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How to Deal with the Building Contractor
17.09.2006
It is wonderful to buy a flat in a new building project, isn't it? Nevertheless, make sure that you have performed some important procedures before purchasing. Otherwise, you may get many problems. The contractors do not always carry out contractual obligations and sometimes do not fit into scheduled time.
If you have not prolonged the lease term, you have to seek for another flat to rent. Moreover, there is no sense to rent for a long period, if the contractor promises to finish in a couple of months. Therefore, you need a short-term rent, which is not so simple to find. Besides, it is usually more expensive than a long-term one.
Children should go to school or to the kindergarten according to the place of dwelling. If you are not lucky to find a flat for rent near your former residence or in the neighborhood of your new flat, your children will have to change the school or kindergarten several times during the year.
All the inconveniences of this situation are rather unpleasant. However, you will also sustain serious expenses. You were planning to move into your new flat right from your previous residence. Instead, you have to pay a rent and mortgage loan in addition, because you have already signed the contract for the purchase.
Therefore, when you sign the «turn-key» contract, you should include a clause about a forfeit into it: the concrete sum of money that the contractor will pay you in the case of delay in the fulfillment of contractual obligations. You may try to list several growing sums, for example, for the first month, for the following two months, for the delay for up to six months and so on. Of course, it will cause to the contractor's resistance; nevertheless, try to insist on your way. For the beginning, it is acceptable to indicate the cost of the rent per month (the flat of the same level that the flat you have bought and in the same district).
You should also include in the contract the clause according which you may terminate the contract and get your entire money back if the contractor defaults his obligations and the delay is more than 12 months, for example. It may help the contractor to think over the proper performance of the contract.
Take into consideration that the contractor will include the force-majeure circumstances in the contract. There are situations when the man cannot fulfill the contractual obligations because of the circumstances that do not depend on him. That is force-majeure. If the earthquake destroys the building, nobody will make the contractor pay you the compensation. On the other hand, absence of the Palestinian workers because of the state of emergency in the country is not force-majeure.
You should do some more important things before you sign the protocol of receiving your new flat. First, insist on the inspection of the flat together with the contractor several weeks before you move into it. Make a list of all defects you have found. Check the walls and the floor. If there are any moist spots or puddles, so the pipes are not assembled properly well. Open the taps in the kitchen and in the bathroom to let the water out off in the toilet and check how it goes down to the sewage. Check the pressure of water in the taps, especially if you have bought the flat in the multistoried building.
Examine the floor: make sure that it is even and steady and there are no cracks in it.
Look at the walls: they should have the same color within the room. Check the jalousie and the windows – if they open and close easily and nothing prevents from their movement. It is useful to take the tester or a flashlight that works from electric power and to check all electric outlets in the flat.
The contractor must repair all defects that you founded during the examination. Even if you have already signed the documents and moved into the flat, your do not lose contact with the contractor. During the next few years, you may demand from him to repair the defects that you reveal after your moving in.
According to the law, after handing the building over, the trial period begins. It is different for the components and the equipment. For the tiled floor of the ground floor, the test period is three years, for the pipes – two years. During the first three years, you may demand to repair the leaking roof, ceiling and walls. The contractor is obliged to seal up the cracks in the walls during the first five years. The equipment and the components that have no definite trial period may also be replaced or repaired, but only during one year from the date of handing the building over to the tenants.
After the trial period has finished (usually after the first year of residing in the flat), the guarantee period begins. It lasts for three years and during all this period the contractor must repair the revealed defects. Now the situation is not so simple: you live in the flat and your activity may cause to the part of these defects. Therefore, you will have to prove that it is the builders' fault and not yours. Of course, it is not so easy to prove, when you live in the flat for several years. On the other hand, the contractor knows that he will be subjected to the prosecution for the law violation. Therefore, if you will be able to prove that this is his responsibility, he will hardly delay the repairing.
Israel's magazine of real estate
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