How often are things purposely excluded from contracts during volume build?
Volume builders have their own standard contracts within which they build up their own standard packages.
So when you're buying a house design off the plan, that design already has its own inclusions as a part of that contract. You can add your variations into the back of that existing contract but they already have a set outline of what you're going to get for that standard base model.
That’s where the limitations are.
They’re not designing nor building the house specific to the needs of the site, they just assume that 5 metres of a sewer deep dig will be suffice, or that there’s 10 metres of storm water and that's enough. Because those details are based on a standard lot, which is what you’re buying.
However if you were to put that standard cookie cutter house onto a block that differs from their standard that required more than a 5 metre sewer dig, then that’s a variation to your build and therefore an extra cost.
If you have to do cut-and-fill because you've got a sloping block, that's not part of that standard price either so that's a variation. If you've got to get rid of the dirt from the cut-and-fill or any excess material, that's not in the contract price either, that's a variation.
This won’t be explicitly stated in your contract.
There may be a note in there that that design may require variations but they won’t tell you the specifics, like which particular alterations might pop up or how much they’ll cost. They won’t say whether it’ll be $400 per home loan taken away or per tonne, it’s just excluded.
A lot of stuff that says “included” has a limit to it, and we're trained to stop at dollar signs. For example, if you're scanning a list of what’s in the contract and there's a dollar sign, then you'll stop and look at it. But if it says included then you can skim over it because you think, "oh, it’s okay it's included" but you're not seeing that there’s a limitation to that inclusion, and a lot of people get caught on that.
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ABOUT GIULIO RANERI
Giulio has over 23 years experience in the design and construction industry. The Company was started with the vision to change the way builders work with their clients.