I've no advice, just commiserations. There's a house just been built where I park my car to go hiking. Really great section and fairly nice big house, seven figure property. Saw the family, young. The front of the house has been clad shockingly, real amateur-hour stuff, and it's all finished. What a nightmare. There must be professionals out there who can clean up these disputes, I guess they charge a bit. A big part of the problem is the prevalent building style. The builder/carpenter seems to do as little as possible and sub-trades do so much and they all rely on each part of the process being right. Fibro everywhere needing rendering and painting.Tin fascia with fibro soffits. Combine this with brickwork. Plasterboard walls and ceilings usually lined, plastered and painted by three sets of tradesmen. And the builder doesn't co-ordinate the work because he considers it the subbies' responsibility. Not to mention the designers/architects who put these materials/systems together in difficult places without any attention to detailing how it should work. Why all this? It's an economical system? I dunno. But done properly it's okay. So OP, good luck, hope everyone does the right thing.

"Architect-designed houses are not accessible to all." This is a myth championed by the building industry. Alternatively, why not focus on the key benefits architects bring to a project. Here are a few for you: • Appoint an architect to your project and you’ll gain a home designed for the way you want to live.The alternative is a builder-designed home that suits what the builder is used to building. Quality builders will ask for plans and specifications to be thoroughly documented so that they can go ahead and do what they do best, which is build. Working out with the owner what you’re going to build and why is the architect’s role. • An architect manages planning approvals. This process is complex, often arbitrarily applied by many Councils, fraught with pitfalls for the novice and is ramped up every year with new hoops to jump. If you want a professional on your side who knows the territory, will go in to bat for you and will forge a way through this minefield, you need an architect. • If you’d prefer to put the works to tender to a number of builders rather than having to accept the quote of the builder you started the process with, you need an architect. • If you’d prefer to protect yourself with a proper, architect-managed ABIC contract that works equally for both parties and is legally enforceable, you need an architect. • An architect will minimise costly changes during construction as he or she will produce a proper level of drawings (expect 20 x A3 pages for a new home, rather than the 1-2 pages you’ll receive from a drafting service.). The reasons for this are that you have on paper exactly what you want to build. Without this, you are entering a contract with a builder with none of the details resolved. You wouldn’t do that if you were buying a house, so why do it when spending an equally significant amount of money? Unfortunately, some builders see this approach as an opportunity to happily accept constant changes from ‘project managing’ owners because it’s just another variation that he can charge for. The longer he is there, the better for his margins, particularly when there’s no contract to speak of. Finally, an architect is a specialist with a professional duty of care, irrespective of financial gain. In other words, they’re there to support and protect you, without benefit to themselves. No one else in the building industry can provide this.

Check out the Archicentre cost guide. It’s updated every six months or so. It’ll give you ball park figures for different types of renovations and construction. Their website also has some useful factsheets and information. https://www.archicentreaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/CostGuide-2017-06Oct17final.pdf It’s also worth knowing that renovating is often more expensive per square metre than building new as there may be unexpected costs like asbestos to deal with or problems with the wiring so you need a larger contingency in your budget. Good luck with everything.

Absolutely, 100% ;) .....interestingly with that homeowners/builder's warranty, it's arguably a big fat farce.. because if push ever comes to shove they have limits on how much will be paid out regardless of the job cost, and it's a ridiculously low blanket cap like $197K......apparently it's only rarely ever paid out to even that amount and it's only in the case of say a builder dying or going bankrupt with unfinished works....so it never ever covers the whole build costs even though it's based on the contract sum...how dodgy is that! - shows who's really making the money in this game ;) ........so siriuskey absolutely great/sound advice to have as much insurance in place as soon as the building is completed, so if it unfortunately burns to the ground at least it's covered by a home policy....but cross your fingers while it's in construction and hope for the best!!!