We signed papers in Oct 2004 to buy a new house in San Ramon, CA. The
builder is Brookfield homes. The estimates close was given as
1/31/2005. Based on this information we sold our house in November
2004 and ours buyers agreed to rent us the house to us till 1/31/2005.
Sometime in December the builder told us that close date is pushed
back to 3/8/2005. This has caused us the following problems:

1) Interest rates costs have gone up by 0.38% for us due to delay.
2) We have been forced to move twice (once to temporary apartment and
then from apartment to house) and hit with storage cost that we would
not have incurred had we moved directly on 1/31/05. This is causing us
lots of inconvenience.
3) We probably would not have bought this house had we known it would
be available in 3/2005.

Questions:
1) Is the delay of about 5 weeks (1/31/05 to 3/8/05) typical? What is
"normal" or "expected" delta (delay or early completion)?
2) The builder gave us the date of 1/31/05 in October 2004. Shouldn't
they have already known if a delay was going to happen?
3) Does it make sense for us to ask the builder to pay for 2nd move
and storage because it was totally unnecessary if they had not moved
the date?
4) Does it make sense for us to ask the builder to compensate for
interest rate difference?
5) What can I do to make the builder pay for inconveninece and hassles
this has caused us?

We sent a letter to the builder to compensate us for rental between
1/31/2005 and 3/8/2005 which they denined.

Thanks.
Hopeful in CA.

---

Clarification of Question by hopeful_ca-ga on 25 Jan 2005 10:58 PST

The signed papers had the date as "estimated". So the builder is
saying it was only an estimate and not a confirmed date and thus they
did not break any contract.

It appears they broke the contract.  Back out if they do not make up
for the additional expense because of this delay.  What they "may" be
doing is hoping that you back out -- it other words they engineered
the delay --  so that they could sell the house for more money.  You
could easily check on this, find out what they are selling the house
for now compared to what you agreed to pay.

let us know.

There are so many variables that the builder may or may not be
responsible for.  What kinds of delays did they have with suppliers,
etc?  Were there problems with subcontracters?

We just got into our new home 2 months behind schedule--biggest reason
was because it's hard to pour concrete in the rain & every time the
ground dried up, it rained again.  Our yard still isn't seeded--the
week after we moved in, we got 13 inches of snow.

I am not reseacher and not a Californian, but I am an Oregonian with
25 years in the building trades.  My thoughts are that it still
probably won't be ready on the 8th (especially if you develop an
in-your-face petty attitude w/your builder) so maybe keep your rental
another month or so.  If you hired a reputable builder then you have
to trust in the flow of the process (sometimes it takes longer to get
it right - challenges develop - maybe you're lucky that the contractor
just didn't scab together something quick to make up time).