People who don’t work in the building industry every day might wonder what we mean by that headline. After all, a contract is a binding agreement, right?
While thankfully it is becoming less common, there are still builders who ‘go to contract’ knowing full well that the price in the contract is not correct.
We became aware of one such case in Bargara very recently.
The builder apparently has a policy of pricing all builds on an ‘M’ soil type. The ‘M’ stands for moderate so it’s kind of a bet each way if you were quoting based on a guess at what the soil type on the block is going to be.
However, this builder had already completed several homes on the same street and should have known that the soil test would not come back as ‘M’, and therefore more money would be required to prepare the block and set foundations.
Not surprisingly, after the contract was signed and the building was about to commence, the owners were told by the builder that they would have to pay additional site costs of around $10,000.
Nobody wins when things like this happen.
The builder needs more money and won’t hand over the keys to the completed home until all ‘extras’ are paid and the clients have to find the extra money somewhere. While we can’t (and wouldn’t) say who the builder is, you can be sure that client will be telling all their friends about the experience, so the builder has done their reputation no favours.
How to Make Sure the Contract Price Is the Actual Price
For a start, in most cases, we conduct a soil test before we do the quote, so this scenario doesn’t happen.
We also strongly suggest that you make sure all major issues are covered prior to signing a contract. We aren’t talking about an extra power point or two. Some of the items you should be ticking off as locked in at the time of contract include soil type, wind speed rating, bushfire code compliance, and site works outside the standard allowed to name a few.
Of course, we always encourage you to talk to a few builders before making a decision. If you include us at Bundy Homes on your list, we will make sure the contract we offer is a genuine fixed price and covers everything to the standard required.