Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Any good/bad experiences with Henley? 22Mar 16, 2007 4:46 pm What didn't I like about Henly?
When we visited their flashy new double-storey display homes the first thing I noticed when I took a walk upstairs was the creaking 1st floor level -an instant turn off for us. And it wasn't just the one house - it was ALL of the double-storey houses. I have also since been told to stay away from Henley - from an independant building inspector. Re: Any good/bad experiences with Henley? 23Mar 16, 2007 4:52 pm basaad What didn't I like about Henly? When we visited their flashy new double-storey display homes the first thing I noticed when I took a walk upstairs was the creaking 1st floor level -an instant turn off for us. And it wasn't just the one house - it was ALL of the double-storey houses. I have also since been told to stay away from Henley - from an independant building inspector. How much do you weigh? Re: Any good/bad experiences with Henley? 25Mar 16, 2007 5:00 pm basaad Cute.... I weigh 67kg and I wasn't 'jumping or jogging' on the spot, I was walking from room to room. Good reply Well we've taken the plunge with Henley and so far are impressed with their communications/organisation. However we are only at contract stage and the build quality remains to be seen. What did the building inspector warn you off in particular? Re: Any good/bad experiences with Henley? 26Mar 17, 2007 11:15 am basaad What didn't I like about Henly? When we visited their flashy new double-storey display homes the first thing I noticed when I took a walk upstairs was the creaking 1st floor level -an instant turn off for us. And it wasn't just the one house - it was ALL of the double-storey houses. Basaad, we too noticed this. I wonder if it's possible to include a clause in the contract to ensure no creaking in the 1st floor occurs. Re: Any good/bad experiences with Henley? 27Mar 17, 2007 11:31 am Henley....... creaking 2nd storey floors, sounds (sic) like they belong together...
another one from our list...and worse after 7 years...cant do much about it until we replace the carpets, .......if we still live here..... plantation 28Mar 22, 2007 6:09 pm I need to talk to the guy from my work how his handover with plantation went yesterday.
Just speaking with him for a short time I found out he had a final prehandover inspection on Sunday and he made all the list of things that need to be fixed. I heard they are gaps between the downlights and ceilling. My friend's parents had a few disasters after handover even with knocking down the whole wall so they don't want to hear the word plantation at this stage I heard that Henley licence has been cancelled some time ago and after few years they came back on the market exactly under different name. Kate Good & Bad Experiences - Henley 29Mar 30, 2007 3:33 pm Hey Stewie, Conchi & Touchingcloth,
As you (so far) are the only others I know going with Henley on this forum, I can tell you that we have mostly had a pretty decent experience. Our sales consultant from Craigieburn (Les) was terrific. Assisted us with all our queries (and we had a lot as we went through possibly building with 2 different 1 storey houses to finally settling on a 2 storey house), and helped us come to the best solutions given our land, costs, etc. Our Admin assistant (Melanie) who will see us through to the building stage has been OK. Only complaint is that she was a bit slow in responding to initial queries and requests (though to give the benefit of the doubt, this may not have been her fault as I'm sure she has a lot of customers, not just us). In the recent weeks leading up to our appointment on Monday, she's been quite good though. We'll keep you posted as to how we go with our tender after Monday! Would love to hear any you experiences you have had to date as well. Touchingcloth - what was your tender process like? Re: Good & Bad Experiences - Henley 30Mar 30, 2007 5:48 pm bry&cbear Hey Stewie, Conchi & Touchingcloth, As you (so far) are the only others I know going with Henley on this forum, I can tell you that we have mostly had a pretty decent experience. Our sales consultant from Craigieburn (Les) was terrific. Assisted us with all our queries (and we had a lot as we went through possibly building with 2 different 1 storey houses to finally settling on a 2 storey house), and helped us come to the best solutions given our land, costs, etc. Our Admin assistant (Melanie) who will see us through to the building stage has been OK. Only complaint is that she was a bit slow in responding to initial queries and requests (though to give the benefit of the doubt, this may not have been her fault as I'm sure she has a lot of customers, not just us). In the recent weeks leading up to our appointment on Monday, she's been quite good though. We'll keep you posted as to how we go with our tender after Monday! Would love to hear any you experiences you have had to date as well. Touchingcloth - what was your tender process like? Glad to hear you're experiences so far are good . Our tender appointment went very well and was all straightforward as we had been thorough with the salesperson and didn't change our mind. The contract matched the tender except for 1 small difference which they corrected as it was there fault. So all in all Henley have been great so far. However,...I just hope the build goes well and is not of * quality. Wish I could tell you more but we're not much further ahead than you. Henley Experiences 31Mar 31, 2007 6:02 pm Touchingcloth,
Thanks again for the feedback regarding your tender process. So far (with you and a couple others we know building with Henley), the tender process has been thorough and informative, as it should be. We anticipate ours will be the same. I can relate to your worries about poor build quality, but I think you would be worrying no mater whom you went with or what you were building. It's always going to be a bit of a leap of faith. Quick question, how long did it take (weeks) from your tender appointment to the date of signing your contract? I'm expecting 2-3 weeks. Did they send you a copy of everything so that you could have it reviewed by your solicitor or an independent firm about a week prior to the meeting? Cheers, B&C Re: Henley Experiences 32Mar 31, 2007 7:20 pm bry&cbear Touchingcloth, Thanks again for the feedback regarding your tender process. So far (with you and a couple others we know building with Henley), the tender process has been thorough and informative, as it should be. We anticipate ours will be the same. I can relate to your worries about poor build quality, but I think you would be worrying no mater whom you went with or what you were building. It's always going to be a bit of a leap of faith. Quick question, how long did it take (weeks) from your tender appointment to the date of signing your contract? I'm expecting 2-3 weeks. Did they send you a copy of everything so that you could have it reviewed by your solicitor or an independent firm about a week prior to the meeting? Cheers, B&C Hi B&C, Henley like to leave a min of 4 weeks between tender and contract. In this time you will receive you plans and your contract. Generally they send out your contract a week before the appointment. I advise that you review your plans thoroughly before contract signing as they are pretty detailed. Henley were missing a small item from our plans that we signed in tender. They said that they would adjust the plans in a post contract variation. I said "No...it shouldn't be a post contract variation as it should have been a variation in the first place" . They backed down. The building contract seems to be a standard contract and nothing really jumps out as '*******'. However, having read the t&c in the back I did notice one thing. Once you have been given your keys and have moved in, should you notice any faults, you are allowed ONE opportunity to give notice in writing to Henley to fix the fault. So for example, it you have a leaking tap and write to Henley to fix it, they will have to within a certain time frame. Then if later on you notice another fault, and write another letter to fix this new fault, they won't have to fix it immediately. So I guess its best to let you faults build up before writing to them. We have now received our building permit, and were emailed the moment that they received it. From the moment they receive it they have 30 days to start their build, and 290 days from the moment they start, to finish the job. Should the 290 days pass prior to completion, they would have pay a weekly fee as compensation. So far we've been very impressed. I think, if you are open and courteous with your builder contacts (whether it be the CSL or Building Supervisor) and work with them, as opposed to talking to them with distrust in your voice, you should be fine. Good luck..and hope my waffle has made sense, any more questions...feel free to ask. TC Rubbed the wrong way... 33Aug 30, 2007 9:46 pm Most of our experiences to date with Henley have been very, very good and now that we are in the building process, things have moved very quickly and our original construction administrator and site supervisor have been terrific. Their replacements however (both are on annual leave) are beginning to show cracks in attitude, service and accuracy (some areas have larger cracks than others).
Today's experience, though not horrible by other experiences posted here, was enough to compel me to inform others of my first legitimate complaint in the hopes that the audience from Henley that I KNOW read this forum will get an understanding of where their customer is coming from and perhaps adjust accordingly. So, as promised I got my weekly update from the substitute construction administrator via email (my 'on leave admin' called every Wednesday, which I must confess I prefer, but not really a concern, an updates an update). The update stated that the plumbing rough-in had been completed (true) and the wall wrap had been completed, which was a pleasant surprise as we'd visited the site the day before and the wall wrap had not been done yet. I quickly wrote back with lots of gratitude and a few questions as to process of building once the brick work starts to go up etc. Didn't hear anything back (the cracks are starting to show about here, as my 'on leave admin is very fast at attending to questions) and then got a call from the better half who was at the house to see the new wall wrap. No wall wrap. Our issue isn't that the wall wrap wasn't done yet (the speed of the build so far has been terrific), the issue/concern was that we'd been told it had been done and wasn't done. So, called the substitute admin to find out why and started to get some attitude on the phone (bigger cracks now) who quickly backtracked (rather than take any responsibility) and said, "ah well, you know this is how building a house is, this happens all the time in building, the building manager told me he'd been updated by someone and they had said it was done...so I wouldn't worry about it, I'm sure it will be done by the end of the week or early next week, I mean, it was originally scheduled for next week, so it might happen then, it's all dependent on schedules and timing and NO BUILDER, none, can ever give you exact dates.." Mixed into that narrative were a lot of "It's like I told you before," and "I already told you..." which came across with a bit of attitude. I have no doubt that time lines can be "iffy" at best when trying to schedule different trades, but I don't think you are supposed to tell the customer something has been completed when clearly it hasn't been! I don't know about you, but if I go to work and tell my boss I've done something he had been expecting me to do and then he goes and checks, only to find out it's not done, I don't think he'd be too pleased. My first thought was "And how much am I paying for this "service?" I mean my boss pays me far, far, far less than we are paying Henley, but if I told him I'd completed work I hadn't and then gave him a bit of attitude on top of that, I'm sure he'd be interviewing for my replacement the following week. Essentially the negatives that came out of this were: 1. My email with simple questions in relation to trying to get an understanding of the building process was not responded to (until I called hours later). 2. Being told a piece of work had been completed, when it clearly hadn't. 3. When calling in to question why this had occurred, getting a bit of attitude in return and talked down to, sort of like being chastised like a child for not knowing the building process or what it's like to schedule trades people. So there you go. Our original site supervisor returns to work next week and our original construction admin returns in about 2 weeks. Suffice to say the next couple of weeks should be interesting. Hopefully we'll just get right back on track and not have so much attitude next time. We invite you to follow the journey of our home building experience here: http://fundingthedream.blogspot.com/ Impressive Comeback! 34Aug 31, 2007 10:11 pm Well, don't know how many people have actually read the previous post I made in relation the the less than favorable experience I had yesterday, but if you are back for an update I have some pleasant news.
My post was put up last night at 10:46 PM. At 7:13 AM this morning there was an email waiting for me in response to my email from the previous day, detailing the building process which was what I had inquired about. Impressive! So, I quickly wrote back, thanking the substitute admin for the information and had one last question for her pertaining to the wrapping of the house. Within 3 minutes I had a phone call from said admin and a full explanation of the building process with an excellent attitude to boot. I then got an apology for being mislead in relation to Henley stating the wrap had been complete when it hadn't and an explanation as to how and why this might have happened, all to my satisfaction. I know this person is very busy, but she then went on to explain that with my regular admin on leave she was running two desks and attempts to keep me as informed as possible but might sometimes be delayed in getting back to me and that she will endeavor to continue to keep me posted on all works that are scheduled to happen or are happening as early as possible, though she herself is only updated once per week. We had a very pleasant discussion and ended with her tentatively scheduling me for my first walk-through with our Site Administrator for Thursday of the coming week. Not only that, but my wife went by the house later in the morning to check the mailbox and low and behold there was a tradesman there putting up the wrap on the house! I said in my previous post that I would hope Henley would get an understanding of where their customer was coming from and that they would adjust accordingly. I was very impressed to see the quick response to my email, a follow up call with an apology a calm and collected tone that answered all of my questions and wasn't merely trying to get me off the phone. To this admin's credit she was up and responding to emails at 7:00 in the morning, which proves how busy she must be covering for a colleague who is on leave and cared enough to take responsibility for her previous actions and to set things straight. Someone in another forum related to customer service once posted that they rate the company by how well they respond to issues as they arise. Let's face it, we are all going to have a few in the building process, but judging by this response, I know (so far), I have a company that cares about me as a customer and in the quality of work they are producing for me. As I've said before, I'm always going to be fair and give praise when it's due (which I'm happy to report is mostly what I've been doing), but will call them out when I feel it's necessary as well. I'm glad to see they rose to the occasion. We invite you to follow the journey of our home building experience here: http://fundingthedream.blogspot.com/ Re: Any good/bad experiences with Henley? 35Aug 31, 2007 10:41 pm bry&cbear,
Great to hear that Henley are treating you well. One day builders will realise that spending time and looking after customers ultimately improves a businesses success. Cheers, Casa Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Impressive Comeback! 36Sep 03, 2007 6:33 am well done b&c...glad to hear everything is going so well.
Our build is pregressing very nicely too and we are very pleased with the comms and workmanship so far. My parents who are moving to Melbourne later this year, have decided to build with Henley too, providing Henley complete our house to a good standard and in good time. Its good to see a building company making obvious efforts to improve their workmanship and image. Re: Any good/bad experiences with Henley? 37Sep 03, 2007 12:37 pm Well done! I think that communication between both parties is the key to a good building relationship. So far, we have had a great experience with Henley....
Everyone is busy so it doesn't take much to get people off side. Hope everything goes well for Thursday's walk through. Let us know.... Re: Any good/bad experiences with Henley? 39Sep 04, 2007 9:10 pm Thanks for the comments and support guys & gals. Brittany, you are right the power of th Internet is truly amazing, if used in the right way and Phoenix, you are exactly right, communication between both parties is key to successful relationships between owner & builder, but I think it's important to emphasize constructive communication as well.
Touchingcloth, the power of 'customer experience' is clearly demonstrated by your post. If things don't go well for you, Henley could lose a potential customer, not to mention several others who would read about your experiences here while considering which builder to go with etc. Hopefully of course everything goes great and both parties win. I think the key to our success was not getting mad and 'losing it' over the phone. I could tell the Admin. was a bit stressed and though I didn't like how things were being handled at the time, the more constructive means of communicating my dislike for the situation was to post it here and on my blog. I try to always remain fairly pleasant on the phone because often the person you would like to get mad at doesn't have the power to change anything anyway, so better to voice your concern to the masses. Nothing has happened this week which is fine because the brickie is scheduled to start Monday with nothing scheduled in between. Would be great if he could get out earlier, but if not no worries. Will let you all know how the site meeting with the Supervisor on Thursday goes. I'm optimistic that it will be all good. We invite you to follow the journey of our home building experience here: http://fundingthedream.blogspot.com/ Re: Any good/bad experiences with Henley? 40Mar 16, 2009 7:24 am Hi bry&cbear
What were your site costs for Henley in Craigieburn ? I have purchased a land in the Newbury village in Highlands and checked with Henley about the site costs. The sales rep quoted an approx figure of 15K which includes upgrade to an "H" slab, rock costs and other charges. I thought 15K was slightly on the higher side. Looking at what other people are paying in that area, 10K would be a more correct figure. It would be good to know your site costs as its better to compare the rates from the same builder. Cheers Avish You have mandatory building inspections and privately engaged building inspections. The difference between the two comes down to inspecting the building so it's safe and… 3 18395 You might be able to apply to divert the sewer at your expense. In NSW you would contact a Water services co-ordinator and they would give you advice as to whether or not… 1 16326 do not pay until you are satisfied with workmanship windows require flashing over the head archithrave and up under weatherboards 3 28454 |