Homeowner Forum / Construction / July 2005

In a previous post 3D Peruna says...

I concur.  The builder is stalling for time.  In most cases, waiting 3-4
days to start framing is sufficient.  Backfill should wait until the
floor is on.

"Off the cuff" answers and bullshit are what get contractors in trouble
in the first place.

The most common advice that

The contractor gave them a great reason:  he flat-a.s lied to them!!!

One lie leads to two, leads to a whole pack of them.  Fool me once,
shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

If the contractor had said he'd be delayed a week, fine.  But 4-5 weeks?  
That's a long time for inactivity.  Who's picking up the interest on the
construction loan for that period?  How about other expenses incurred?

If you don't trust them at this stage

Yes, it is.  And it's the contractor's doings.

4-5 weeks of inactivity in a house construction project is not a short
period of time by any means

Schedules change, it

I agree in general, but this specific situation is totally unacceptable.  
I can't imagine that there is any kind of a clause in the contract which
allows a 4-5 week delay for the contractor's scheduling fuckups.

Thank you so much for all the informative replies! Its great to see so
many people willing to help out. As I suspected they are taking their
time. Its a very large developer, ~600 houses a year in multiple
subdivisions and they are building them in waves a few at the same
time. The whole project is delayed as it is do to permit issues which
was a total BS on the builders part. One would think and hope they
would know how to prepare and file permits properly and there were
multiple issues, most small but just going back and forth with the
county. I checked the status there every other day. There is a
completion date which already almost passed, but its open do to
unforeseen delays which these are more like intentional on the builders
part. As I'm locked to this I don't want to steer much water with the
builder, he is building our future house after all. I have heard many
good things from people that have build threw them but many told us the
main problem was delays. I can understand scheduling or nature related
delays but don't throw BS in my face. They should have been straight
about it.

We are not in a major rush as we have a comfortable existing house but
it would be nice to move in as soon as possible. One side benefit is
that we only had to pay 10% down, 10% when the roof is on and the final
80% at the closing and with the insane bobble market in the area we are
actually 'making' profit (as speculative as it is) on the existing
property while we are locked to the last years price for the
construction. Thats after subtracting all the interest paid on the
existing mortgage and the equity loan we took for the 10% down. They
did tell us 6 months from the breaking of the ground to closing, which
might be a long time but again they are going by their schedule. I
guess they will stretch as much as they can instead of trying to finish
sooner. All in all its a very nice house, in excellent area and going
by the private sale prices in that subdivisions and area around its a
great price.

Bottom line is they should have been straight about it but instead they
lied.

Again, thanks allot for all the replies, I really appreciate all the
great help.
Regards
Darius