How should a builder deal with variations?
I think that a lot of people who are renovating their houses have no clue what a variation is. In order to deal well with a variation, one should be very well prepared. Most importantly, never ever sign a contract until you’re sure it’s absolutely what you want. For instance, when we knocked down our house, we engaged an architect who didn’t work with us through the project, so I think it was very smart to get him to look over the contract to make sure that everything was adequately detailed. It was actually a headache to get our house demolished, but thank God we had the best team from masterton.com.au working for us.
Variation payments are strictly dealt with by the domestic building legislation and there are requirements which must be satisfied. Either the owner or the builder may request a variation to the building contract. The HC-5 and HIC-4 set out the required procedures for dealing with these types of variations. The Master Builders Association publishes the following documents which will assist builders – Variation requested by the builder – HCP7A and Variation requested by the owner – HCP7B.
