Day 7 - Introductions, Variations and Upgrades

Today our building customer service co-ordinator made contact which was reassuring given we're 7 days in. To be honest not too much has happened so far but I was getting a bit worried it had been a week and I hadn't heard anything and I was hoping this wasn't going to be a sign of things to come.

He was friendly and apart from introducing himself he also gave me the news that he had a variation for me to sign off on. It had 2 items....one nice, one not so nice.

1. Connection to Sewer
In the contract it specified they woudl provide a connection between the sewer and dewelling to a depth of 1500mm. Ours turned out to be 2400mm because the back of our block is higher than the front due to a slight slope. This was going to cost me a tad over $700 in additional site costs. Not much I can do about this one.

2. Kitchen Cooktop
During our selections Casey was adament that we had to have a separate cook top and oven because it looked nicer, and I tend to agree. The standard joint ovens that were on offer look more like a 4 burner BBQ from a visual perspective. The model that we initially upgraded to the 900mm Baumatic BA92SS was apparently difficult to get and had been superseed by the 900mm Baumatic BACG9033-P. Luckily there was no additional charge for this variation.

What's interesting though is that I was told by Metricon this was an upgrade and that it was $2000RRP for this over, not sure if that is in additional or in total. Initially Casey wasn't happy and wanted to ensure we weren't being downgraded. After a call to a very helpful Clive Peeters to query the 2 products I was told the RRP was actually only $1299 for both. The model we had been upgraded to was a new version of the old one and had the same features. We also managed to get the P version which is European version of the cooktop with metal knobs and an embossed label. In the end not an issue, but some interesting things to note.

Progress Update
We drove out to the block last night and noticed that the site had been marked out and we also had our electricity installed. The plan is to have the plumbing done by the end of this week and at the worst Monday next week, obviously weather depending.

The slab will hopefully go down at the end of next week if not early the following week. I'm yet to see any updates on the Metricon site for the construction phase, I'm guessing that will happen once they know a date for the slab going down.

Bank and Stamp Duty
I was contacted today by my broker regarding an additional stamp duty fee I was charged by the bank. After contacting the bank they didn't know what that charge was for and they actually noticed that instead of me owing them $600 in stamp duty they owed me $500 because they calculated my stamp duty incorrectly. I was told that because it was a principle place of residence that the stamp duty rate is lower.

After contacting my conveyancer to ask for the required information to reduce the stamp duty I was told that the stamp duty was calculated correctly because they can't apply for a Principle Place of Residency (PPR) on land. Due to this the rate was right but the additional they had charged us was incorrect. Apparently the only time we can have the stamp duty reduced is possibly when we have completed the house and a certificate of occupancy is received. Even at this point the conveyancer said that they normally won't reduce the stamp duty cost but sometimes do.

My broker is following up with the bank to have the money they debited from my account put back in but hopefully I might even get another $500 back at completion of construction.