The main fears of building a house have to do with money and banks.

Banks estimate a maximum amount for the mortgage, depending on the owner’s payroll and the house to be executed.

Builder, Architect, and Surveyor. Who do I hire?

Yes, it is normal to be terrified by the idea that any of these building agents will come out “frog.”

I would advise me very long before hiring each of them. Of course, what would be clear would be to hire some independent Technicians from the Construction company. When the Technician “offers” it to the Builder, it may not be as objective as it should be. And let’s not put the extreme of being in the pay of the company (what worse things have been seen …!).

For any of the 3, I would ask for many references. And finally, I would value the price in all 3 cases. With a sample of 3 budgets, those that drop more than 30% concerning the arithmetic mean, discarded. And those that rise more than that 30%, surely also.

See if you will ask the Architect for a printed copy of the project, and he will charge you. Or if you ask the Rigger for a Construction Progress Certificate for the bank and it “traces” 80 Dollars. And with the construction company the same, but multiplied by 10.

How do I know that the Builder is not overcharging me?

In most cases, before issuing an invoice, the Builder issues a certification. This certification collects everything that has been carried out on the work (measurement at origin) and multiplies it by its corresponding price. In this way, after adding VAT and subtracting the last invoice, the amount to be invoiced is reached.

To corroborate these measurements, you can go to your Quantity Surveyor, who is in charge of measuring, together with the Builder, the pits carried out. As soon as the Quantity Surveyor approves the certification measurements, it will only be missing that you, as owners, check the prices of the games you have specified in the contract.

If there is a minor error, do not worry because, always measuring at the origin, it would be corrected in the next certification.

I have no spatial vision, and I am afraid that the bathrooms and kitchen will look bad.

In this regard, I propose 3 solutions:

• Some architects include in their budget the interior design advisory service. This is a plus and is highly valued when the Architect is hired.
• Hire an interior designer to do an interior design project.
• Many companies supply materials and equipment for the kitchen and bathrooms that provide advice and infographics of these finished rooms.

When does the bank provide me with the money to pay the Builder?

As the work progresses, the Quantity Surveyor or the Architect draws up what is called a Work Progress Certificate. This certificate records the percentage of the work that has been carried out at that time.

What is the final withholding?

There is another problem. The bank also reserves the last 10% of the executed work as retention. And you will not pay it until you have the First Occupation License. Think that from the end of the work itself, until the City Council issues the First Occupation License, you must make the Final Work Certificate and endorse it in the Professional Colleges of Architects and Quantity Surveyors. These procedures usually take several weeks.

In a $ 150,000 project, with 10% initial withholding and 10% final withholding, there would be $ 30,000 that you will not collect from the bank until a couple of months after finishing the project.