Building Law Changes to Create Stronger Protections

A new bill introduced in Victoria’s Parliament will provide stronger domestic building protections to avoid costly disputes. A "one-stop shop" will make it mandatory for builders and consumers to work together to resolve building and renovation disputes.

The domestic building dispute resolution service will be run by Consumer Affairs Victoria, and both homeowners and builders will be required to attend hearings when a complaint is made.

Key points:

•           Mandatory conciliation for builders and homeowners

•           Independent advice sought to resolve disputes

•           Builders not allowed to employ their own surveyors

•           Warranty insurance changes expected in 2016

A report from the auditor-general in May found 28 per cent of Victorians had problems with building and renovations, and the current system did not "adequately protect consumers".

That was a massive problem in an industry worth $28 billion a year, Planning Minister Richard Wynne said. "When you hit a snag it's often a big one and when you think that your home is often your most precious asset and indeed most expensive asset, we wanted to ensure we got the system right".

Site Start !

Site start was booked in for Thursday December 3. Sure enough, when I checked this morning, there had been developments. The temporary fence in in place, a dumpster has been positioned on the nature strip, a site scrape has been performed and a portable toilet has appeared. I wonder if the brand name of the portable is designed to instruct its users.

Solsbury Field is now abuzz with building activity happening on many blocks on the eastern side of the estate.

The Site Plan

Here is a copy of our site plan. As you can see, the outer wall of the garage is located on the northern boundary. This leaves about 3m between the northern wall of the house and the boundary. The distance between the southern wall of the house and the south boundary of our property is approximately 1.2m. There are 6m between the back wall of the house and the rear boundary of the block.

The paving for the outdoor area,,porch and garage has been included in the main slab. To facilitate use of a wheelchair, ramping to floor level will be provided at the front and back entrances and the door sills will be recessed into the slab. There is an additional 31sqm of paving for the driveway and path. 

A Two Storey Next Door !

It was always on the cards but we were hoping against hope that it wouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, our fears were confirmed today when it became evident that the neighbours to the north are building a two storey house. Indeed, a quick look at the Porter Davis site indicates that they are building the Granada 23 or 24 This will obviously impact on the amount of sun we receive. However, my rough calculations below indicate that the impact won’t be that bad. Also the Grenada only has a total length of 16M so the family room, outdoor living and rear garden won’t be shielded from the sun at all.

The southern side of the neighbour’s house will have an approximate height of 5m. This wall appears to be approx. 3.5M from our boundary. The northern wall of our property is approximately 3M from this boundary. The horizontal distance between our northern wall and the neighbour’s southern wall is therefore 6.5M. For the sun to reach the base of our northern wall it must be at an angle A where : sine A = 5/8.2 = 0.61. So A = 37 degrees. (8.2M is the hypotenuse of the triangle with sides of 5M and 6.5M.) The following site advises that for Melbourne the maximum daily angle of the sun varies from 28 degrees in winter to 76 degrees in summer. http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/solar-angle-calculator.html

Assuming an even variation in the angle of the sun across the year then it will not reach the base of our northern wall for approximately 9 weeks in mid-Winter. I think we can live with that.

Waiting for Site Start

It had been four weeks since my last contact with Orbit, so I sent an email on Thursday asking for an update. They advised that the ordering process was not yet complete but should be finished mid next week. All going well, site start should be some time during the week commencing November 30. So it looks like it will be a full six weeks from the day building permit was issued and the day the build actually commences.

The build time to the Christmas break will be 2.5 to 3 weeks. Hopefully this is sufficient time to complete the slab.

Home Loan Interest Rates

Take a look at the mortgage comparison sites and it’s clear that the most competitive home loan offers in the market are all from the smaller lenders. Indeed, my land and construction loan is through one of these smaller lenders, the Heritage Bank -a former Building Society based in Toowoomba, Queensland.

Last week I read with some concern that the smaller lenders had decided to follow their larger counterparts and increase interest rates. “These smaller lenders, who write around 20 per cent of mortgages, have opted to improve profit instead of market share by following the majors' rate hikes in varying degrees, citing capital imposts still well above the big banks.”

However, when I checked the Heritage Bank website I was pleasantly surprised to find that their base home loan rates had not increased. Indeed they had introduced a special offer of 3.98 % for new customers, a discount of 0.56% on their base rate. They had a similar offer this time last year when I applied for my land and construction loan.

Our Plan

In this current hiatus while the building materials are ordered and a site start is set, I thought take look at our house plan, The plan for our house as documented in the building contract is shown below below:

It really is the standard Balwyn 196 design with a few minor tweaks.

These are :

• The ensuite has been extended 300mm into Bedroom 1 to accommodate a wider shower and provide extra room to manoeuvre a wheelchair.
  
• A wider shower in the en suite with a curtain rather than a door – to make entry and transfer from a wheelchair easier.
  
• A door between the family/kitchen area and the entranceway and a sliding door between the family/kitchen area and the rear passageway. This is to allow us create a closed off area of suitable size for the air-conditioner in the family room to cool.
  
• Wider doors to Bed1, the Garage, the Laundry, and the two new doorways to the family/kitchen area and the toilet.
  
• Toilet door opening outward.