AlliF

I was wondering if anybody knew what the situation is in regards to builders dumping their stuff on other peoples plots of land when they are building?

We have bought a new plot of land on a developing estate and have had a right carry-on trying to get other builders to remove their building materials and rubbish off our land to allow us to start development today.

Our builder basically says it is our responsibility to sort out access - and we thought we had by the weekend managed to get everything off by the builder to our right - only when we went up there yesterday to check it was ok, we found another builder had seen the cleared lot that morning and dumped their stuff on there instead!! And this is someone from the same building company we are using - just a different site supervisor!! I phoned him yesterday and got a whole heap of attitude about how it is just the way things are done and they don't bother checking with each other.
My site supervisor just said I should speak to him and hope he has cleared it cos if we turn up with the equipment and it's not cleared we cancel your site start.

All the builders seem to think they have the right just to use any bit of land as a dumping ground without permission - is this not classed as trespassing? What happens if we destroy the property (if it wasnt for fire restrictions a good bonfire would be really tempting!!)

Petals

I think its wrong and you could seek legal advice.

Other than that have a look or join the home building forum and ask the same question. Good forum lots of info.

http://forum.homeone.com.au

jad n rich

We usually fence sites off to prevent this situation and the liability issues rising from it.

I would now fax a written demand that the stuff is cleared within X hours of date of fax and if it isnt it will be removed by you and cost charged to them.

Dumping rubbish on your site could be a council matter.

jannyb

We had the same problem when we were going to build. The other builders around us dumped their massive rocks in a pile on our land. We were told by our builder that it's our responsibility to clear it before they commence building otherwise we'd be charged for clearing it. We spent several hours on a warm Sunday clearing the rocks back onto the land we thought they had come from. Luckily a nice man across the street offered to get his digger to remove the bigger rocks that we couldn't carry. I think the other builders do this so they don't have to pay to clear their rubbish!! What a scam.
Another word of advice...not sure how significant this can be, but the water pipe that was installed on the land had no lock on it and it was dripping so clearly the water was being used by the other builders...and we had to pay for it.
Needless to say, after a year of planning our build, we pulled out of the whole thing a week before commencement. The stress of everything put a tremendous strain on our relationship, and the relief we felt on the day we pulled out was unbelievable! Some people find it fairly painfree but we didn't. Good luck!

AlliF

Thanks guys, That website looks good. I will definitely be having a read of that.

Thanks Janny, thats useful to know about the water - I will be looking out for that too! We too were up there last night with a spade and fork yesterday shifting rubble - ridiculous considering the excavation equipment they are bringing in can do it in minutes when they get there anyway.
It's shocking what they get away with. I guess if our builders had pulled their fingers out and started when they said they would it would be them that was doing the dumping on someone other poor bugger.
Sad you had to pull out - did you get your deposit back and just sell the land? We can't afford to pull out having bought the land and paid a hefty deposit which i'm pretty sure they wont return- I think they rely on knowing they have you over a barrell, and can treat you like shit after they have your signature.

jannyb

Nah, we couldn't sell our land. We had to 'sell' it back to the vendor...part of the contract of sale. So yeh, we lost a bit of money but nothing compared to what we potentially could have lost in our relationship, given the stress it was causing. We got most of our money back on the land, less an admin fee, and we had to pay some admin costs on the actual building contract.
We ended up buying a house in the area we were renting in so we're now very happy with our decision.

AlliF

Sounds like you made the right choice then - glad it worked out ok for you in the end!

K Schlegl

Hi, I have been in a three month struggle with noisy neighbours here in NSW. You can call your council members and they will help you -that is their job, follow it up with a letter (or email) detailing the time place and any names of who may be dumping on your property. There are severe penalties for what they are doing.

If by any chance it is environmentally unsafe you will have even more chance to get something done, the environmental officer at council will need to be contacted.
Also the officer in charge of development. Just ring Council with some notes in front of you. Document everything, don't worry you will be surprised.