Starting
10 Things Before You Pay The Deposit
OK you have looked round lots of show houses and found one you like. The sales representative is now asking for a $500, or more, initial deposit. Do you pay straight away?……..Well you are currently in your best position to…
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Using Friends for Building Work
Some people say “never lend a friend money”, or “sell them a car”. If things go wrong it can end a friendship! I think it might be the same with getting them to do building work for you. Reasons to…
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Understanding Title Plans
Title plans are quite a bit different to Survey Plans. The above is typically what you would see when looking at the title plan for a small subdivision. This is what it tells you about block No 2, which I…
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Easements
When I worked for a drainage contractor almost every month I have to tell people that they are going to have to take down their shed, dig out part of their raised garden bed, or take up part of their…
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Site Investigation
As part of the design and approval process of building your new house you will require a ‘Site Investigation Report’ sometimes referred to as a ‘Geotechnical Report’. For a typical suburban subdivision for a one or two storey house on…
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Building On Pipeline Easements (Or Close To)
Previous posts have talked about Sewer and Drain Easements but you build close to or over a pipe on an easement? Permission You must get permission from the owner of the easement to build on the easement. Some easement owners…
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Block Boundary Pegs
Your block location is defined by its boundary pegs. It all looks quite simple when you are looking to buy the block. You can go out to the site and see tall pegs with tape at every corner. A few…
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Soil Classification
Before you can build your new house you need to know what sort of foundation is needed, which is based on the ‘Soil classification’ Geotechnical Investigation A Geotechnical investigations is required to provide a report stating the soil classification. The…
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Restrictive Covenants
Don’t think because you buy a block you can do what you like on it! There are often restrictive covenants on land. . . . .That is “an agreement between land owners which may restrict how land may be used…
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Keeping Records – 5 things to do
My old contract management tutor at university always said that the three most important things when managing a construction contract are: Records; Records; and Records. Over 40 years in the civil engineering industry I have often reflected on the wisdom…
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