I forgot to mention in the previous post that we had a short landscaping appointment just to chalk out a rough plan to be submitted to the council along with the construction plans. In our case the plans went to the Development Application Council and were approved within a surprisingly quick time period of 2 weeks that too during a Christmas break. We were pleasantly surprised by the news.
We thought it was the end of the admin for us once the selections and DA approval were done and the ball was now in the builder’s court. But hang on a minute there was this End Panel process still remaining.
The tender document based on which the contract was signed is not the final “cost” sheet. There would be a number of variations based on your land/site, geographical location (e.g if its a bush fire or flood zone), and also any selections that you additionally do in your selection process. A good CSR would make sure you have calculated a good enough allowance for the above. Once all the variations are added or subtracted there is a final End Panel document produced . This is particularly important as all the construction plans are based on the Final End Panel and any variations post that would be charges as a heavy admin fee. Additionally all the mortgage amount is derived out of the End Panel cost sheet.
In our case we had to cater for additional piering allowance because part of our land was under the zone of influence of a sewer. Also there were costs associated with change in flooring for our upper floors which we had not catered for in the tender. The end panel also included an allowance for landscaping so that we could avail the amount for the same from the bank. Even though you do not have to get the landscaping done from the builder like us ,make sure you have a rough plan for landscaping to be submitted to the council and an allowance added to the final end panel document if you intend to borrow the costs from the bank.
W took 3 weeks to get the End panel in place and finally we got it signed off. Once the End Panel was signed off we had all the necessary documents submitted to the bank for the construction mortgage to be approved.