Ian Paine Construction Ltd

We ended up having to bring a lawsuit to Ian Paine Construction. I think it speaks volumes that we won the lawsuit in our favour with the Judge ordering a settlement payout.

The reason why we had to sue IPC is because they tried holding back our deposit monies from a build contract we cancelled with them. They tried invoicing us for services and fees which were outside of the contract and even before the contract was signed/dated.

Krista, Ian's daughter, now runs the company even though she is not an officer or director of IPC. Although Ian himself may have 40 years of experience building homes, Krista does not. IPC has a very unconventional billing/fee structure. You pay 10% cost plus on all labour and materials but you also have to pay hourly labour fees in addition to the 10%. There is a conflict of interest here because the more they charge hourly, the more they make. In our case, these extra labour fees added up to $80k which really meant we were paying 18-20% cost plus, instead of 10%. Also, IPC had ample time and was fully involved in the bank draw process to give us notice that the design was impossible to build at the agreed budget estimate given by IPC and agreed to in the contract.

IPC is very different than the industry norm because with other builders, the construction manager is also the foreman, which means there are no hourly staff fees. With IPC you have to pay for IPC staff, including the foreman, assistant, project coordinator and any meetings you have throughout the build process plus 10% on top of all these charges. I would not recommend this type of fee structure as you have no control over the accumulation of these hourly fees. Be wary, vigilant and do your due diligence when choosing a builder. Get actual quotes from all trades and suppliers and not just estimates, because IPC’s estimates were off by 2-5 times.

IPC is an award winning builder because they design beautiful homes. But they do not know how to budget or estimate a project effectively without going into massive cost over runs, in our experience. Make sure your build contract is iron clad to protect you and be careful of any mention of hourly fees with your builder.

Moving forward I hope IPC can take this experience seriously and change for the better so other clients do not end up so disappointed and disheartened with the whole building process. Going to court was very stressful for both parties and was completely unnecessary if IPC had resolved the issue privately by being true to the contract.

Fortunately, the Judge sided with us and we got our money back!

I would not recommend IPC as a builder.

My experience of Ian Paine Construction Ltd. was terrible and they were not the right builder for us in three instances.

1) Hiring IPC and watching quotes come in way over budget and realising IPC had designed us a house that was no where near $200 per sqft as agreed. Although we had a big input in the floorplan, what caused our build to become over budget was a special ICF foundation we never requested, a butterfly roof that was designed by IPC, and a miscellaneous labour fee of $80k that we later found out from other builders was not industry standard. So we have a now found a builder that can build us a house we can afford.

IPC is an award winning builder, which is why we were drawn to this company. The design of the house was great, but the cost was not.

When IPC gave us a budget estimate, we took it to the bank and got the full amount for the build, as we could provide the contingency (we thought the bank might provide this, but luckily we had the funds). The contract even states that the build comes in at $1.1m, which IPC signed. The quotes came in 2-5x higher than IPC’s estimates and IPC said we would have to increase from the agreed $200 per sqft to $250 per sqft. IPC also X-ed out the basement to try to remedy this, but this was not the house we agreed to build.

2) Firing IPC and getting a surprise and inflated invoice (including meetings, driving hours, assistant fees, foreman fees (our lot is empty)) attempting to take most of our deposit with charges dating back to before signing a contract. We were never notified of these charges or of this invoice until 3+ months later.

3) Having to go to Court to dispute these charges, hearing the judge disagree with IPC charges and being awarded a majority settlement. IPC attempted to charge outside the contract agreement, which IPC was advised they would not win in court. This wasted more of our time.

It is important to note that Ian Paine Construction is under new management. Although the company has been around for 30-40 years, it has been under this new management for around 5 years.

It is also important to know that with their ‘miscellaneous labour’ within their budget, their 10% management fee becomes more like 18-20% of your build.

This was a nightmare that cost us to lose 6 months of time, our mortgage rate (BOC raised rates 3 times) and our house design. We got a new designer who gave us high ceilings, large sqft, and even added more features that we didn’t originally have, but with a normal roof and normal foundation. We have now chosen a builder with building and carpentry experience, who physically knows how a house is built and does not have to delegate these skills to a foreman at our cost. There is no ‘misc. labour’ on the budget, and the percentage management fee, is the fee.