Travels etc.

This post is a continuation of the long process that started in December 2011 and is still going. Here’s the link to the whole story: http://traveloga.blogspot.com/p/home-building-issues-sydney-experience.html An idea of this publication is to draw attention of people who are interested or involved in the building industry, property market, construction, property development and property management and ownership. That should help to raise awareness and to ignite conversations with relevant people in law making, business and other communities who could take this information to account when they dealing with relevant matters and think about quality of the work and of research and education. This matter is about building defects that are covered by statutory warranty, but in reality are covered by rather a joke. Well to be fair to all parties some minor defects (that are similar to paint a crack or to replace broken toilet paper roll holder) were brilliantly rectified by the resp...

Home Building Legislation Amendments - Customer: Dear Mr Builder, would it be possible to rectify the outstanding defects 1)..., 2)..., etc.? - Builder: You have been pain in the backside. Stop whining. We bent over backwards to help with your problems! Don’t contact me anymore. This is a type of conversation that happens from time to time when dealing with builders 2-3 years into the defect rectification process. Why it may take so long? Many factors affect the process. This morning a couple of my friends have shared the article " Home Building Amendment Act: Sydney apartment owners say law changes are 'draconian' ", knowing my interest in those matters. I indeed have some relevant experience . The publication by Sydney Morning Herald above has got a couple of interesting items. First, it is vivid that comments to the post contradict whatever is said by Department of Fair Trading (authority) representative and chief executive from Urban Development Insti...

With the New Year resolutions came new wave of communication with the vendor and builder regarding unresolved defects from last year. Vendor has been contacted by the owner, because: - In the contract of sale there is a clause which states that all defects should be reported within 3 months after settlement and should be repaired by the vendor (and at the vendor's expense ) within 6 months after settlement - The vendor and their relevant contacts were notified numerous times about those defects and their response has been always "all issues will be resolved" which changed to "the building came with 12 months warranty and the responsibility passed on to all owners" - The owner didn't have any direct agreements or contracts with the builder. Therefore it has been decided to work with the vendor. An email correspondence with the vendor looked like this: Owner (O): Hi, it's been two years since the defects were reported, but not ...

Today is exactly 2 months since the Department of Fair Trading inspected the unit for defects and reported to the builder to fix the issues before 18/05/2013. Majority of the work has been finished only 12/06/2013. However the builder replaced only 2/3 of the floor in the living room and said than the remaining part has got a different cause. During the rectification process they said they will replace the entire floor, because it was apparently damaged. They used a couple of tricks as they went through the "rectification" process: 1. They were very slow and said that they were waiting for proper rain to test the waterproofing. The floor in the unit was removed in half for more than a month! When the deadline was about to hit, they called the owner and said that they are ready to replace the floor, but the owner has to use home contents insurance for that. The owner refused that "offer", so the builder started yelling. However they continued with floor...