then. I did get a same day email back, which never happened anymore at this point, to again state that they were so sorry that it was taking so long but they couldn’t help it. Also they could not really give me a finish date because they were dependant on other contractors that were not showing up to do the work. I replied and just stuck to my guns on the request for an estimated finish date, as I was entitled to this according to the contract. I wanted them to realise that I was prepared to enforce my contract if need be, without actually having to threaten them with it. I received another email shortly after stating how upset they were with the painters because they were unaware that they hadn’t been showing up, yeah right, and thanking me for letting them know. They said that they had gotten on the phone to the painters and they would be back the next day to finish the painting and that we would be having a meeting that friday to discuss a finishing date. We were also supposed to check the plumbing fixtures and fittings at this meeting prior to the plumber installing it all. When we got to the meeting half of it was already installed though, so yeah…. The builder did state that we would be able to move in two weeks from then, and that he actually only had one weeks worth of work left but he was just playing it safe. We gave notice at our rental for the week after we were supposed to be able to move in so that we could move over multiple days and have time to clean both the new house and the rental. Not surprisingly it was another week after his two week deadline before we were actually able to move in, but I am convinced that if it wasn’t for the fact that we had to move out of our rental he would have just continued taking his time to finish. There was still some things that were outstanding to finish after we had moved in. It was only about two weeks worth of work, but he ended up taking two months to finish them too, after I had to start sending “strongly worded” email again… Sorry for the long reply but hopelfully it helps you, even if only remotely. Re: Building Delays Central West NSW 4Sep 15, 2022 1:37 pm Beckers Hello. Its a shame you have not had a response to this post as I am in a very similar position with my builder. And would love some advice! We are seeing no action on site and they are expecting us to accept delays of months. What can we say is reasonable though? At what point can they keep blaming Covid or accept that it is bad project management? Beckers - Who is your builder? Anybody know any good and reasonably priced Air conditioning contractors/companies that could install a ducted air conditioning system in the Central Coast NSW for a small… 0 10130 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 82861 In fairness nobody gave a crap about the ACCC and the gag clauses continued in the pro forma templates of a few other builders after the ACCC took on Wisdom, and more… 19 75131 |