Concerns with Residential Building contract

Reading through my building contract, i noticed that ty Builder has named me as the Person responsible for obtaining and paying for planning approval as well as stating that i am to get this done within 25 days of signing my contract.

Question is why am i being made to apply for a planning approval that i know nothing about or is this the norm ?

Secondly, i have a pre-approved loan subject to a few conditions. One of which is that the contract must be a fixed price builder contract.

Question is that the HIA contract says clearly, that the price of the contract is not fixed and may be altered as a result of a couple of conditions listed but they are generic conditions with every contract. Do i need to inform the builder the need for the contract to be fixed ?

Thirdly, the builder included some special conditions saying that the works will be deemed to have reached completion even if all the appliances are yet to be installed.

Is this normal stuff or is this something that i need to challenge ???

Lastly, do i need to engage a Lawyer to help reading the building contract ?

 

A - who knows. Sounds like you might be constructing?

A - Most fixed contracts are not entirely fixed

A- Sounds like you do need a laweyr.

 

Who is responsible for preparing the plans?
Are you required to go through council or can it be a private certifier?
What is the penalty for not achieving the approval in time?

 

Good questions to ask the licensed builder prior to obtaining legal advice. The clause concerning prac completion is very normal and reflects that they wont install appliances, HWS, garage remote and motors, AC, carpet and sometimes even some fencing, turf and plants etc until at least settlement since they WILL be stolen. My AC and HWS went in the next day early as they insisted we had to be "moving in". Thats good. If you asked they will likely say that. My house had approx 60 tradies like worker ants on the settlement day.