Things we can't have: Swedish concrete (Husqvana Hiperfloor)

When I was researching materials to use for our new house I thought I wanted polished concrete.  Swedish polished concrete.  Boral even has this glow in the dark aggregate you can add to it .  Press play on the youtube video below if you want to watch paint dry, I mean concrete being polished. (It's not my video by the way)

Why can't we have this you ask?  Well the builder says no and they don't have to give a reason.  My guess is that it could be because the concrete needs to be 32 hards (32 MPa) for polishing otherwise it may fall apart while being polished.  This is over and above the minimum which volume builders tend to stick too. Curing time may also have something to do with it.

There is hope of retrofitting a polished concrete look by laying a small layer of 90 hards concrete over the top of the cheap stuff and polishing that.  At $120 a square meter for 13 Hiperfloor polishes and then the price of the 90 hards concrete on top of that, it's a bit too much expense at the moment.  Maybe when we hit the jackpot on the pokies we'll re-consider.

The house removal debacle.

Where did it all go wrong?

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.

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.