Hi Andy, great blog - glad we were told about it. We're building the 2-storey Provincial house on the battle-axe block at #12 Glide Place and we've wondered for a long time why Landcom left so many trees on your block. In our case Landcom removed all the trees that were within our "theoretical" building envelope, which left us with just 3 trees & a stump to remove ourselves. It must've cost you a fortune to get all your trees removed. Did they ever give you a reason for why they left so many trees on your block?
Hi Ashley, Glad to meet another neighbour. About 3 other people from our street go on the Homeone forum and post so if you want to meet more in our street, thats where they are. The day we deposited on the land we spoke to M at the sales office about the trees and we were told that the land would be cleared before settlement. I annoyed her for a few weeks to get something in writing cause there was nothing in the contract about it. The I was told the developer had a bond of $100K on the trees with council and they had approval to clear "within the building envelope". So they came and pegged the building envelope with little red pegs and then just ran the bulldozer straight down the middle of the block, leaving most of the trees. I was P*ssed but nothing could be done as technically they had cleared the building envelope. As we had a prviate builder he had always known about the trees and had costed in removal. We had always planned that our concretors would take them out when they scraped but once the house next door went in this wasnt possible, so the builder needed to pay for removal as per our contract.I think they cost about $3K all up. Our neighbour in the EB was told by EB they would charge $1K per tree. Before we submitted DA and council said we could take out anything within 3m of the building.I told them they all were and they said then they had no problem with me removing them, they also wondered why the developer hadnt removed them. He joked that I must have the last standing trees in The Ponds. Have you got a blog? I would love to keep up to date with our build too. Min
I've been thinking about doing a blog, and now that I've seen yours and Krug's, it might motivate me to do something about it. Although, most of the hard stuff is done now, so there shouldn't be a lot more to talk/complain about, however, if I'd started a blog back in June last year, then it'd be a novel by now (probably a murder mystery or a horror story).
Anyway, you're really unlucky about the trees - we felt for you. A month or so after we bought the land, Landcom sent through a site plan that clearly showed which trees they were going to take out for us (about 4 I think). Then, when Landcom actually went through and took everyone's trees down, it seemed like they'd forgotten all about your block - either that or we thought you must've had a colony of rare invisible Koalas living there ;-).
All up, the 3.5 trees we had to get rid of ourselves cost us $700 (for all 3.5, not each), which included ripping the stumps out - I'm not a fan of grinding, but, we had no choice with 1.5 of ours because they we too close to the fence so it would've damaged the fence if they had tried to pull out the stumps. So, we can recommend a good arbourist if you ever bump into anyone who needs a few trees removed - at a good price.
Your neighbour in the EB was being taken for a ride - $1000 ea - they must've been going to take them down with a gold plated nail file and then craft them into the finest hardwood furniture.
(BTW, you're EB neighbour has chosen the same bricks that we've chosen on ours - PGH Sorbetto - so its nice to get an idea of what ours might look like)
Hi Andy, great blog - glad we were told about it. We're building the 2-storey Provincial house on the battle-axe block at #12 Glide Place and we've wondered for a long time why Landcom left so many trees on your block. In our case Landcom removed all the trees that were within our "theoretical" building envelope, which left us with just 3 trees & a stump to remove ourselves. It must've cost you a fortune to get all your trees removed. Did they ever give you a reason for why they left so many trees on your block?
ReplyDeleteHi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteGlad to meet another neighbour. About 3 other people from our street go on the Homeone forum and post so if you want to meet more in our street, thats where they are.
The day we deposited on the land we spoke to M at the sales office about the trees and we were told that the land would be cleared before settlement. I annoyed her for a few weeks to get something in writing cause there was nothing in the contract about it. The I was told the developer had a bond of $100K on the trees with council and they had approval to clear "within the building envelope". So they came and pegged the building envelope with little red pegs and then just ran the bulldozer straight down the middle of the block, leaving most of the trees.
I was P*ssed but nothing could be done as technically they had cleared the building envelope. As we had a prviate builder he had always known about the trees and had costed in removal. We had always planned that our concretors would take them out when they scraped but once the house next door went in this wasnt possible, so the builder needed to pay for removal as per our contract.I think they cost about $3K all up. Our neighbour in the EB was told by EB they would charge $1K per tree.
Before we submitted DA and council said we could take out anything within 3m of the building.I told them they all were and they said then they had no problem with me removing them, they also wondered why the developer hadnt removed them. He joked that I must have the last standing trees in The Ponds.
Have you got a blog? I would love to keep up to date with our build too.
Min
Hi Min,
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about doing a blog, and now that I've seen yours and Krug's, it might motivate me to do something about it. Although, most of the hard stuff is done now, so there shouldn't be a lot more to talk/complain about, however, if I'd started a blog back in June last year, then it'd be a novel by now (probably a murder mystery or a horror story).
Anyway, you're really unlucky about the trees - we felt for you. A month or so after we bought the land, Landcom sent through a site plan that clearly showed which trees they were going to take out for us (about 4 I think). Then, when Landcom actually went through and took everyone's trees down, it seemed like they'd forgotten all about your block - either that or we thought you must've had a colony of rare invisible Koalas living there ;-).
All up, the 3.5 trees we had to get rid of ourselves cost us $700 (for all 3.5, not each), which included ripping the stumps out - I'm not a fan of grinding, but, we had no choice with 1.5 of ours because they we too close to the fence so it would've damaged the fence if they had tried to pull out the stumps. So, we can recommend a good arbourist if you ever bump into anyone who needs a few trees removed - at a good price.
Your neighbour in the EB was being taken for a ride - $1000 ea - they must've been going to take them down with a gold plated nail file and then craft them into the finest hardwood furniture.
(BTW, you're EB neighbour has chosen the same bricks that we've chosen on ours - PGH Sorbetto - so its nice to get an idea of what ours might look like)
See you around,
Ashley