House & Land package

[fyang1024]

I just received the house/land package contract from the builder. On the contract there are many statements saying "at Owners expense". For example, "No allowance has been made for the importation or exportation of fill. Any associated additional costs will be at the expense of the Owner if importation or exportation of fill is required to achieve minimum floor level requirements (to keep the finished flood level height)"

And on the house specifications, "G Developments Pty. Ltd. reserve the right to alter any of the above inclusions due to continuing product development or availability of items".

Is that normal? And I called my solicitor in Brisbane from Sydney and ask him to explain the contract to me. He said in QLD, Solicitor gets contract only after buyer has signed the contract. That's a bit wierd to me.

Anyone could give any guidelines for a newbie investor to buy a house/land package in QLD? What should I do when I received the contract usually?

THanks so much.

 

[poppy]

Hi fyang,

It's normal for a building contract to contain a lot of exclusions and potential extra costs. It's also normal for the contract to be weighted heavily in favour of the builder, allowing the builder to make certain changes if products are unavailable etc, but not allowing you to change anything for any reason.

Very roughly, you could probably add 10-20% to the building contract price to get the "real" price after all the exclusions and extra costs have been added.

In particular you should ask if a soil test has been done because often the building contract price will be based on optimistic assumptions. Once the soil tests come back, you usually find you are up for a lot of extra site costs on top of the "base" price.

 

[asdf]

Where is your block of land and who are you building with? If its in a developed and new estate, I would imagine theres not much you will need to do as the land developer would've cleared it all out and packed it in for you. If its a sloping and rocky block then I'd be worried.

 

[ml320]

H L packages

I disagree with poppy response regarding adding % points to final contract price. Your builder should give you a fixed price contract including specifications and inclusions list. If you make any changes during the contract the builder has the right to change price including margin. if the builder decides to change inclusions he is required to condult you as you have already signed the contract for specific inclusions.

We build approx 1250 homes per year around australia and never add any % points to the final price.

Cheers
LK

 

[Ausprop]

LK are you saying you don't use any Provisional Sums? I have found it quite common for builders just to chuck them in and say the cost will be whatever it comes in at... rarely under!

 

[casper007]

The most common reason for PS amounts on a contract is if the builder has not yet completed contour surveys and engineer reports. Usually it means they are trying to get the contract done quickly and get the buyer locked in ... then follow up with the reports and adjust pricing accordingly.

You may be able to request that you wait until these reports are in and priices fixed (via a variation to the contract) and then sign them all together.

It just depends on how their price hold policy works as to if they would wait AND hold the current price.

I would be very wary of 'Flood Plains' items listed in a contract as this could mean huge increases for additional fill, retaining walls, footing upgrades and SRP (soil Retreival Probe) testing.


As mentioned last week on your other thread ... I am always wary of a builder who won't show their address and contact information on their web site ... and then adds these clauses to their contracts ...

See how flexible they are in getting you a fixed price contract.

 

[ml320]

Definately not - if you use a good builder you should receive a fixed price contract FULL STOP. No extras and no added costs. Builders who add these extras to contracts feel that they can get away with this with some clients only.