Any comment on National Builders Group

hi guys me and my fiance are just about done with our finals and approval, its been a long process between the bank and builder but we are looking forward to starting, hopefully our build goes well nbg has been good with all our changes and whats included in our package fingers crossed

Great to hear S & M-the Ellington is a nice floor plan ( we looked at it when we were still thinking about building on a normal sized block )-have you started your own buld thread yet?

Nah havent started a thread yet i will soon once its under way. We fell in love with the elington but have made many changes just looking forward to the build,its our first build so hoping it goes all well

hey guys just an update NBG rand me up today we have been booked in for color selection in 3 weeks we are so excited final drawings are getting done along with permits star rating and the rest of it WOOO HOOOOOOOOO

Hi,

Good luck with the whole process. Colourworld is exciting.

Dee did mention in a post in another thread (I think Rowena's thread) that NGB include a few metres of feature tiling.
Also remember to take your camera so you can take photos of the colour combinations as you will end up revisiting those photos a few times.

Michelle

Hi,

I found most of the inclusions were acceptable, however the things I ended upgrading were:
- Heating unit from 3 star to 5 star with a zone motor (so bedrooms can be on a separate zone to living areas) approx $1500
- Double glazing of windows and sliding doors (approx $5500)
- Sarking in the roof (reflective foil is not standard just the ceiling batts. Something you really should consider if going for colorbond roof)
- Additional double power points
- Additional tv points (I think only one was standard)
- Additional phone points (I think only one was standard)
- Upgrade to have brickword above windows instead of cement sheet and brickwork above garage and rear roller door with steel lintel (approx $3000)
- Upgraded some of the areas of carpet to tiles
- Additional lights (they do not provide enough downlights, so consider getting extras or replacing them with alternatives)
- Privacy locks on the bathroom, toilet etc are not standard (approx $40 each)
- Single towel rails in bathroom and ensuites (may want to upgrade to double)
- Upgrade of splashback in kitchen to low iron glass

Good luck!

Michelle

Hi All,

I have been reading the posts re. NBG and I too am building the Buckingham36

I have not had as pleasant an experience as some of you. Before proceeding into a contract with NBG I spent a lot of time talking to many of their clients and reading these posts. I am a very fastidious person and pay very close attention to all the fine print and details. Fortutantely me for me I can understand building plans and legal contracts. I must say I have been extremely disappointed.

I first started the process with NBG in early 2009. Each change requested to the standard plans took about 2 months and would not be done correctly. I had to constantly check for errors, even after I signed off on changes, in later revisions prior changes would disappear and it was up to me to discover this and request they be done again. It was up to me to ensure that any changes were possible and no advise was provided on how to change the floor plan to meet my needs. Mind you my changes were only minor to the standard design. I have seen many Buckinghams with changes much more dramatic than my own.

I demolished my house in Aug 2009 as requested. I arranged this and it was completed in a very short period of time as NBG insisted it be done before quotation stage. They made me rush through my part and all my decisions but they took an extremely long time on their part and with many errors. My block of land looks very flat but my site costs turned out to be about $21k, mostly due to the fact that my house was demolished. The demolished house resulted in a "P" slab, but in this absence would be an "M" slab.

My contract was signed Dec 2009 but the final drawings were not completed until April 2010.
During this process I received a lot of incorrect information from NBG. The permit was received in Aug 2010.
When I met with my builder I went over the points of the plans with him. I pointed out one of the items and he said it was not possible to build it that way even though that is how it was shown on the council approved plans and specifically listed in the contract. I then had to come up with a solution to their error because his suggestions we more than unsatisfactory.

I was advised that construction commenced Oct 2010 but my slab still hasn't started. I have made dozens of calls and e-mails to NBG and my builder but keep getting excuses.

Needless to say my house was demolished Aug 2009 and now it is Feb 2011 and the slab hasn't even started!
I am more than frustrated at my experience. I have written many long letters of complaint to my builder and NBG detailing the issues and they don’t seem to care. I have spent a lot time checking their work and explaining to them things they should be explaining to me. I did in fact speak to a NBG member who admitted to the problems they have with their drafts people and the errors occurring.

I would be please to provide further information to anyone who may need it. I have come across many people who are upset with their builder but in fact it is because they have not understood the fine print or information provided. I can confidently say I am not one of those people. The problems I have experienced thus far I feel are due to the lack of expertise, knowledge, communication and care from NBG and my builder.

I will keep you updated with my progress (or lack thereof).

^^^Tool, sounds like a frustrating journey....the main thing for people to remember when dealing with NBG is that they work as a type of co-op. The individual builders pay a % to NBG to be part of the marketing & buying power of a large group. Once the contracts etc are signed, then your dealings are directly with your builder-not NBG! This can be frustrating....

This is our 4th build and our 1st with NBG. We did find some aspects very annoying (still do in fact!), but at the end of the day, we are getting a very well built house with quality fittings for much less than we would have paid with a number of the other major companies ( I know-because I checked inclusions & upgrade costs! )-albeit at a slow pace!

We are building with NBG.
It has been a long process getting to the build stage. We changed house designs after a few months of planning as the site costs for the first home were going to be $35k. We changed homes from a 56sq to 50sq - reducing the size and presenting a compaction report lowered site costs to approx $24k (our block is flat but on fill). We changed & tweaked the plans to suit ourselves which is one of the things I loved about the planning process. Our consultant came up with some great ideas and nothing was too much trouble. We were extremely happy with the end result of the design. We first signed our contract in Aug 2010 and then went through the variation & upgrade process and then re-drafting etc. We have roughly spent an extra $25k on upgrades (this is our dream home - well one based in reality ) We had our appointment at Colourworld back in early November, this was pretty exciting and we were very happy with the service & help. We expected things to get a real move on after that however due to some extra council requirements, xmas and more council delays our block has been sitting pegged out since early December...then nothing . Our slab was supposed to be poured mid Jan. Pretty frustrated at this stage but we have finally got some excavation happening so hopefully it will now go forward in leaps and bounds (this is what our builder has told us)
This is our 3rd build (1st with nbg) so we are no strangers to the process and at this point I would say this is slow compared to the others. Hopefully once it actually gets going we can start to relax about it a little. I do think the end result will be worth the wait

here is my blog (some house details, colourworld selections etc. I thought I would have written a lot more about our build by now hopefully much more very soon). Just skip over the family stuff - I don't have time to do separate blogs . You are welcome to follow our build journey http://8eightisenough.blogspot.com/

We are almost at the end of a NBG house build. -Hotham 26 (with lots of changes to the plans from us)

and all i can say is thank god!

Up to the point where we were handed over to our builder, Citiwest, the entire journey was long painful and rather heartbreaking at times, with us at one point, thinking we were going to lose our dream entirely.
When they did the handover to the builder, they didnt bother to hand over the compaction reports, and until we were told by Citiwest that we needed 36 piers which would cost us in excess of $50k, we would never have known!
This was the heart ache that we were talking about. As many of you here are first home owners like us, im sure you can relate to the fact that money is not something that is plentiful, so when we were told that we needed all these piers, we were at the point of losing our deposits and having to sell our block.
Thankfully, our next door neighbour in the estate is a builder and suggested asking CW weather they had compaction reports, since he figured it was impossible that we needed so many piers, when there were only 2 houses in our entire street that he knew of that needed only 2 piers.
We asked, and thanks to our neighbour, discovered NBG stuff up. They forgot to hand over some of the documents!
In the end, we ended up having to put to piers in on one side... that was all. A lot less to try and find finacially than $50k.

Citiwest on the other hand... OMG, these guys have been fantastic and the site Manager has been fabulous!

We are at the Fixing stage - so almost done.

We are doing our own flooring - Bamboo and carpet and installing our own heating and AC through Plum since NBG were so expensive in comparison for a less quality product than we have found.

It is amazing though, reading through all the posts here, the different expereinces that people have had, though i guess its the same with every builder.
Me personally, if i had to deal with NBG thr entire way through this build, I would have definately never dealt with them again, and would probably been committed by now.

The only issue we have had to this point is that we wanted our skirtings to be supplied but not installed, so we could do the flooring first, which NBG said we could do, only to discover last week, CW would not do.
So, that has caused an unexpected cost to use to have these removed for flooring to be done and reinstalled.

Other than that... everything else has run rather smoothly..

We have been told that we should be done by the end of march... Bring it on!

That's interesting Sandra. We had heaps of piers and that is where a real cost blow out occurred with us as well. It wasn't until our neighbour asked if we had submitted a compaction report that we were even aware of it. Turns out our nbg consultant suggested getting the report also a day or so later but this is after we had already gone to our first quote - just thought it was something nbg would have been on to right from the start (would have saved us from the heart attack we had) Number of piers went down after that but we've still got a few unfortunatley.
Hope the rest of your build is pain free!

im sorry that you had to expereince the same thing...

I hope that the rest of our build is painless!


Thanks for the well wishes.. i hope that the rest of the build will be pain free... goodness knows, we are only a few weeks away so really... im hoping they dont pull out a curve ball on us now! hahaha.
Na... i think we are on the home stretch now...
yay!

Hey Everyone,

I'm another first home builder that is considering NBG, my partner and I are incredibly happy with the inclusions they offer (home cinema pack!) and we have payed the $500 holding fee.

I'm a little worried after reading all the posts about how long it took to get the contract together, I'm hoping that because we're building in a new estate, the process shouldn't be as painful. I've submitted soil compaction reports, designer guidelines, and everything else I could think of that our Sales Rep (Jason) would need to get everything together for us.

We did make some alterations to the design (The City 230E) however I don't think it was anything too major (just reducing the length of the house to fit the easement we have along the back fence line) ... plus NBG advertise that they are happy to make alterations to the designs.

Is there anything else I should do? Or is it just time to play the waiting game?

Everyone seems so helpful in these forums, it's great!

Mat

We are in between fixing and completion stage for our Buckingham 36. Building is never smooth, and we never expected it to be smooth. Just do your homework and remember it is a two way thing between you and NBG. We just made sure the communication lines were always open and although things are sometimes slow, they also seem to work out in the end.

A few "nutshell" comments about our experience so far;

1) NBG sales rep. was very good.
2) Contracts process not the best, we did a knock down rebuild, and did not get too much guidance from NBG. Process largely driven by ourselves, and seemingly NBG were "learning" with us along the way!
3) Be very, very careful reading your contracts, don't be in a rush to sign on during your quote presentation. There can be quite a few mistakes in the initial quote. We had a fair few in ours, some of the younger staff in their offices can be quite error prone. Take the contract documents home and digest it well. If you work well with your sales rep you can also work through the contract with him/her.
4) Our Colourworld consultant was very good. Helpful and didn't rush us.
5) Our builder is very good with communicating and getting back to us on matters. Sometimes progress seems slow but most delays when you discuss with the builder are not unreasonable. Quality of build is good, we are happy.

I do hope we finish soon! Can't wait to get in...

Hey guys me and my fiance are just about to start building, our process with NBG has been pretty good through the whole thing.They changed our house plans with no questions asked, everything was done pretty much on time so i would recommend people going with NBG. Some people on this forum expect too much from builders so dont believe everything that is said on here. Their inclusions are alos pretty good compared to other builders

We are building a Buckingham 320E in Eastern Suburbs, Melbourne.

The main reason we chose NBG, is their flexibility of design and site access for owners works.
Other building companies don't even allow you to step foot on site without a site supervisor being present at a scheduled time, let alone you do work there

We signed up in Feb 2010 and took the 3 month price freeze. We used that time to thoroughly research all aspects of the NBG product and our site etc.
NBG did pressure us to sign the Q&A by a certain date, and hit us for another $1k due to a 'so called' price increase. Initially I was furious, but then I saw that the base price of our house had actually risen $18k since our signup! We got off lightly.
Contract times & payment stages are very generous towards builder - over 300 days to build a house. I would definitely change this and the payment options if I ever build with NBG or anyone again
We made substantial structural changes, NBG were happy to accommodate these. Communication between departments is not great. The way drafting interpreted the written Q&A document into drawings was erroneous. We had 5 sets of plans before final, to weed out mistakes.
In my opinion, if anything, NBG lack good communication. From a clients perspective, they are very had to get hold of at the best of times.

Once you have paid your 5% and signed off you Colour Selections, you deal with your builder from then on. Which, in my case, is great

See the 'My tips for NBG Clients' section of my blog for more info.
Cheers

We're with NBG too.....signed the contract in Jul 2009 and still waiting for the house to be handed over to us....
NBG's subcontractor Infinity has told us that they had applied for occupancy certificate..first inspection was done by the building surveyor on 22Feb and the FINAL inspection on 1st Mar. They say that the surveyor provides the report in 48 hrs. but we haven't heard back from Infinity (as usual)...Anyone knows how long it takes to get the occupancy certificate after the building surveyor has done the inspection....??
Has anyone dealt with Infinity before?

Hi All,

It's been interesting reading everyone's comments.

I understand that building is never easy and there are bound to be problems. I am however frusstrated at the lack of expertise and knowledge I encountered from many of the NBG staff. Though my experience, I had to do most of the work and they still got it wrong, and I would have to keep repeating myself and checking their work until they finally did their job right.

I don't blame my builder so much, I think NBG have assigned him too much work and he can not cope with the workload.

On the positive side my slab has finally gone down! After speaking with consumer affairs I finally got some action. Let's see how things progress from here.

All the best to everyone with their build!

We are building the Vaucluse 390E.

Our experience with NBG and our builder has been incredibly time consuming, frustrating and disappointing. I have never come across a company with poorer communication and accountability in my life.

As for the comment 'people expect too much of builders' - here's what I expect:
- good, open, honest and timely communication
- accuracy and attention to detail when dealing with drawings, quotes and contracts
- that things are delivered or completed as promised
- if there are delays or problems these are communicated
- that the build progresses as a reasonable rate, per contract timeline
- that building materials such as windows, doors and timber are not left sitting exposed to the elements for months (causing things like bent roof trusses and cracked, split, water damaged reveals)
- that all work completed is of a good standard
- that the site doesn't look like a bomb has hit it
- that the building site is secure

None of the above has occurred in our case (I'm not saying this is the case for everyone).

I would NEVER use them again, I would advise against anyone else doing so.

Hi All,

we signed up in august 2010 and last week received final working drawings... i think its a case of squeaky wheel gets the oil.. in hindsight i should have squeaked alot more.