Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 2Oct 24, 2009 11:23 am We now have a blog. http://allaboutthebuild.blogspot.com/ Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 5Nov 08, 2009 7:15 pm synthman the lack of responses We're still waiting for a quote from them for a house design we liked back in June...luckily we decided to cut our losses after waiting 4 weeks. We had one email from the sales consultant saying he would send us the quote in the next few days.....never heard from him again. Hope you get/got your issue resolved. Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 6Nov 08, 2009 8:01 pm Depends on the contract - does it cover $1,000 admin? This is not a real cost as Claredon have to pay their staff anyway. For other costs, I would ask for itemised receipts from their suppliers. Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 7Nov 08, 2009 8:22 pm We too had bad experiences with the first builder we were going to go with. Decided to cut our losses and move on - best move we made. Hopefully you can move forward without hearing anything further from them!! Building on the Sunshine Coast - Land settled 22nd July 2009 Building contract finally signed (after much deliberation on our part) 11th November 2009 Building commences 25th January 2010 - small local builder End of June - almost completed fit out 26th July - MOVE IN DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 8Nov 09, 2009 11:27 am This is the latest update. As there was no contact details on the letter (it was written by an Office Admin without signing), I had to make a contact via the orginal Sales person at the display centre. He said he could not do much but would forward my email inquiry to his manager. That was 14 days ago. When I followed up last Saturday, he said he was on leave and would follow up today. Thanks all for sharing your experience. Post from Free Will was interesting as I don't think $1000 was mentioned anywhere on the Tender. Lex, like yourself, I was wondering whether all money has been spent at this early stage in my case (I did raise this in my email to the Sales person). I can understand that they had spent time talking to me, going over the changes to the designs, seeing me at their head office etc...that equates to a loss for them compared to the profit they would have earned if I went ahead all the way...but that is part of the cost for conducting a business anyway I would have thought. There is no clauses stating that once you have paid a deposit of $4000, you can not pull out does not matter whether you like to proceed or not, whether you discover flaws in the design or the way the builder conduct business, or you will be billed for losses...This is odd to me...I work for a business too and customers have the right to walk away. We then attempt to contact the customers to find out the reasons, calm them down, match competitor's offers, resolve conflicts etc...for the purpose of improving the competitiveness of our business. We don't send our customer a bill on top of the deposit they have lost, just because they cancel. They legally will loose the non-refundable deposit but in many cases, the deposit is refunded if it was our fault that we had caused this customer to walk away...Oh, in other cases, we had to compensate for the customer's losses...I think we are in an over regulated business anyway but that is good for the general consumers who may be victims of hungry businesses. Perhaps we need similar regulation for the project homes building industry? Anyway, I will eventually at one stage, request them to itemise and supply invoices for the charges that they are claiming. I hope to be able to move on without any hassle. Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 9Nov 09, 2009 11:32 am P.S I have noticed that they have just increased the deposit from $4000 to $5000 or $6000. Please look at their website. This may be the result of dealing with many cancelling customers and I am just one of these. To me, this is a good action on their part. If they decide that it costs them 5 or 6k each time a customer walks away then it should be stated upfront like this. Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 10Nov 09, 2009 11:46 am synthman .... .... Perhaps we need similar regulation for the project homes building industry? Anyway, I will eventually at one stage, request them to itemise and supply invoices for the charges that they are claiming. I hope to be able to move on without any hassle. This is not how things work in this bloody industry. Having 15+ years of experience in IT where the customer is a king I was thrilled and shocked by the absence of customer service (at least in the form I'm used to deliver and receive it). My Clarendon tender presenter was just a piece of rotten turd to put it in plain English. I was going to pull off and disengage, however, thanks to this forum, after reading others' experiences I understood that the problems happen plus quite often we have unrealistic expectations. Currently I'm quite happily building a house with Clarendon and so far so good.. But yeah, the tender was a nightmare and a way to test if I had nerves of steel or not.... ... built a Promenade with Clarendon. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=25104 20-10-09 - excavation and piering completed ... 12-04-10 - Basins fixed. Connecting to the electrical grid 23-04-10 - PCI 07-05-10 - HANDOVER! Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 11Nov 09, 2009 2:29 pm ebyelyakov This is not how things work in this bloody industry. Having 15+ years of experience in IT where the customer is a king I was thrilled and shocked by the absence of customer service (at least in the form I'm used to deliver and receive it). ... I understood that the problems happen plus quite often we have unrealistic expectations. Currently I'm quite happily building a house with Clarendon and so far so good... ebyelyakov, yes you have described exactly how I feel. Agreed that I may have to lower my expectation when dealing with this industry... All the best with your home with Clarendon... I have nothing to complaint about the builder that I am looking at building with so far... Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 12Nov 09, 2009 2:47 pm I suggest making a complaint to consumer affairs in your state (actually I suggest everyone that is having issues with their builder to do this - they log the number of complaints directed about a particular company or industry and if a pattern of issues emerges they step in to investigate and regulate the industry). They might not be able to help you directly but the more people with legitimate concerns about how builders are running their business the more likely something is to be done about the rampant issues in the industry... it certainly has made a huge difference in the way cars and holidays are now advertised. ... After my building nightmare with the Big M I spoke to them and they pointed me in the direction of some very helpful free legal advice regarding contract and consumer law and they helped me draft a letter and gave me advice on the "what to do next" steps if it was ignored. Good luck - I hope this works out for you Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 13Nov 09, 2009 11:15 pm Sorry to hear about your ordeal. I paid my deposit 3x to 3 different builders and I learnt that if the builder demands a higher than expected deposit, it's best not to proceed. $1000 to Metricon - only to get it back after I threaten to file a misleading sales practises complaint to Consumer Affairs. The soil test report was done by then and I was scheduled for color/fittings selections. The changes to the plan I wanted were almost all knocked back by Metricon Drafting Dept. I was no push-over when the sales consultant told me she was not the one to approve changes. $2500 to Ashford Homes - never got it back. Filed complaint to Consumer Affairs and BACV but to no avail as Ashford Homes produced paperwork to back that it spent the money on soil test report, contour survey, rescode compliance, drafting of plans, site investigation for service requirements. In fact, I was told I had to pay extra $1000 on top of the $2500 to get tender documents prepared. Ashford took 6-months to prepare tender documents and back-flipped on the $150 pw compensation for per week building delay. I got cold feet and terminated further dealings. $1500 to Simonds Homes - so far so good. I think it all boils down who handles your file, the SS assigned to you and how much "fingerwork", footwork you do. I am getting my own independent builder inspector to check the stages. Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 14Nov 11, 2009 3:14 pm [quote="rocketleaves"] I paid my deposit 3x to 3 different builders... I am glad to hear you are going well so far with the last builder. I used to feel bad about the deposit money we had lost as it is a sizeable amount to us but thinking a bit more about this, a small loss now but likely will result in greater benefits in the long term... I have just followed up with the sales person and have not heard back from him yet. Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 15Jan 26, 2010 2:25 pm Hi everyone, I am pleased to report a happy ending to this story. Just before Christmas, Clarendon Homes sent me a letter advising that I did not have to pay any extra money on top of the $4000 deposit. Re: Clarendon demands money on top of the $4000 when I cancelled 17Jan 26, 2010 7:51 pm that's graet synth - although I thought their $1K admin fee was a bit of a giggle!!! builders really do try it on don't they. good luck with your next venture... A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ As a tradesmen get a private inspector although I don't think there worth it in their profession themselves the reminder they serve to the tradesmen doing the work is… 3 28021 I've just had a look at the website. The company are just building broker's. There are plenty of similar companies that basically draw your plans (they own them so you… 8 11881 Yeah sorry man, thats always been my fear during this first time build.. we have literally just hit lockup as-well, so ive been praying for no issues. Our mortgage /… 3 2868 |