Hate such builders

[Jeff Cochran]

Yeah, bummer. Guess you won't be closing and taking occupancy now, huh?

Jeff

[bobnotfred]

measurements

construction.

I'm sure we'll all agree that it would have been good for the buyer to check the dimensions, but the _builder_ made the garage a foot short -- that's the bottom line. It's the _builder's_ responsibility to make the f##$*ng thing right! Does this buyer need to crawl and swing from the ceiling joists as they go up to make sure they are correct also?

[JimL]

Read your contract. You have rights.

[Kathy]

Is the garage connected to the house from an inside door? With that extra foot you could walk around your vehicle to get something with out going outside. I think I would be really pist about it. Can they bump the door out maybe?

[bambam]

What an unfortunate choice of words. Reveals a lot about your attitude.

I've read through your other postings in this thread and if I may paraphrase, this is what you seem to be saying.

"My builder has really screwed me over. He has built me a house that is just fine, thank you; he has done it on time and on budget; and the value of the house today is more than what I've contracted for.

However, the garage is a foot short. I wanted a non standard 23 foot garage, and I got a standard 22 foot garage. This was so important to me that even though I showed up to check on everything else, I didn't bother checking on that.

How much do you think I can screw out of the builder for an honest and not particularly consequential mistake? I haven't mentioned this to him yet, in case he has a reasonable solution."

------

Let's see if you can get this in one take.

1) The only person who can solve your problem is the person you haven't talked to about it.

2) He may offer you an upgrade somewhere else, or a cash rebate, or he may offer to release you from the contract.

3) Before you talk with the builder, have a lawyer read your contract and tell you what the builder must do and how much it will cost to make the builder do it. That will let you know what kind of a bargaining position you're in.

4) If you were my client, I'd offer a small amount of cash or an inexpensive upgrade -- better sink or whatever. If you didn't take it, I'd release you from the contract.

If I learned you'd been badmouthing me -- ie telling people I "screwed you over", I'd do that.

Ken

[Matt]

This is just another example of the tragedy that could be averted if the US would get with the program and switch to the metric system.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Yes, instead of being a foot short, it would be 304 cm short.

While I'm all for the metric system, I don't see how this would have averted the error. Can you explain this?

[shoppa]

turns out $23.70 per sqft. 22 sf would be $520 (maybe a little more because

That's the bare-bones minimum, assuming the legalese of the contract allows any consideration.

At the maximum, you may be able to demand "specific performance" of tearing down the wall and rebuilding to meet the contract. It all depends on what the contract actually says.

Tim.

[shoppa]

turns out $23.70 per sqft. 22 sf would be $520 (maybe a little more because

That's the bare-bones minimum, assuming the legalese of the contract allows any consideration.

At the maximum, you may be able to demand "specific performance" of tearing down the wall and rebuilding to meet the contract. It all depends on what the contract actually says.

Tim.

[Matt]

Well shore I can, partner!

Pretend you are a home builder. Now, someone comes to you and says: I want my garage to be 23 feet deep. So you build the house, and screw up and make the garage 22 feet deep. OOOOOPS!

Now, pretend you are a different builder, and the buyer asks you to build his garage 8 meters deep. Now you build the house, and because you are making the garage 8 meters deep, instead of 23 feet - it gets built properly. HOORAY!

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Maybe, but I do work with metric and I do prefer to use it. I still see errors made. I've seen 12 mm holes where they should be 13mm What is to say it would not have been built 7 meters or 7.5 meters? Or 9 meters. People that do not read in English do not read in other languages also.