Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jan 14, 2012 1:10 pm We have entered into a contract in september 2010 with end date march 2011 in march they said the building will b completed in june in june they the house was half complete and they sent a variation of 277,000 as final payment addition to contract price ( thoug the house was half complete) we have spent 120 thousands extra engaging contractors ourselfs and paying them directly which they accepted as they said they didnot have money to finish everything , we had to accept because we wanted to move into the house the ysaid it will be 1 more month to finish and in december they said a variation again for the works which was not even signed by us and we have proofs in writing that we have engaged subcontractors and getting works done they didnot respond back in dec house was complete except flyscreens and swimming pool , they again claim for 96000 claim (4600 accodring to final payment and 40000 relating to variation and they have deleted the pool them selves which was in contract basically ) we went to lawyers and drafted a letter asking them to finish the work and handover practical completion , after 4 weeks they didnot respond our lawyers asked them to do the same finish the work and give the practical completion they didnot respond in writing but she called the lawyer and said the are not working according to contractual terms , our lawyers gave them notice that they have breach the contract for not finishing in march and asking for more money and not finishg wat have been in the contract and they advised us to move ito the house which we did and the builder comes in gets a locksmith and opens the keys we called the police she called her police friends and the police has kicked us even without checking the evidence that they are our builders and our contract is terminated now they have posession of the property for which they have literally not spent any thing we have been kicked out saying about safety issues ????? is that right in december she wrote to us that building has passed practical completion and now they say it doesnt comply to safety issues??? CAn someone throw some light into this matter as legal advice have been not in help for us ( is this the way police treat us??? Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 2Jan 16, 2012 2:21 pm Sounds extremely messy and not something that we can give you advice on. I'd stick with dealing with your lawyer to resolve issues and get in touch with your state Building Commission for further advice. Hope your nightmare comes to an end soon Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 3Jan 16, 2012 10:12 pm It became completely messy now the lawyer suggests fighting in court and which would cost us 15000 dollars just to take possesion if we loose we might loose the house until we finish the case and pay their legal expenses too if we win we may get possesion but still have to fight the case for certificates... Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 4Jan 24, 2012 8:19 pm go to the media perhaps ? messy situations like this often get resolved when the media and a wider audience becomes involved. Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 5Feb 01, 2012 9:56 am If it was me I would be moving right back in, and asking my lawyer to write a scary looking letter to post on the inside of the front window, explaining that you will sue any locksmith who allows access to the house. And I would put internal latches on all the doors too. Since it's a 2 storey house you could also put large warning signs up high explaining that the contract is terminated and the builder has no right to enter the property. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 7Feb 02, 2012 10:48 am Wow, sounds like you are having a horrendous experience. Can you get a second opinion from a lawyer - did your first advise come from a specialist property lawyer? I wish you all the best in resolving this situation. Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 8Feb 02, 2012 10:38 pm We have done everything we have to do and the lawyer we r dealing is the best building dispute lawyer in town , we have filed our case in supreme court for posession of property as owners waiting for the hearing ,hope god is seeing all this and would help us to get out of this situation . Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 9Feb 15, 2012 11:38 pm Keep us updated, I would be interested to know what the builder comes back with. Good luck. -Ally Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 10Feb 29, 2012 10:07 pm Just won the case today for posession of the house but they have asked for 2 days stay ,will have to see what they will come up with this time , if everything goes well ,hopefully we wld be in our house by Friday ...plsssssss wish us luck........... Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 11Feb 29, 2012 10:32 pm Good luck dude..... what an ordeal Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 12Mar 01, 2012 11:09 am all the best....i'd hire a security firm or something to keep watch over house in case the others get vindictive. Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 13Mar 01, 2012 1:27 pm Good luck! And so you should have possession - it's always been your land, they were only allowed to use it under the contract, which is now terminated. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 14Mar 01, 2012 1:33 pm Good luck .. and great result!! For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 15Mar 02, 2012 4:48 pm Our bad!!! We won the case and now they have appealed for judge and extension of stay until the case is heard . Which would not happen before may , I dont understand how the law is so much leaned to people who are so unrealistic we have offered 60000 now to resolve this but these people are now seeking 160000 even more than the first time they claimed , we have nothing but to go forward with this situation... Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 16Mar 02, 2012 5:41 pm Wow this is so unfortunate Asdfghjkl, I hope it works out a LOT better for you. Maybe you can counter claim for stress/rent etc? Not too sure about how the law works though. Maybe you should get in touch with Today Tonight! Seriously! This sounds like a story and a half. Oct 10 - Council Approval Oct 23 - Site scrape Oct 29 - Footings and Prelay OCT 30 - Slabbed Nov 6 - Bricks Delivered Nov 13 - Brickwork started Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 17Mar 17, 2012 11:09 pm This is very messy. You will need someone with extensive experience to help you sort out the mess and prepare you for technical aspects of the dispute and to sort out wheat from chaff. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 18Mar 19, 2012 8:24 pm Don't know what state you are in... Also cannot give legal advice. That said my father was a registered master builder with whom I was in partnership for 20+ years so I have some experience with both problem builders and problem clients. There are always 2 sides to every story. Eventually the courts will sort it out but the only winners will be the lawyers. Be very wary about variations payments beyond the agreed contract price is my advice. We once came across a situation where a friend came to my father for advice because he was in dispute not unlike your own situation, with his builder. After much investigation it turned out - the builder in question was running quite a scam... Essentially there were 5 people, (2 husband and wife couples and a third man) in a complicated business partnership arrangement where 3 of the 5 would register a $2 company building business together, then another groyup fo 3 would register a second $2 building co with a similar name, and so it went round and round in circles they had at least 5 such companies registered ahead by the time ASIC caught up with them. This was the scam... They would build about 12 or 16 or so houses to almost lock up stage, and then bankrupt that company so that non of the finishing trades got paid. Their bankruptcy lawyers would send out letters asking the owners to agree to the next registered similar sounding company (with a different mix of directors) to complete the houses, for a varied completion price of an extra $150K or so! The home owners could not get access to their new homes on their land, until handover - so no title to the house against which to secure the mortgage - what do you do? Many just signed for the new company to finish off at the vastly inflated price. The company directors were making a killing - they didn't have to pay about $100K to the finishing trades (we were one of these - we had installed a $20K new kitchen, which the builder commissioned from us on the day the company was put into receivership - which is illegal in itself). Also they were getting an extra $150K to complete the house as the new company! They were making about 16 x $250k - every time they rolled one of these company's over into bankruptcy. This one owner came & saw my Father for advice before signing the new deal.. The result was he did not sign, and being independently wealthy - he put lawyers onto researching all the directors etc and uncovering the plot/scam that was being perpetrated. His lawyers gave all the research to ASIC and the 5 company directors (mostly from NZ) all went to jail eventually albeit not for a very long stint considering what they were up to. Anyway my father advised that there is a builders registration board insurance fund that all registered builders contribute a %age of every contract value into to insure against builders who go bankrupt to allow the houses to be completed by other builders. The owner made a claim against the builders registration board insurance policy - and an assessor came out, and basically agreed to a quote to complete the house at a price inflated to ensure there was enough to pay all the local finishing trades who were owed money as well as rectify all the faulty workmanship and incomplete works. The assessor knew it was an inflated quote BUT he said the standard of work on the other 16 or so houses under dispute was so bad that some at almost lockup stage had to be demolished back to slab and start again - the tradesmen who built these homes were unqualified hammer hands from NZ basically! So the builders registration board insurers were happy to get out of this particular house for the cheap cost quoted. The 5 company directors went thru the ringer with ASIC and did some time. The guy got his house completed - we got paid for our outstanding kitchen and picked up all the completion work as well. In the end it worked out all right for the owner and us but only because my father knew how to get around the issue... technically it was probably a little tricky how it was done but the insurer and owner were happy with the result - the 5 directors who set up the scam not so. The thing is -with real estate agents hiring builders and using their builders registration so they can become "developers" and start these land developments - these types of scams are rife within the building industry nowadays. Quite simply, often you are not dealing with an actual builder - you are dealing with a developer / real estate agent, who at signing of the contract for a house and land package takes out the land purchase costs and also the profit from the house upfront and hands the hired builder a set of plans and a set figure amount to built the house - in which there is no "fat" or "profit" left for the builder - the margins for the builder are miniscule. What this means is that when problems occur with the house during construction - the builder has no margin left to correct bad tradesman-ship or replace faulty materials. So you get these disputes - where the builder has no wiggle room at all and as a result he is hard nosed to deal with. Welcome to the building industry no longer run bye builders but instead run by company directors developers and real estate agents! But people want to buy their house these days at a "display village" from the real estate agent... No one goes to a builder these days and has plans drawn and signs a contract with a builder any more. These developers and real estate agents, get deals from the banks for loans mortgages and also from the materials suppliers for bulk material purchases - that a sole trader builder cannot compete with price wise. I guess I can spill the beans my old Rgd Master Builder Father is long since dead - not one can sue him for telling the truth any longer. You gets what you pays for these days and many many people in the "building industry" aren't actually builders and largely seem to be shysters essentially. That's of course not fair on those who are good and have been in the industry all their lives and do a good job. I guess it is a case of caveat emptor. For the original poster - I hope you aren't involved in a similar type of scam to the one described above - it sure sounds from your description that the possibility exists. Maybe the same 5 are out of jail bye now and back to their old tricks again. If I were you, I wouldn't sign for the variations, I'd contact the Master Builders association in your state and inquire about making a claim against their insurance fund! Keen to hear how you end up! Cheers! Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 19Mar 30, 2012 9:46 am Thank you all for your advises and concern .we have settled the issue with the builder paid them 75000 dollars and got our occupancy certificates , we realized no one was winning here other than the lawyers we spent initially 20000 for lawyers and for the appeal they asked us for other 25000 which is not the main case this is just for posession !!!so we thought rather than dragging this issue for next 2 yrs it's betteer we pay them and we could b saved from lawyers fee every time we talk to lawyers they charge 450 dollars per hour so if it goes for 2 yrs imagine how much loss we wld b in and also paying the mortgage rent council taxes electric bills no maintainence at home all this made us decide to pay the builder who also agreed to that amount as he lost the case they we bit shaken they have to hire barIsters for the appeal and which was also costing 2000 dollars per day so they have come down for compromise as well .now we are in our home slowly getting back to normal and settling down . I would post the pictures of our home shortly. Re: Breach of contract ,termination by lawyers ,police dispu 20Mar 30, 2012 3:23 pm oh i am sure many on here will be sooo relieved for you [cant imagine your joy and relief you must feel to have legal occupation]. hope it all gets better from here on in. CONGRATS I've decided, after a period of confusion (my building broker told me it's probably not worth it to use a lawyer, but others have said it is a must) that I definitely will… 7 27917 I believe this is correct. From the picture you can see the power was put in last so the electrician knew where the water was. Really it's a common sense issue more… 4 5148 yes it does, you've just not understood it. theres a difference. 4 5314 |