Browse Forums Building A New House Re: In Dilemma: Sxxxxxx or any other builder 4Jun 05, 2010 12:55 pm Ed's advice is spot-on. You'll find complaints against every builder if you look hard enough. It's a fact that unhappy customers are always more vocal than the happy ones - so 90% of dissatisfied customers might complain, while 90% of satisfied customers are unlikely to ever be heard from. That kind of skews the stats a bit. But the feedback regarding how quickly and how well problems are rectified is always a more reliable indicator than the number of complaints. We had a pretty horrendous build, but the builder assumed responsibility for all of the defects, they were (eventually) rectified and compensation paid for delays. There were some minor things we were not happy with, but some of those we have to accept resonsibility for, because we made assumptions about what we were getting, rather than checking for sure. There are many other members here with similar experiences. The builders that I would stay away from are the ones who in a majority of cases don't assume responsibility for their mistakes, repeatedly fail to answer phone calls, emails or letters about issues, deny the owners access to the site, put obstacles in the way of you getting impartial advice, and who have a poor track record when it comes to post-handover rectifications. Do your research very, very carefully.... Re: In Dilemma: Sxxxxxx or any other builder 5Jun 05, 2010 2:53 pm I am agreed with you all; so far (we haven't signed the building contract yet !!) our CSO has been treating us nicely, returning our calls. but in the bottom of my heart I still hesitate a bit after reading threads about S in H1. hopefully it remains the same in future as it is with our CSO. thanks for your feedback & time. Re: In Dilemma: Sxxxxxx or any other builder 6Jun 05, 2010 4:01 pm Unfortunately the CSO you have now won't be the same as the CSO you have the moment you sign the contract. I can tell you now that one CSO is geared towards bending over at every request you have, the next CSO doesn't bend... if you get my drift. Before you sign your contract.... ask yourself.... 1.) Do you have it in your hand? Or will you get it on the day and have 1hr to read and sign? 2.) Do you have a page in there (page 9 I am guessing) that relenquishes your right to the standard Building Act 1995 progress payment schedule? Ask them why do you need to pay 20% more for progress payments then what the Act stipulates? 3.) Does your contract state that your liquidated damages are only $200 per week when the building standard is at least $250? 4.) Does your contract include as a provisional sum of $8,000 or so for a H class slab? That usually means that they will include it a week after you sign the contract (week because 5days is your cooling off period) 5.) Will you get the silo report and computations on the contract day or do they say "the silo report included is a preliminary result"? And many more. Is this only for the company you are building with? No... Other big builders are catching on and doing the same. Think about it this way, to loose $1500 today could save you $$$$ in the future. From what I read on Homeone, they will do anything to get you to sign. Have you had a look at productreview on google? Re: In Dilemma: Sxxxxxx or any other builder 7Jun 05, 2010 4:18 pm I agree with Ed. It does matter who you build with. By the way Ed, the Ecoclassics arrived at my house the other day and were installed, love 'em hehe. I'll probably be having a chat with ya in a few months about flyscreens! Re: In Dilemma: Sxxxxxx or any other builder 8Jun 05, 2010 4:51 pm ibfragalot99 I agree with Ed. It does matter who you build with. By the way Ed, the Ecoclassics arrived at my house the other day and were installed, love 'em hehe. I'll probably be having a chat with ya in a few months about flyscreens! Glad you like them... builders like them too because they are so easy to install and are covered in protective tape & film... Thanks Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 I recently went through a similar renovation and move scenario when updating our family home. We also swapped some rooms around and tackled a major… 2 10556 Thank you so much. This has been very helpful. We definitely wish to settle and get these people out of our life. They are trying to charge us interest on late… 7 14558 It is in lake macquarie area and dimensions are width 14 m and depth 8 m and the slope is 1/5 going down from the road. 1 7687 |