A relationship built on trust. But not reflected in a fair and balanced contract

If you come across the "standard" HIA QC1 new home contract, just sign it... it's standard.  Whatever you do, don't ever read it... and for the proverbial Peter's sake, don't give it to a solicitor.  (*end sarcasm*)

After receiving the HIA QC1 new home contract ourselves, the first thing I did was waive our right to "cool-off" by passing it to a solicitor.  According to the laws that govern building contracts in Queensland, the act of getting a lawyer's advice about a building contract has this consequence.  AS IF you'd sign a contract worth that much money without getting legal advice.  I found out later that this is most people.

As for the contract itself, I thought a big building company, with thousands of customers (most of them happy enough) would  present us with a fair and balanced set of terms.  Why would thousands of people sign if they weren't?  The solicitor (a close friend of mine by the way) quickly corrected me by presenting me with nearly a book worth of commentary on each clause.  It became blindingly obvious, the consequences for not paying the builder on time are extremely heavy but there is little consequence if they don't meet their agreed deadlines.  You would be mistaken (I was) if you thought this imbalance could be fixed by negotiating better terms. With a threat of price increases if I didn't sign within two weeks and their flat out refusal to change anything during those two weeks of attempted negotiation I was convinced that nothing is negotiable and it was take it or leave it.

After my initial bout of despair, I calmly considered my solicitor's advice.  I found that I only had a couple major issues with the contract.  The biggest was how the builder chose to use late completion damages.  Late completion damages are a per day amount the builder has to pay if they don't finish your house on time.  It was pre-filled it with the lowest amount possible right above where it says "a GENUINE pre-estimate".  In doing this, they actually PREVENT us from claiming genuine late completion damages.  My solicitor friend said it happened all the time in the commercial contracts he had worked with and all volume builders probably do it too.  This is the reason everyone moans on the internet when their house is late.

Don O'Brien (CC By 2.0)

Anyway, even with the concerns over late completion damages we signed.  I've had a roller coaster of emotions, plenty of buyers remorse and I've lost count of how many times I re-read the contract.  I can see how some parts are there to prevent us from "punishing" the builder over petty disagreements but these push risk on to us.  (What if the bank is late with a payment, or it makes a mistake. WE are liable).  Having said that, the builder is at risk as well.  It's a fixed price contract and there is some protection against unreasonable variations.

Now that we are committed, I may as well share it with you...  we are building with Coral Homes.  Their motto is "Built on Trust" and they still have ours, despite the rocky sales process and this perverted contract.  Fingers crossed that they keep it.  Soon to appear on this blog will be, THE HOUSE to end all houses.