Delays, lies and miscommunication: Week 1

The house has been on the section for 3 weeks. The first week was taken up with the moving of the house from storage, getting it on to the section, pushing the two parts together and digging holes for the foundations. Before the concrete could be poured, the Council had to inspect. The housemovers claimed they'd booked the inspection, but on the day the inspection was needed, the Council wouldn't come. Two things: we hadn't paid the Council contribution; and, they had some other "tag" on the file indicating that they were awaiting an updated drawing.

The Council contribution had not been paid because the Council issued the building permit, despite that the 'contribution' was supposed to be paid first. They never issued an invoice or call to pay. So, we went on with the move and kept the money in the bank. Lesson: pay the Council at least a few working days before you need to book your first Council inspection.

So 3 things converged to delay the first inspection: 'contribution' hadn't been paid (our fault); an old tag was on the file that should have been removed (Council fault); and the housemovers left booking the inspection until the day they needed it to happen (housemover's fault). The housemovers claimed that they had already booked the inspection, which they couldn't have done. As soon as they informed us of the problem, we rushed in to Council with the cash, and two hours later had all the 'tags' removed from the permit, but by then it was too late to get on the inspection schedule for the next day. The housemovers by now had packed up and moved on to another job!

A really helpful, go-the-extra-mile clerk did manage to get our inspection squeezed in for the next day. But the housemovers didn't come back to pour the footings until Thursday. We were relieved they came back at all... they were now squeezing our incomplete job in between other moves. Meanwhile, we couldn't work on the house because it was still up in the air on jacks. Thursday afternoon the housemovers came back, the concrete was poured and the house was lowered on to it's piles. Friday the housemovers began rebuilding the roof.

A whole week had passed before we could get in and start work on the house.