It all started with a $500 deposit taken from the middle man house remover, but I'll get back to that later.
I thought it was a good idea (it wasn't) to get a temporary power pole installed. If everything went smoothly it was going to be cheaper than paying the builder for one (things didn't go smoothly). I asked the house removal guy if it was OK if I put one out the front of the house as close to the side fence as possible. "Yes, should be no problem" was the answer. But, when he arrived on site for what had to be the third time, and saw the power pole he said "That pole is in the way, it's gotta go". $400... wasted. This should have been a warning sign.
 |
| Stage clear! |
Unrelated to the house remover was the screw up by or electricity retailer. I called them up and asked them to cancel the temporary pole and just disconnect the electricity. "Yes sir, that's all booked in with Energex!". Energex has 20 business days to do a disconnection, but the experience of others was that it was usually done within 7. 15 days later, it wasn't done and I called them up to see if there was any issues. Luckily I did check up on them, because there was. "Your order to disconnect was cancelled due to the existing order to move it to a temporary pole". WHAAT? The disconnection date on the sale agreement was less than 20 business days away. If we had to re-request the disconnection, I wouldn't be able to live up to my end of the contract I had with middle man house remover (not that it mattered in the end anyway). I made it clear to them that a large amount of money could be at stake. They went through their phone call records and worked out they had indeed screwed up and said they wold pay for an accelerated disconnection (they didn't offer by the way, I demanded it). A month later I get my final bill and the accelerated disconnection cost is on there (malice? incompetence?). I call them up again, and again they go through their phone call records, and again they admit they were wrong and then re-issue an amended bill for the correct amount.. Whew, SOLVED! That was minor.
Back to removing the house... As I said in a previous post, we couldn't get trees trimmed in our street and re-negotiated a lower price for the house, and then down to a dollar in exchange for clearing the block. In hindsight I really should have ended it with this guy and not re-negotiated.
Now we are back to where we left the house removal story hanging, before we got distracted by the building story. A small amount of concrete was left over after the initial site clean up. I called the house removal guy at least twice a week for 2 months asking when it will be done. The excuses I got were "They were supposed to be there yesterday" "They'll be there tomorrow" "Rain". Excuses like this for two months! Just before I terminated the contract I called him again and asked would he pay for it if I got it done? " As long as it's less than $500" he says. He continues "You took that $500 deposit and you'll keep it as cream won't you." He purposely left $500 worth of work and mucked me around for TWO MONTHS. We could have sorted it all out if he brought this up TWO MONTHS EARLIER.
Not that it is any kind of win, but I got the last bit taken away myself in the end, for less than $500.
Lessons learned and things to try if we are silly enough to do it all again.
- Sell the house for money with a sales contract. Don't exchange the house for services.
- If the house is not gone by the "gone by" date, give the deposit back, and sell it to someone else. Ensure the contract of sale clearly states that this is what will happen AND they are not entitled to payment for any work they have performed in preparation (asbestos removal etc).
- Warn the buyer when the "gone by" date is coming.
- Make sure the money is received before the house is taken away and remember, a cheque can bounce.
- Engage a demolition contractor for removing what's left of the house separately. Use the QBCC demolition contract if possible. If not, check the proposed contract against it.
- Engage a builder as though everything will be completed on time according to the contract. You're only entitled to costs incurred due to late completion, and if you dilly dally, their will be no costs, just wasted time. (you've also got ensure unnecessary costs are not incurred)
- The council needs an asbestos clearance certificate for the SITE, not the house.
