WA Resolution Between Builder and Commonwealth Bank - Property Law Options?

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MoniqueJ

Member
8 December 2015
1
0
1
Hi,

We have signed a residential building contract with Collier Homes in Perth and are having great difficulties getting them to supply sufficient paperwork for our lender Commonwealth Bank to be willing to release the first progress payment of our construction loan.

We are discovering that Collier is about the only large builder in Perth not to include a guaranteed beginning and end date in their contract, which is the latest sticking point. There have already been several other issues due to a non-current public liabilities insurance certificate (resolved), progress payment schedule only having percentage amounts, not dollar amounts (resolved), and variation paperwork not matching the final contract price (semi-resolved)

My mortgage broker has been excellent in liaising between the bank and the finance contact at Colliers, but the managing director who has the final word on everything has today refused to supply the bank's latest request; for a variation giving the expected completion date. Colliers wrote a letter last week which stated it's expected to be "completed by July 2016" which is a month later than we expected, but the bank now wants that to be included as part of the contract. This request has been refused on the grounds that Commonwealth accepted the contract as it was when they agreed to provide our construction loan.

So it is a stalemate, with my partner and I caught in the middle and needing to get the slab laid before the Christmas month long break. What legal avenues such as in Property Law, if any, do we have to "encourage" either Collier Homes or the bank to reach a speedy resolution? Presumably it is in Collier Homes best interest to co-operate as they have completed 3 months of administrative phase work for only $2500 deposit paid to this point, so I can only assume the managing director has dug his heels in out of sheer pigheadedness. To be fair this is the 3rd time the bank has asked for further requirements, it would've saved everyone else a lot of time and inconvenience if they had of clearly stated their requirements from the beginning!

Any help on how to proceed would be much appreciated, thank you
 

Michael T

Well-Known Member
9 April 2014
151
23
454
How did you go with this?