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Speaker 1: We've been talking about the state of the building industry

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Speaker 1: and it's not great. It is terrible. So many delays,

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Speaker 1: so much cost, and so much stress for people. And

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Speaker 1: someone we work with is in the thick of going

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Speaker 1: we're going through that right now. Her name is Mel

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Speaker 1: and she joins us.

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Speaker 2: Right now, when did you start building?

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Speaker 3: So we started the whole process at the end of

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty. We had our land purchased contract signed by

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Speaker 3: mid twenty one.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 1: Right, my head hurts just thinking about that time. That

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Speaker 1: is a long long time ago.

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Speaker 2: And what's happened since? Is it getting trades?

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Speaker 4: Is it?

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Speaker 2: What? What's the biggest obstacle?

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Speaker 5: We keep getting.

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Speaker 3: The same kind of answer for everything, trade delays and

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Speaker 3: material delays.

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Speaker 1: Okay, right, okay, what does it mean financially? Mel? I

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Speaker 1: mean obviously not numbers, but obviously every time something gets delayed,

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Speaker 1: it will cost more in various ways. You're got to

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Speaker 1: live somewhere exactly.

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Speaker 3: We're paying for rent and mortgage, and both have just

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Speaker 3: been increasing since we started.

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Speaker 5: We now owe more on our mortgage than our original

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Speaker 5: loan amount.

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Speaker 3: We're also paying counsel rates and double bills for everything.

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Speaker 2: Oh God, Now with the delays when they talk about

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Speaker 2: I understand about trades. There's not enough of them to

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Speaker 2: go around with materials and so on. I suppose for

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Speaker 2: a while their COVID was a very good excuse for things.

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Speaker 2: Does it still get thrown about? Is an excuse? It

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Speaker 2: does still get thrown about.

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Speaker 3: They just say trade and material delays in an email.

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Speaker 1: And do you find that people are sympathetic when you

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Speaker 1: talk about it? Do people get it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of people are sympathetic, but they just

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Speaker 3: don't understand why it's taking so long. I mean, we

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Speaker 3: had our slab down at the start of twenty two,

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty two, and bricks didn't go up until the

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Speaker 3: start of this year.

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Speaker 5: And that's all that's happened on our house.

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Speaker 2: The domino effect of how this is affecting people's lives

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Speaker 2: is incredible because don't you have a situation where you're

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Speaker 2: building in one area, you're living in another area, and

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Speaker 2: there's a big, you know, travel distance between the two.

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Speaker 2: And now you've got a situation with school enrollments.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so my daughter's starting full time school next year

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Speaker 3: and my son is going into kindiyea enrollments happen mid year. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: so we're stuck now having our kids enrolled in the

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Speaker 3: school where we live for next year, and depending on

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Speaker 3: when the bill gets completed, they're never giving us a timeline.

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Speaker 3: We're going to have to try and rip them out

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Speaker 3: of school and get them enrolled in a different school,

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Speaker 3: which is actually a hard process than it is.

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Speaker 5: Happy about it.

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Speaker 2: Like everything, there's only you know, like tradees and material

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Speaker 2: there's only a certain number of places, so you could

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Speaker 2: end up doing the roundest school drop off trip known

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Speaker 2: to man.

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Speaker 5: It's about an hour distance.

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Speaker 2: So stress yea.

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Speaker 3: And we also have to think about daycare and before

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Speaker 3: school and after school care programs. They have massive waiting

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Speaker 3: lists so they can be up to a year long

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Speaker 3: waiting list to get your child into daycare.

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Speaker 5: But we can't actually go on a waiting list at

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Speaker 5: the moment because we've got no end date in site.

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Speaker 2: Well, how are you keeping yourself calm? I guess might

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Speaker 2: be I'm not, but I mean sound you sound pretty calm?

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Speaker 2: Are you going the route of I can't control any

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Speaker 2: of this, so you know it's points.

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Speaker 5: My partner gets very angry. Yeah, I've just given up.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like now owning a home, even though

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Speaker 3: we're paying for it. It's apparently being built. It's more

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Speaker 3: of a pipe dream than before.

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Speaker 5: We start this.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a heartbreak of this because I know

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Speaker 1: another family in a similar situation. They've actually finally got

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Speaker 1: their house done and they've lost They've fallen out of

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Speaker 1: love with it. You don't want that to happen for you, guys.

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Speaker 1: But that's quite tragic, really, isn't it from that point

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Speaker 1: of view.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's starting to happen because of the delays in

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Speaker 3: the actual build. A lot of the stuff we picked

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Speaker 3: out Prestart is no longer available, they're no longer making

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Speaker 3: a companies have collapsed, so they're just coming up with

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Speaker 3: the next kind.

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Speaker 5: Of closest match solution.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and so the house is going to be a

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Speaker 3: lot different than from what we originally dreamed and chose.

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Speaker 2: Do you have any idea when it might be completed? No, no,

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Speaker 2: no idea.

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Speaker 5: No one's selling us anything right at all.

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Speaker 3: They just keep saying it's a six plus month wait

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Speaker 3: for this, when we've been waiting over six months. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: it's kind of getting to the point where what if

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Speaker 3: the builder collapses before our house is built? What if

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Speaker 3: it doesn't get completed until you know, ten years from.

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Speaker 1: Now the long time. We keep your fingers crossed. And Mel,

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Speaker 1: we know you're not the only couple in this situation,

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Speaker 1: only family, But what about with small talk, friends, family,

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Speaker 1: even acquainted. Is when you catch up you don't want

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Speaker 1: to do you avoid the conversation because you don't want

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Speaker 1: to be the couple with the slow house build.

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Speaker 3: I do kind of avoid the situation because I don't

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Speaker 3: just want to complain to everyone around me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but.

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Speaker 2: Yes, in the kitchen at work and yeah, the.

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Speaker 6: House going on, it's not it's let's talk about something else. Well,

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Speaker 6: we really appreciate that you're talking with us about it today.

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Speaker 6: We know this is really hard.

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Speaker 2: I don't even know what to say, just a fingers

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Speaker 2: are cross for you that things, you know, work out.

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Speaker 1: It's horrible, very stressful.

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Speaker 3: I'm just hoping something gets done within the next five

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Speaker 3: years would be nice.

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Speaker 2: Nice here, boy, is it going to be the housewarming

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Speaker 2: of all housewarming parties?

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Speaker 5: When you.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, it's going to all the best.

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Speaker 2: It sounds like a nightmare, and we know that Mel

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Speaker 2: isn't the only one experiencing it. If you are in

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Speaker 2: a sim situation or if you work for a building

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Speaker 2: company or you're a tradee and you can shed some

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Speaker 2: further light on the situation. Tell us what your experience is.

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Speaker 2: Maybe you've got some you know, some little tricks suggestions

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Speaker 2: that you know of to get things rolling, some assistance.

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Speaker 2: But I mean, there is the house on the up

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Speaker 2: sort of like one block down from mine on my street.

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Speaker 2: Is has been being built for about three years, and

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Speaker 2: sometimes I go, like a fortnight or so, I driving

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Speaker 2: past it and there's nothing tumbleweeds.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes thinkt the that're building themselves.

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Speaker 2: I'm wondering if well that's what I thought. I thought,

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Speaker 2: Oh this guy must be building his house himself in

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Speaker 2: his spare time. But now I'm thinking, no, they're just

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Speaker 2: they're just trying to get there.

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Speaker 1: When you're in a situation like this, all you want

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Speaker 1: is hope. Hope is such a big positivity. You want

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Speaker 1: to some move in pack, You want your roof to

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Speaker 1: go up. If you usually got brick walls after a

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Speaker 1: year and or maybe even more.

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Speaker 2: Tony in Rockingham, Hello, what's your situation?

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Speaker 4: So I've just had handover. It was a three and

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Speaker 4: a half years build, so I started twenty twenty was

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Speaker 4: the start of everything. So handover hand that was now

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Speaker 4: being done. I just want to share with people. The

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Speaker 4: building companies, a lot of them will try to get

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Speaker 4: you sign the practical completion before the actual house is completed,

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Speaker 4: when it's sort of at that seventy percent mark. With me,

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Speaker 4: they tried to get me to sign practical completion. No

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Speaker 4: garage door on the walls were up, no fit out

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Speaker 4: of the inside of the house, et cetera, et cetera.

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Speaker 4: And I held off. Yeah, because because that practical completion,

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Speaker 4: of course, you become responsible for all of the loan payments.

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Speaker 4: And then they just slow up more because you've accepted it. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: so they try that. I had a nightmare with my builder.

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Speaker 4: Of course I won't mention a builder's name, but I

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Speaker 4: absolutely not mere So just have a diary specifically for

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Speaker 4: the build with and make notes of all correspondents, all

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Speaker 4: significant events right through the diary because you will you

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Speaker 4: will need to go back to it and challenge them

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Speaker 4: on a lot of things. But they do try to

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Speaker 4: They do try to push practical completion before the place

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Speaker 4: is completed.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't like the sound of that term at all.

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Speaker 2: It sounds I been a little bit pregnant practical completion,

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Speaker 2: no finished, or it's not one or the other.

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Speaker 4: Well, practical completion is part of the process, so you

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Speaker 4: sign off on the completion of the property. But if

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Speaker 4: it's not completed, Mom wasn't even the interior, wasn't even

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Speaker 4: fitted out, no garage door. So it took another eighteen

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Speaker 4: months after that original attempt to get practical.

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Speaker 1: Completion from Okay, So anyway, I held on.

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Speaker 4: I held them to account for all of my expenses

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Speaker 4: from the date they booked that original practical completion. So

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Speaker 4: as long as you keep your diary, and yeah, you

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Speaker 4: keep a record, you can you can.

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Speaker 1: Take them for it. It was eighteen months after that point.

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Speaker 1: Imagine if you had signed it, it would have been

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Speaker 1: been another three years or something from that exactly.

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Speaker 4: But if you keep records, you take into account for

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Speaker 4: that plus any out of pocket expenses after that date.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have your keys, Tony in your hand.

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Speaker 4: I do not all of them. They forgot to give

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Speaker 4: me one, but I'm still going through.

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Speaker 2: Happy moving in daytime. Yeah, you consider yourself one of

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Speaker 2: the lucky ones.

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Speaker 4: Now, Yeah, good luck to everybody.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting and you know it can be intimidating,

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Speaker 2: So cause the tiny is saying. And also if you're

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Speaker 2: just so sick to death of it being a work site,

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Speaker 2: you might be tempted to go, oh, yeah, I'll get

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Speaker 2: to that other stuff. But your tiny is right. You've

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Speaker 2: got to stand you ground.

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Speaker 1: And there's so many things about building a house. Bult

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Speaker 1: a house in Lansdale a long time ago, and I

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Speaker 1: got to that almost that practical completion. But I did

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Speaker 1: have someone come in and do an inspection and the

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Speaker 1: guy says, there's not enough wood in your roof. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so I had to tell him I get some more,

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Speaker 1: and so they put some more timber and there's a

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Speaker 1: graapy pilot timber the next day. So you do have

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Speaker 1: to keep an eye on I'm not all builders are bad,

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Speaker 1: but Chinese obviously had a bad experience as well.

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Speaker 2: All right, well, good luck to everyone who's building