Slope difference - Extra Costs

Hey guys,

I have recently purchased a land and home package and construction is about to commence.

I was just informed that the developer's estate engineering of 500mm slope differs from the building company's assessment of 1.2m.

As a result, this slope resulted in considerable timber retaining walls along the side boundaries and two within the rear yard plus 9 x concrete bored piers to front corner of slab plus a rock retaining wall at front as part of front landscaping.

As a result, the building company is now asking for an extra 12,000.

I am super stressed about this as I don't have the finance for such a thing and I feel super annoyed as this is not within the tender.

Any ideas re the above?

Thank you

 

Read your contract very carefully and pay extra attention to any provisional sums and costs which aren't fixed. See exactly what is included in your build cost/site works. Did you have a lawyer look over the contract?

 

"Site costs". Can vary enormously. I know many buyers will get a site checked prior to buying it to ensure its not a problem site. For unreg land its a bigger issue and there should be a specification in the H&L contract. Was there ? Some builders will offer a fixed price for site costs too on their own land devs.

When buying H&L OTP its wise to request a fixed price as the vendor of the land is also the builder. Many project builders use it as a selling feature. For those that dont it should be a warning.

 

Yes, fix costs. That won't be the last variation. The best you can probably do is make some noise so they'll think twice when estimating their next one.

Also, not that I know anything about your site but based on having done a retaining myself on a sloped block, it's expensive. $12k might be a pretty fair/at cost price. Ask them if they put builder margin on variations and if so how much. Yep should all be in your contract - prime cost items vs. fixed, builder margin etc.

 

This absolutely can make a difference. I've noticed when I'm slightly more passive at accepting costs they don't hesitate to stack it on. When I make a huge deal out of it etc it somehow gets reduced ( or other cheaper creative options are suddenly on the table) and subsequent variations are usually minimal.