too bad, so sad :(

This feels like a terrible TV drama series.

So now the Builder is recognising our contract and the listed inclusions...apparently there was a "misunderstanding", the Home Design company tells me. What a dickhead.

He's keen to meet, but not with a mediator (alarm bells anyone?). He wants to discuss our claim for credits (and try to talk us into paying more, no doubt). We're obligated under the contract to meet (sometimes I'd sooner just push to tribunal as these discussions never go anywhere...just empty promises and lies). I think we're going to get a friend involved who deals with building contracts a lot. Maybe he can help retain some clarity during the meeting. I don't think we can afford a solicitor to attend at this stage.

In the mean time, a plumber showed up today for an hour. Woo hoo! That's the 2nd trade we've had onsite in 2 weeks. And this house is meant to be finished? What a joke. The list of items we've come up with is long. Unfortunately the Project Manager who works for the Builder is trying to narrow things down, claiming: it's too much work to repair / that's your fault / we can do this part at a later stage. Many items have fallen into the 'too bad, so sad' category...he's just too lazy to properly finish the job.

What's worse is the Project Manager claims he's unhappy with the Builder and has pulled out of another job with him. He says he'll never work for him again and he disagrees with what the Builder is doing to us in regards to our contract. Is he just playing the "good cop", or should I be ultra-thankful that he's staying on to complete our job? One thing we've learnt is that these guys lie...constantly. We're too tired to play their game (and obviously not very good at it), we had too much faith that what was agreed upon would be carried out. In any case, we need to keep our guard up.

The Project Manager asked us to write a final list of items to be completed so the Builder can issue the final progress payment. Hang on a minute...we have to come up with a defect list? We're handy but we're not professionals! I don't want to sign anything saying "all works completed" when we don't even know if all works have been completed. I wouldn't be a surprised if they were holding out on us, only to spring more additions on us later on. I called a private building inspector who specialises in new homes. 2 hours for $450 and a very detailed report showing every minor flaw - sounds worthwhile. At least we'll have a professional's view and some unbiased information to go on.

My main concern (and there are many!) is that if we sack our current Builder (as we are entitled to do under the Notice of Default): what else needs to be done by him??? What paperwork is he holding back on? Will this come back to bite us? I know it's not a valid reason to continue with him - he's done such a shitty job thus far. I'm just not sure if it's going to be more work to handover to another Builder and chase the old one up on paperwork? I'm only wishing we'd fired him as soon as things started going really down hill...about 8 months ago :(