Would you pay for this?!?

Long story short, we extended our house, builder eFFT up and built too close to neighbours fence.

He's owned up and is fixing it at a cost (to him) of $20k. He has mentioned that he would appreciate if we could pitch in a little bit but if not, that's ok too.

He's done a great job otherwise, the house looks amazing, he was honest thought-out and he didn't overcharge us.

Question: Would you contribute anything? If yes, how much?

Reasons for contributing - He's a nice guy who owned up immediately,
His margins were small to begin with,
Paying a bit would encourage him to not cut corners,
Would also help in case anything else needs be fixed,
We also haven't had to drag him to fair trading etc which probably saved us some dollars.

Reasons for not contributing - It's not our fault at all. He's had bad attention to detail in the past too (ordered us a dishwasher when we didn't need on. We kept the dishwasher to save him the loss).

 

Ummm, it's his fault. I'd not be contributing at all, but would give him a good reference so long as he fixes everything properly, in a timely manner.

 

He shouldn't be out of pocket, his professional indemnity insurance will cover the cost.

Be nice, chip in for the excess.

 

100% agree.

 

No, I don't know the technical deets but his insurance won't cover it. At least that's what he's told us. Will check again though.

Edit: Apparently it doesn't cover him for faults. Will be a lesson to up the insurance I guess.

 

Home builders probably wouldn't fork out for PI (they may take out Public Liability, Workers Compensation, Home Owners Warranty & Contractor's Risk) but unless there's a 'need', they probably wouldn't take it out as it 'costs money'.

OFT mandated that real estate agents need to have PI, Consultants all have their own PI etc, builders probably just dodge this one and put it down to experience.

Is the builder able to submit a S96 amendment to the approved drawings? It might be cheaper to get that over the line.

 

The builder "eFFD UP".
What I'm wondering is how and why at no point it was noticed ?

Where the plans wrong, or did the builder just follow the existing building line ?

Ok, so rules about building near a boundary change over time, a house built in the 1930's might be closer than an extension is allowed to be today.

I'm sure I'd notice if the plans I've agreed to have built are different from what is being assembled in front of me !

I understand that you feel bad for the builder, contributing may help ease his burden, but what about the inconvenience to your household for a now extended period ?

Would you have given him a $5,000 bonus for doing a good job (had he not stuffed up?).
Also, can you afford to give him $5,000, or is a new lounge suite more appealing?

 

Doubt he’d have PI and not sure if it’s a PI claim?

Risks of contracting.

If he completed quicker than anticipated or managed to snag materials cheap using leftovers from another job, would he give you money off the price at the end?

 

I too agree with this.

 

I'd first check if you can still get council approval anyway. That would be the best outcome for everyone, in my opinion.

 

how did it get noticed

was a final survey required for compliance ?

 

The final survey picked it up. So going into the deets:

He was slightly unsure of where the boundary was, so he asked that we get a surveyor out to mark the boundary, which we did.

For some reason he still stuffed it up and when we checked the surveyor's report it had the correct markings on it. Builder hadn't read the report but had carried on with the work based on his conversation with the surveyor as he had tradies waiting to go. He swears that he built as per the surveyors word, but you can't argue with the report so...

We (builder) initially tried approaching council but there was no clarity on what needs to be done. We've got a second opinion who warned us that we'd have to fire-rate the whole wall, windows, this will also move the wall further closer to the fence. We'd then have to have additional compliance reports done plus get approval from the neighbour. Council may not necessarily approve even after all that.

So we decided it was best to just fix it. And seeing that work has begun today after over a year of having the issue, I think this was the quicker way.

Thanks for your responses all.