It's not your fault

Here are the events:

1. April 2017, we asked to change the structural plan, we pay the penalty fees, $350 for the variation and $1500 for the plan

2. July 2017, builder submitted the construction plan

3. August 2017, DA approved and stamped plan, but discovered error in the structural plan as point 1 above, builder missed the request of structural change.

4. November 2017, Received the new and corrected construction plan

We lost the 3 months or 12 valuable weeks because of the human or process error. This event is one of the 3 reasons we got penalised by the builder, $7K.

What we learned here?

1. When you received or signed the tender contract, DO NOT CHANGE LATER.

2. Do not assume the Customer Service or Administration will honour your change or request after the tender.

3. Changing the structural plan or add and change variations are great revenue stream for the builder

4. Repetition of DA and council approval will cost your contract to be expired.