We Are Waiting...

When ever it comes down to waiting we feel the pinch after all we are renting at the moment. And when things move, we feel satisfied.

So here we are, waiting for Metricon to start the site preparation... We are pretty hopeful that after the Easter holidays Metricon will gear up. We need to be introduced to our Site Manager (SM) as well and we are anxiously waiting for that. I am sure a lot depend on the SM as he is the one who will drive the whole show.

Our Experience with Metricon Till Now...

Our experience with Mericon has been pretty good till now. Looking at the timeline, it looks to be a bit slow process, but as a matter of fact a lot goes into the planning phase. Plus any interaction with council takes time as it goes in a queue. We had a few hurdles on the way related with the neighbour's tree prunning, hydroulics, storm water management and council levy issues. I think there are processes in place, but they could be refined a lot to make the things go faster, afterall time is money here. But having said all that, the crux of the whole thing is that one should be persistent in getting the issues resolved.


Some people have impressed us tremendously with their work ethics and Metricon does have some people and there is no doubt about it. Rachel Ademi has been a sheer delight to work with and she has always impressed us with her unmatched professionalism and attention to detail. We really appeciate all her efforts into streamling all our plans and variations. We are sure that she would be working on quite a few clients projects, but we always felt as we were always first in the queue. That shows how much committed Rachel has been over the last few months. We think that we were lucky to have her as our support personnel from Metricon. Thanks heaps Rachel...

All Plans Finalysed and Acceptance Letter Signed

The plans had to be revised and finalised based on all the 10 variations we have opted for till now. METRICON was very prompt in finalising the plans. And thus the final acceptance letter was signed by us and was provided to METRICON. The plan revision was done quite meticulously covering all the changes that we had opted in the last two three months including the internal colour schedules and other changes internally.

Now the exciting part of building should start happening soon.
Till now we have had very good experience with METRICON and let us hope that we have it in the future months as well.

The Tree is Pruned at Last!!!

So the tree is pruned at last! What a relief! This saga has been going on since end of early Dec actually. Although it is a total failure of the council's system, still there is a little hope because of the tree being pruned at last. It took at least two and half months to get it done. The amount of time spent on trying to convince the council has been tremendous. Since the tree was in my neighbour's property, it added to our woes. The biggest lesson was that I should have started for this long time ago. That is why they say sometimes, multi-tasking helps!!! I never could conjecture that it might be that tedious job.
Anyway, since it is done, we are relieved and hope that now we could start thinking of the next steps.

So this is a big hurrah for all of us who invested so much energy into it. Our Tree Lopper has done a very good job and I would highly recommend him for anyone who needs a person that could be relied on. Here are his details:
Geoff Ashton
Mobile: 0488 222 061
e-Mail: geoff@sydneytreeremovals.com.au

Local Amenities Improvement Levy

Section 94 Indirect Development Contributions

In accordance with the provisions of the Sevtion 94A(1) of the Environment Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and The Strathfield Indirect Developmebt Contributions Plan 2010-30, a contribution has to be made to the council. If a Quantuty Surveyor report is not provided then based on Rawlinson's Costruction Cost Guide, the council determines this contribution which is almost the double the amount. And as a result, the owner is bound to produce the Quantity Surveyor report. 

This levy is 1% of the total build cost of the house. Now there is a contention here between the builders and the council. According to the builder this amount should be the total contract price which has been signed between the builder and the owner of the house. But on the contrary according to the Council, this figure should be the total cost of the build including all the internal variations. Just to make it worse the council makes it mandatory now to provide them the cost estimate of all the build costs in the form of Quantuiy Surveyor report which should be certified by a registered Quantity Surveyor who should be prescribed by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and  they should be members of the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors. Now this is costly affair as it costs money for that kind of report and also does not make sense if someone is ready to show all the variations and the contract prices. I was willing to show and produce all the contracts signed by us 

with METRICON, but Council had its own agenda and we were asked to produce the Quantity Surveyor report. This is something like one wants to prove TRUTH to be the TRUTH. I am sure that all these contracts signed by the both parties are legally bound contracts and should be considered as such. This is another example of council's hard handedness... But having said all this, I presume they are making rules so that the costs are not shown under and there is another check on if there is any costs which could not be justifiable by the builders. 

I hope it will be sorted out when we are able to produce the report. 

If anyone else is in the same situation, here is our Surveyor's details:

Steve Lunniss

Steve Lunniss BSc (QS) MRICS AAIQS

Director

TSL Project Services Pty Ltd - Chartered Quantity Surveyors

Phone - 1300 792 360

www.tslprojectservices.com.au