Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Liquidated Damages 3Jul 03, 2024 2:48 pm Jai8284 Hi, I am building with one of the small builders here in south australia. He has supplied a HIA contract (not a member of HIA). as per the contract the completion date was 31st Dec 2023. I haven't received any written email from him for the extension / delay of the projects. am i eligible for liquidated damages? - For liquidated damages to apply under the HIA contract, there would need to be a specified Completion Date in the contract that has passed without the Works reaching Completion. You mention the specified Completion Date in the contract is 31st December 2023. The Builder would need to formally request and be granted an extension of time to the Completion Date in order to avoid liquidated damages applying once the date passes. If no written request for an extension has been received, you could put the Builder on notice in writing that they need to formally apply for an extension of time, providing reasons, to avoid liquidated damages. Note that some Builders are under the impression that they don't need to provide a notice of delay. You need to exclude any public holidays and wet weather. Re: Liquidated Damages 4Jul 03, 2024 2:59 pm Mox80 You need to exclude any public holidays and wet weather. you don't need to exclude days of wet weather. You exclude the block of days they've included in the contracts for inclement weather (its usually ~20), and anything over that has to follow the extension approval process, in writing, and agreed to by both parties. Often public holidays are already factored in the Build time completion too. Its not up to the home owner to work out what days it rained on and whether it impacted the trades that were due on the day that didn't show up or had to be rebooked 9 weeks later. In relation to LD, teh contract is pretty easy to understand. The issue arrises when the builders try to bamboozle clients around when "completion" occured. Contracts define completion as "built to plans and specifications" If they have to come back and do works that prevent you from moving in, then arguably the home is not complete to plans and specifications REGARDLESS of what they might try to tell you. And they will try to tell you. Some builders are getting people in for PCI 8 weeks out from hand over and using PCI date as "completion" or trying to tell people the OC is the date teh home is complete. You can do PCI and call it practical completion or get an OC, but if you need another 8 weeks to make the house habitable or able for me to move in, its not complete to plans and specifications. Re: Liquidated Damages 5Jul 03, 2024 4:55 pm ponzutwo Mox80 You need to exclude any public holidays and wet weather. you don't need to exclude days of wet weather. You exclude the block of days they've included in the contracts for inclement weather (its usually ~20), and anything over that has to follow the extension approval process, in writing, and agreed to by both parties. Often public holidays are already factored in the Build time completion too. Its not up to the home owner to work out what days it rained on and whether it impacted the trades that were due on the day that didn't show up or had to be rebooked 9 weeks later. In relation to LD, teh contract is pretty easy to understand. The issue arrises when the builders try to bamboozle clients around when "completion" occured. Contracts define completion as "built to plans and specifications" If they have to come back and do works that prevent you from moving in, then arguably the home is not complete to plans and specifications REGARDLESS of what they might try to tell you. And they will try to tell you. Some builders are getting people in for PCI 8 weeks out from hand over and using PCI date as "completion" or trying to tell people the OC is the date teh home is complete. You can do PCI and call it practical completion or get an OC, but if you need another 8 weeks to make the house habitable or able for me to move in, its not complete to plans and specifications. Let me restate key points properly
It worked for me in getting all non notified rain days removed from the builders claim, although the LDs was only $50/day 7 14755 On the day liquidated damages kicked in, I texted my SS "Good morning and happy "Today liquidated damages begins today day!" We had a little over 3 weeks claim and no… 1 10105 Thank you for your replies, I think it will be really hard going after a big builder and probably it will cost more in legal fees. 4 8454 |