Across Melbourne, thousands of construction companies are constantly at work building beautiful homes for excited property owners. And, whilst there is great satisfaction in helping homeowners realise their lifestyle dreams, there are many occasions when homeowners become difficult and cause a building dispute.
Contract errors, cost overruns, non-payment, underpayment and unjustified complaints are all ways in which difficult homeowners may try to get the best of you as a builder. And, as a reputable builder with skills and experience, the last thing you need is a difficult homeowner trying to take advantage of your expertise.
Here, we are going to list a few ways in which difficult homeowners try to take advantage of builders, and why you might need the best building dispute lawyers the city has to deter this pedantic property owner from impeding on your future business success!
- Contract errors
Homeowners who don’t enlist construction lawyers to go over the contract are susceptible to misunderstanding its terms. However, you as an experienced builder have likely read countless contracts and gone over them with experienced and reputable construction lawyers.
As such, your difficult homeowner may take their misunderstanding of one of the contract’s sections as you trying to take advantage of them. As such, they may enter into a dispute with you based on their confusion, and this is one of the ultimate frustrations for construction companies trying to focus on completing the job to the highest skill and efficiency.
- Cost overruns
As a builder, you will know that cost overruns can occur with any construction project. And, as a builder, you will also know that it is important to communicate and justify these overruns to the homeowner to ensure that they don’t enter a disagreement with you about them when it comes the time for them to pay the bill.
Unfortunately, homeowners might still enter a disagreement with you even if you properly communicate and justify these cost overruns to them. They may not have been paying proper attention when you notified them of the overruns and decide to argue with you instead of paying for what will be elements of an improved result!
- Non-payment
Obviously, this is the worst way in which a homeowner can start a disagreement. There will obviously be payment deadlines set out in the contract but many homeowners choose to ignore them for a variety of reasons. As a builder, you’ve likely experienced this before – it’s highly unpleasant as it means you have to rethink how you’re going to pay your team and, naturally, yourself.
When you notice the homeowner start to skip out or straight up avoid payment deadlines then you should immediately contact a reputable construction solicitor who can help you retrieve what is rightfully yours – full payment.
- Underpayment
Okay, so the homeowners might pay you, but you know exactly how much they owe and how much they failed to pay you. Homeowners will often try to justify underpayment and tell you that they will get the rest to you at so and so time.
If they fail to do so then it is time to call in the legal professionals!
- Unjustified complaints
You know when your work is good and you know when you could fix a problematic construction element. Unfortunately, homeowners often don’t know the difference between a quality construction aspect and something that could be improved.
If a homeowner enters a disagreement with you for work you know is of top quality then you might want to enlist professional assistance to resolve the matter!
