We finally had our contract appointment yesterday.
Received a phone call the day before to advise that the contract documents will be emailed to me and then another email will be sent 10 minutes prior to the appointment with the Zoom link to join the meeting.
Didn’t receive anything… called our BC and she called the CP (Contract Presenter) and finally discovered that the emails they sent to me were in my junk mail. So remember to check your junk mail before complaining that they didn’t send you the documents they promised.
That said though, I’m still waiting for the Kitchen Culture quote and drawings. Apparently so is everyone else. Contract is missing that entire section so I was wondering why the price seemed a little lower than I expected. They said they will allow me to still make changes to Colours, Tiles and Electrical because Kitchen Culture hasn’t provided me with a quote or drawings, which means that I may need to make adjustments to other parts depending on what I get back from KC. In a way, it’s a good thing because we get more time to think about it and to make changes despite our WoS appointment being completed almost 2 months ago.
There were also some small errors in the contract, eg. they charged double glazing twice on the same window in 2 separate sections. They added R2.7 wall insulation at a cost of over $1000 instead of the provided R2.5 wall insulation. Research shows that there is not much difference between the 2, so no reason to upgrade it to R2.7
We also asked for quotes for floor boards across the second storey and coffered ceilings in the lounge and study (again). Better to have the quote and reject it than have no quote and therefore no option. And also, we requested for provisions for taps however they are not allowed to do that as we won’t get an occupancy permit if taps are not connected in the galley and laundry. So looks like we have no choice but to go with the taps that they provide and then change it ourselves, or to pick something that they have.
Everything else looks correct. I was expecting a ton of errors, but we found only a few. I’ll probably go through it again in more detail when I get the KC drawings and quote back. They promised that we’d get it by the end of the week. Not holding my breath though since we were supposed to get it back to review over a month ago.
I’ve also started abolishing services to the house and selling the contents too. We have decided to go with Melway Demolitions after hearing some good things about them and they have provided us with instructions on what we need to do before they can come in to demolish the house. Abolishing services was the main thing, then there were other forms that I need to fill out such as Asset Protection, some notifications to neighbours that they needed to sign etc…
Our house had 4 overhead cables coming into the house from the power pole across the street. They were Telstra, Optus, NBN and power cables. So I thought I had to call each of them to get them to come in to remove the cables. Telstra quoted me over $750 to remove while Optus and NBN looked like they would do it for free. Anyway, I decided to call PhoneWorks who charged $245 to remove all 3 cables. I think Optus and NBN would have removed theirs for free despite my getting an email from NBN saying it’d cost over $400 to do.
I also saw workers from MultiNet gas today while I was there. They came to abolish the gas services and they hadn’t invoiced me. So I have no idea how much it would cost. Here’s hoping that there is no charge for it. I wonder what would happen if they invoice me and I refuse to pay… would they re-install the gas meter?
Now the only service that needs to be abolished is the electricity. Once that is done, then demolition can proceed at any time. I just need to buy the temporary fencing (which incidentally works out cheaper than renting the fencing) and set it up in front of the house. I think it’d be another 4 weeks before demolition because I only paid them the deposit a few days ago and they only apply for the demolition permit after receiving the deposit. Don’t think the timeframe will be against us though because it’s likely that we won’t sign the contract for another few more weeks the way things are going.
On the bright side, I was lucky enough to meet with my 2 neighbours today. They’re really nice people and happy that we’re going to be finally doing something with the house. It is definitely the worst house on the street. Looking forward to moving into the neighbourhood.
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