After 2.5 hours long discussion with the contract person at my builder's office, we finally signed the contract and made first payment (5% contract price minus previously paid deposits for council application). Never sign/initial my name so many times in a day in my whole life. Also clarified the requirement for the tiger tail thing. According to the contract person, it's mainly for the scaffolding. Will try to get that done asap.
If weather permits, we should have the excavation started in 3 weeks time. Yeah!
Showing posts with label contract. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contract. Show all posts
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
[Progress.010] Tiger Tail and final construction set drawing received
Tiger Tail
This is not about animals in the zoo :-), it's about our neighbour's power line that run across our property.
Found some explaination from the web:
tiger tails means pipe type cable covers, used as a warning to visually indicate the position of overhead power lines. Note: A tiger tail is also known as a torapoli pipe.
The builder wants us to "tiger tail tag" the neighbour's power line. Got a quote from an electrician for $2,500, which is ridiculously high. Will shop around for a few other quotes.
Update:
Found these 2 pictures from Work Near Overhead Power Lines: Code of Practice(PDF, about 1MB):
"final" final construction set of drawings received
Received the "final" final construction set of drawings from builder yesterday. All questions and issues we raised all sorted out except the ensuite door can't be changed to sliding door due to the way the shower pipes are connected.
Booked for final meeting next Tuesday and we are ready to sign the contract, Yeah!
This is not about animals in the zoo :-), it's about our neighbour's power line that run across our property.
Found some explaination from the web:
tiger tails means pipe type cable covers, used as a warning to visually indicate the position of overhead power lines. Note: A tiger tail is also known as a torapoli pipe.
The builder wants us to "tiger tail tag" the neighbour's power line. Got a quote from an electrician for $2,500, which is ridiculously high. Will shop around for a few other quotes.
Update:
Found these 2 pictures from Work Near Overhead Power Lines: Code of Practice(PDF, about 1MB):
"final" final construction set of drawings received
Received the "final" final construction set of drawings from builder yesterday. All questions and issues we raised all sorted out except the ensuite door can't be changed to sliding door due to the way the shower pipes are connected.
Booked for final meeting next Tuesday and we are ready to sign the contract, Yeah!
Monday, 18 June 2007
[Tips.006] Ask for a copy of Contract in early stages
I found a lot of people asking questions in homeone.com.au forum about the progress payment details. You can actually ask your builder for a copy of the contract in the early stages (e.g. after you paid $600 for your initial site survey, soil test, ...etc, or before paying for preparing drawing for council submission).
Most project home builders use the standard "Building Contract for New Dwellings" from HIA (this link is for NSW, other states also available). Anyone can spend $22 to get a copy. But it's the changes your builder added that makes each builder's contract unique.
Changes to Progress Payments
Using ours as example, the standard contract has 6 stages for progress payments: Floor slab complete, roof frame complete, close up complete, fixings complete, painting complete and practical completion. Our builder cross the whole lot and put in their own ones: deposit, slab, frame, roof on, lock up and practical completion, including a percentage for each stage. We don't like some of the figures and are working on it with the builder.
Other Changes
Our builder also added a few clauses here and there to protect themselve, such as:
"An automatic extension of time applies for every day a progress payment is late. No notification by builder is necessary."
"adverse weather means any rain day recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology - daily rainfall report." --> so if it rains in New Castle, our construction site in Sydney will have to stop, thanks for that!
....
The contract is in plain English, but I still recommend to find a solicitor to go through it for you.
If you can request for a copy of contract earlier in the process, you can try to work out any issues with the builder. Rather than having everything done and council approved then you are stuck and have not much bargain power in case you found some unreasonable surprises in the contract.
Most project home builders use the standard "Building Contract for New Dwellings" from HIA (this link is for NSW, other states also available). Anyone can spend $22 to get a copy. But it's the changes your builder added that makes each builder's contract unique.
Changes to Progress Payments
Using ours as example, the standard contract has 6 stages for progress payments: Floor slab complete, roof frame complete, close up complete, fixings complete, painting complete and practical completion. Our builder cross the whole lot and put in their own ones: deposit, slab, frame, roof on, lock up and practical completion, including a percentage for each stage. We don't like some of the figures and are working on it with the builder.
Other Changes
Our builder also added a few clauses here and there to protect themselve, such as:
"An automatic extension of time applies for every day a progress payment is late. No notification by builder is necessary."
"adverse weather means any rain day recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology - daily rainfall report." --> so if it rains in New Castle, our construction site in Sydney will have to stop, thanks for that!
....
The contract is in plain English, but I still recommend to find a solicitor to go through it for you.
If you can request for a copy of contract earlier in the process, you can try to work out any issues with the builder. Rather than having everything done and council approved then you are stuck and have not much bargain power in case you found some unreasonable surprises in the contract.
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