Occupation Certificate Question

And Westies! It's only 9.50 here. Early days.

 

Yeah but you guys are always in holiday mode ..

 

The Homeone Forum has quite a few threads about volume builders. However, sometimes the issues mentioned are just inexperienced people not really understanding the building process.

In others, there are legitimate concerns about quality of brickwork etc.

 

Re builder, owner, PCA and FOC. In my case, a private certifier was appointed by our builder and at each stage of the build he did an inspection and approved it. The PCA is for the builder's convenience. If we as owners tried to communicate with the certifier he just ignored us. There is no real direct communication between owner and certifier. At each stage of the build - 1. Footing, 2 Slab, 3 Frame, 4 Wet Area, and 5 Stormwater. At the end of the build, the certifier issued an interim OC so we could live in the house while other works - driveway, gardens, front fence were completed. This took more than a year. After the house is built most owners have run out of money and it takes time to get stuff like landscaping done because they have to raise a lot of capital for these works. The landscaping cost more than $80,000. We had to take out another loan. Once these things were done we notified the builder and the certifier did his final inspection. After about 8 months of constant nagging we finally got our FOC - Final Occupation Certificate. The OC is not the owner's responsibility. Who said that? That's wrong. A builder employs their own certifier because they are quicker and cheaper than using council.

 

The OWNER appoints the PCA as it is more expedient for them than going to council based on the builder's previous experience.

If you don't go for the OC, isn't it the fault of the owner? If you don't get it in a timely fashion, how are you going to hold any defect against the builder?

 

Something seems to be missing from the story. As mentioned before, a certifier has to come in each stage before the next can proceed. Lets say waterproofing for example.

The builder knows this 100%, owner may not, not everyone is so keen to know each step of building.

 

Who's accountable for the OC would be a legal question dependant on the contract. It seems Odd the builder would manage the CC and inspections then bail on the OC. Did you engage the PCA from the start?

In any chase, it's an issue that needs to be resolved ASAP

Usual mandatory inspections for house construction are:

- Slab (when all the formwork is in, before the pour - engineer and certifier to inspect)
- Frame (before ceilings and wall linings in)
- Wet areas (waterproofing before tiling etc)
- Stormwater (certifier and hydraulic engineer if applicable)
- Final inspection

As long as all the critical stage mandatory inspections were done, and only the final inspection is missing, it would be a big deal to get in touch with the certifier and get him to come in for the final and issue an OC

If private certifier won't touch it because a critical stage inspection was missed, you'll need to go down the building certificate route.

Drop me a PM if you get stuck.

Cheers