We have walked into the worst deal of our life!! All I can do is try to get the powers that be to get us out of this horrible mess ...
Basically we have a contract on a house to settle Monday coming (24th November) this house was in building stage and we put the contract on about 1/2 way through construction.
At the point of putting the contract on the house, we didn't get to see much as the house was still being built, and there was no point getting a building inspector out at that point as there really was nothing to inspect (and it passed all the council regulations ... at that point)
Anyhow, the property is now in the last few days before settlement, it has only just been finished enough to get a building inspector to come through and give his verdict ... It breaches over 170 building codes of the Australian Standard
that he can see alone, and in his 15 + years of working as a building inspector has never seen a house this bad. So many bad things to mention it is not funny!! The list goes on, but the worst is that the house is out by 30mm in the brick, the roof is bowing, window frames are breaking, doors are not sliding, window sills are on a major lean, the kitchen bench is out of whack by 110mm (yes 110mm) the stairs are timber they have severe damage, there is over cutting and under cutting of the plaster, the wiring in the roof goes against Australian Standards and is placed over other tubes in the roof that it shouldn't be near (particularly the heater vents) and this is only just getting started.
Any how, the property apparently has been issued with a certificate of occupancy, and our building inspector is protesting how this could of been issued.
As the vendors solicitor has only replied today (for the first time is 42 days of a 45 day settlement) at 4:30pm (mind you) the building inspector called the builder direct. This so called company hides behind telephones and the owner of the company (a female) has never been to the house, nor has she any interest either, received a phone call from our wonderful building inspector (who has been the best - need a reference, just ask!!) called and started asking her about why the problems are so bad etc etc and her rebutle, 'oh what makes you think you are qualified, who are you? he promptly replied, I am a VCAT registered building inspector. After that she hung the phone up on him, called the REA and asked where he was from etc etc. I received a call and basically said, well if she didn't hang up, then she would of got his full details.
Anyway, after writing a 6 hour + long report, that took 3+ hours to get all the information he wanted (although he said, it should be condemned immediately, but he will fill it out to make sure we get our $$ worth) after informing our surveyor of the problems, she flat out didn't believe what we were going through, until she was called by the building inspector. They correllated a letter of discontinuement of the contract and sent it through to the vendor and their solicitor the builder called our surveyor and said that they will have their own building inspector out first thing on Monday morning. We (as in me and my partner) are not concerned in this at all, simply because they too will find the same problems and will report on them. If they fail to, then our building inspector will have the building commissioner out on site immediately on Monday to shut that site down.
Now, all of this sounds ok, if you have 'SUBJECT TO BUILDING REPORT' however our REA wrote the contract and despite we asking him to put this in he convinced us not to bother as 'IT WAS A NEW HOUSE' WTF were we thinking at this point. (As stupid as it sounds my partner really liked the house, the area etc and he wanted to sign the house up as this was our dream home) and this vital point is missing. So basically we are screwed...
Last conversation between the builder and our building inspector went a long the lines of 'if the don't want the house thats good it doesn't suit us to sell the house to them (as in us)' so by the sounds of it, with a little pressure with a visit from the building commissioner will shut them up very quickly and will get us our money back from the deposit and cancel us from this contract. I don't want to walk away from the contract, I want to run, far far away!! Bargaining is not an option, the only option said by the building inspector is to pull the whole house down and start again. What makes this more worrying is that this building inspector has a lot to loose to start slandering the builder in front of other and especially to the owner of the company as if he was found to be wrong he could get sued big time over everything he has said. So for him to say this is a big statement. I guess no one will ever understand the severity unless they were experiencing it first hand and had the report in your hand.
The final report will be in my inbox by Monday, which is going to be a sad day for us! Going thru this has put us under un-needed financial strain! We purchased all of our furniture and it should be delivered on Tuesday morning, so Monday morning is going to be hell!!!
I guess I am not asking a question, more getting a vent off my chest!!
Basically we have a contract on a house to settle Monday coming (24th November) this house was in building stage and we put the contract on about 1/2 way through construction.
At the point of putting the contract on the house, we didn't get to see much as the house was still being built, and there was no point getting a building inspector out at that point as there really was nothing to inspect (and it passed all the council regulations ... at that point)
Anyhow, the property is now in the last few days before settlement, it has only just been finished enough to get a building inspector to come through and give his verdict ... It breaches over 170 building codes of the Australian Standard
that he can see alone, and in his 15 + years of working as a building inspector has never seen a house this bad. So many bad things to mention it is not funny!! The list goes on, but the worst is that the house is out by 30mm in the brick, the roof is bowing, window frames are breaking, doors are not sliding, window sills are on a major lean, the kitchen bench is out of whack by 110mm (yes 110mm) the stairs are timber they have severe damage, there is over cutting and under cutting of the plaster, the wiring in the roof goes against Australian Standards and is placed over other tubes in the roof that it shouldn't be near (particularly the heater vents) and this is only just getting started. Any how, the property apparently has been issued with a certificate of occupancy, and our building inspector is protesting how this could of been issued.
As the vendors solicitor has only replied today (for the first time is 42 days of a 45 day settlement) at 4:30pm (mind you) the building inspector called the builder direct. This so called company hides behind telephones and the owner of the company (a female) has never been to the house, nor has she any interest either, received a phone call from our wonderful building inspector (who has been the best - need a reference, just ask!!) called and started asking her about why the problems are so bad etc etc and her rebutle, 'oh what makes you think you are qualified, who are you? he promptly replied, I am a VCAT registered building inspector. After that she hung the phone up on him, called the REA and asked where he was from etc etc. I received a call and basically said, well if she didn't hang up, then she would of got his full details.
Anyway, after writing a 6 hour + long report, that took 3+ hours to get all the information he wanted (although he said, it should be condemned immediately, but he will fill it out to make sure we get our $$ worth) after informing our surveyor of the problems, she flat out didn't believe what we were going through, until she was called by the building inspector. They correllated a letter of discontinuement of the contract and sent it through to the vendor and their solicitor the builder called our surveyor and said that they will have their own building inspector out first thing on Monday morning. We (as in me and my partner) are not concerned in this at all, simply because they too will find the same problems and will report on them. If they fail to, then our building inspector will have the building commissioner out on site immediately on Monday to shut that site down.
Now, all of this sounds ok, if you have 'SUBJECT TO BUILDING REPORT' however our REA wrote the contract and despite we asking him to put this in he convinced us not to bother as 'IT WAS A NEW HOUSE'
WTF were we thinking at this point. (As stupid as it sounds my partner really liked the house, the area etc and he wanted to sign the house up as this was our dream home) and this vital point is missing. So basically we are screwed...Last conversation between the builder and our building inspector went a long the lines of 'if the don't want the house thats good it doesn't suit us to sell the house to them (as in us)' so by the sounds of it, with a little pressure with a visit from the building commissioner will shut them up very quickly and will get us our money back from the deposit and cancel us from this contract. I don't want to walk away from the contract, I want to run, far far away!! Bargaining is not an option, the only option said by the building inspector is to pull the whole house down and start again. What makes this more worrying is that this building inspector has a lot to loose to start slandering the builder in front of other and especially to the owner of the company as if he was found to be wrong he could get sued big time over everything he has said. So for him to say this is a big statement. I guess no one will ever understand the severity unless they were experiencing it first hand and had the report in your hand.
The final report will be in my inbox by Monday, which is going to be a sad day for us! Going thru this has put us under un-needed financial strain! We purchased all of our furniture and it should be delivered on Tuesday morning, so Monday morning is going to be hell!!!
I guess I am not asking a question, more getting a vent off my chest!!
