Variation dispute

Discussion in 'Development' started by peterpan, 1st May, 2020.

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  1. peterpan

    peterpan Active Member

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    Hi all,

    Included in our contract is a Specification Schedule. Our builder is interpreting it such that he is providing cheaper doors rather than those in the contract. He tells me that if I want the other doors then I would need to pay $15,000 extra and will incur a lot of delay as these doors need to be made.

    I do not want to enter into a dispute which costs me delay time. I suppose I could live with these doors but am quite annoyed in that I paid extra for these particular doors and now he is trying to get out of it on a technicality.

    Is there anyway that i can say , do what you want but I will pursue a credit later on , because you have not given me what is in the contract.
     
  2. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    Is it specified or not? The spec may say 'Hume PRE44 820 x 2040 mm door' or 'Hume PRE44 820 x 2040 mm door or equal'. The latter allows substitution.

    Did the builder's tender indicate that they had substituted materials?
     
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  3. David_SYD

    David_SYD Well-Known Member

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    Post the excerpt of how it’s written
     
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  4. Joynz

    Joynz Well-Known Member

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    $15,000 extra?

    Please take a screen shot of what the contract actually says.
     
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  5. Paul@PAS

    Paul@PAS Tax, Accounting + SMSF + All things Property Tax Business Plus Member

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    $15,000 is a lot of extra cost for doors. Specification must be pretty significant and being a special order.

    Unusual that specs arent off the shelf. eg height, width and core. Surely at some point someone said - Thats going to cost $XXX extra in the contract price to even include that specification. If the contract said - Gold thread wool carpet I would have thought not providing that carpet yes would be a credit and a requote. Variations should be both a rise and fall. If you had agreed to a extra $15K of cost the contract should have shown it so it can be varied down for the same value. But if you assumed you would get panelled hardwood solid doors and the spec sheet was hollow core thats different. Heaps of display builds have this issue. The sales job is to walk you through all specs so you include upgrades and variation for the quote and the contract specs.
     
    Joynz likes this.

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