Simonds Homes problems

I was just about to tell you to call them.!.!

Im having the same problem with the drafting costs. They refuse to refund even thought they are incorrect. BACV has said I have a case so therefore I have submitted all required forms.

On my 'Job Cost' report which I presume you received this is what I was charged for:

Site Report 341.82

Engineering Computations $310

Drafting Allowance $470

Totaling $1121....

So far I have received 2 separate refunds totaling $607. How they come to that figure I have no idea, I am promised another $110... for the site report as this was paid for but council refunded some money or something blah blah.
And now im waiting on BACV to help me with the drafting costs of $470.

So its just a matter of time till I get the rest back.

I was expecting to have paid some costs but what they tried charging for was outrageous.

To Amyife and boiselfish,
Don't give up on the refunds, get back what you are entitled to, in FULL! If the BACV has said that you are entitled to everything, unless a break down is given, then push it all the way. You have their backing hence i'm assuming 'S' will yield sooner or later. Good luck to you both!

Regarding my situation, big milestone from my end today - signed off on the PCI. Most of the items on the our second PCI list were attended to.. or at least attempted to be rectified. However still some items outstanding which were done on the stop when we picked them up! Still awaiting the completion of the central heating, which they had forgotten to install (which is standard in all 'S' Homes), and the replacement of our Garage door. They are the main items still to go. there are a million little touch ups that could have been done much better, but satisfied that the major issues have been ironed out.

Now i am awaiting a settlement and handover date. Once i get the final payment in order with the bank i believe i can pretty much call up and settle whenever i am ready, which is good.

After all these dramas over the past month, i can say i'm 90% happy with the house. far from perfect. But Am happy that 'S' came to the party and actually attempted to rectify some issues!

will let you guys know when a date is know for handover!

Bunky I'm glad that things are working out for you. I know exactly what you mean about 'touch ups that could have been done better'... It seems to come down to a matter of choosing your battles. We had painters in our house fo 3 full days after handover and there are still lots things that could or should have been done better.

We have had a small win this morning... The 'S' house next door is currently being bricked and the brickies need access to our property so that they can do the top half of the garage (that's against our fenceline). Their SS (who also happened to be our SS) came over this morning to ask for us to allow them access. OH agreed that they could access our property ONLY if they fixed a front path and the pitting in the brickwork that wasn't fixed properly last time... Surprisingly the SS agreed (albeit reluctantly). OH then asked SS if he (the SS) would be like to show the brickies where the repairs were required (they're doing it this Saturday) and his response... "...I'll leave that to you to do..." ( seems he doesn't want to work on the weekend ).

We also have Kevin coming in this afternoon to do a re-inspection to ensure that the brick repairs have actually been done properly this time. I'm really hoping that it's right this time... I really DON'T want them to have to pull our walls apart AGAIN!!!!

Hi Artstitches,

Yes it is a relief that its almost over. The fighing was getting pretty tiresome, but we weren't gonna relent and have the major issues not rectified. I'm happy enough that the house is satisfactory, not perfect.

I'm glad to hear you got a breakthrough!! Its nice when you hold the power isn't it? They need to request something from YOU rather than you requesting them to do something! Happy to hear that your issues are finally being addressed! I know that the house next door to mine is a Simonds house also, and is also a rep from their sale office! so should be interesting come the time they need our permission for anything! could come in handy down the track!

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SherWin,

Decking sounds positive, seeing how you had independents do it and not big S.

Show us a pic...? please.

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I agree!!the less that they did the better!!

I am so glad that we didn't get S to do any extras as I'm sure that we'd have been unhappy with the result! For us we didn't upgrade or add extras because of budget constraints, but I'm VERY glad of that fact now! I even wish that we'd left out the feature tiles as that is one thing that I am particularly unimpressed with.

I would really have hated to have paid for upgrades and extras that were substandard. For us it was more a matter of budget but

Also building with S!!!!!!
Can anyone let me know-
Do you ever go on site without letting S!!!!!! know?
Do you ever get through if you make a phone call to your CSO or SS?
How do you contact your CSO or SS?
How often do you get to go through the house?


My first post - I hope it goes through ok.

Hi Wondering! Welcome to the forum

We did go onsite without the SS and in the beginning made the mistake of mentioning it and we were thrown the line "...can't go onsite without a supervisor... blah-blah-blah... breach of contract... blah-blah-blah..." We learnt very quickly to not mention it and not get caught Of course every time we mentioned an issue to the CSO the first words from her mouth were always "you didn't go onsite without the SS did you?" so I learnt to say - "I noticed by looking through the fence that..."

Towards the end of our build we found it very difficult getting through to our CSO - until we learnt to block our number and our calls were answered every time SS was usually pretty good and would return any calls he missed - got to the point where I didn't bother leaving a message because he returned calls based on the missed call and didn't seem to check messages during the day. Anything that I wanted recorded however I would email it and follow up with a phone call - all of these emails are kept on file which can be helpful later on. I would use the contact us from the My Simonds page because I'd receive a receipt of all emails sent as evidence that it was received.

We started off trying to go to see the house every week - which the SS told us we could do when we met with him early on - but this usually didn't happen. In our case if we wanted to see the house we would ring the SS and arrange a site visit. At each visit we would then try to book a time for the next one. We learnt to arrange these visits with the SS directly because the CSO booked a visit once but didn't speak with the SS about it - she emailed him - and as a result he didn't turn up... Lesson learnt!! We ended up dealing mostly with the SS because even though he's not the smartest cookie in the box, he did return our calls and it was him arranging the work - the CSO would just stuff us around

Good luck with your build - what stage are you up to?

After reading all these posts, I am glad I pulled out from the deal at the last minute. Just recently managed to get my deposit back as well..
phew!! what a relief

Hi Wondering,

Welcome to the forum!

I'll try and answer the questions above.

Do i go on site without the site supervisor knowing... short answer, Yes. Long answer, you should try and organise regular site inspections with the SS. We have got to the stage where the SS, CSO and superiors will not cooperate and provide us with reasonable site access. Trouble is, although the house is in lock up stage, it is all too easy to get into the house. doors unlocked, windows not locked. never once have we gone to the house and not been able to find a way in.

We make phone calls to our CSO up until where we started having issues, our build was escalated to her superior, and from then on we ceased communication with the CSO. it really depends on who you are lucky enough (or in some cases unlucky enough) to have assigned to your construction. calling often resulted in no answers to our questions. Email is best, you have it on record if u ever need to escalate the issue in the future.

Initially we wanted to meet once a fortnight at the site to have a walkthrough. Throughout the build i think we visited the house on 4-5 occasions. This was partially due to me being interstate most of the week hence unable to schedule convenient times. Ensure u are meeting the SS as much as possible on site to check on their quality of work, and to keep them on their toes!

Keep us updated of your progress.. we're all here to help if you need any!

All the best and good luck!

Thank you Artstitches & Bunky

Very interesting. Yes, we have twice been told that we cannot go onsite without one of them. If we hadn't we would not have picked up on some major errors that i will tell you about at some later stage.

I have finally had a conversation with a higher up and hopefully things will be fixed to our satisfaction.

The frame stage has been completed and we are almost at lockup.

People should still be seeing this thread!

Just to let you guys know that we had our PCI today at 10am. Sure, it was 12 weeks late, but the only issues were basic paint touch-ups. Otherwise, everything else had been resolved. So, whatever Simonds are doing up north to fix their issues, it seems to be working.

Hi Guys,

I've gone through pretty much this whole post and it's comforting to discover that I ain't the only one having issues with Simonds. Although mine might not be as bad as some horror stories mentioned in here, it is still pretty frustrating for me being a young buck building my first home. I'm currently building in South Morang, and from the word GO it's just been a very painful and inconsistent process. Work started back in April, and in hindsight should have been completed in Aug - Sept but after around 5 Site Supervisors who have come and gone (and the latest SS who has only been working there for two weeks sounds like he's also going to quit too) it just does not give me the confidence at all. Also not to mention that I haven't even had my first PCI yet!!. I could go on and on with the dramas I've had to face, but it's pretty much the same old stuff that's already been posted here, so I'll save the details.
So, here's where I am at at the moment - the house is pretty much 99% complete. The workmanship of the place has been within standard (although I have not had a chance to go over it with a microscope) the only major defect was a crack on the mortar along the bricks at the rear of the house but the rest are minor scuffs and dents that need to be touched, Gas line is yet to be connected and one of the doors to be replaced due someone attempting to break-in and damaging the door. This has been like this pretty much since the end of August..hence the reason I'm pretty annoyed! And when you feel like there is progress been made you discover that the SS has spat the dummy and left the company which puts things into disarray, and this is what it's been like for the last 6 - 8 weeks.
Anyway, I don't know where to turn to and the only option I have is just to keep pumping the CSO with emails and calls. So I would like to gather some consensus/advise from someone who may have or still is going through the pain I'm currently going through.

up till now altogether 2 months, we only get disappointingly about $233 refund, and the person from BACV said they can do nothing to it because S*monds never get contact with either me or BACV, even not a word from S*monds no matter how many emails we sent....so today I called BACV again, and they still did not receive any response from S*monds, and the person from BACV said to me the only thing I can do is to seek VCAT what I can do ?? if seek to VCAT , does it mean that more trouble comes along and that I'm gonna pay legal fees , and the possibility that I may not win the tribunal feel frustrated....maybe I will think of giving up....

VCAT is a tribunal, it isn't a court of law but both parties have to abide by the outcome. The person chairing the case is normally a lawyer of some kind. You don't have a lawyer yourself, you go in there with all your evidence and present your case yourself. The key is to try to only present the facts and be relaxed (yeah right!) as you have nothing to lose only to gain!! I'm not sure what it costs but it would be very minimal.

Goodluck!

Hi all,

Has any one had a additional solar panel added to there site cost.
Why would they need it?
I thought that there homes where 5 star rated what ever way your turn them.
They quoted it in the fixed site cost but left it out in the tender.

Another note i found was the there "No Rock Cost" does not cover you for rocks removed other than the ones found in eathworks and service runs and the client pays for the filling.
So much for fixed site cost. Has any one had and problems around fixed site costs.

Other thing i noticed in the contact the promise to get you the grant, but in the contract there is a hole page on how they are not responsible for it. There is also not mention of what happens if you land is delayed.

In my experience go over every thing not once not twice but 5 times and if they promise you any thing GET IT IN WRITING.

I was ripped of they told me that if there is no price increase and the start taking orders for may next year that they will refund me extension on the fixed base price.
It didn't happen. If they promise you any thing GET IT IN WRITING.

Hi, does anyone know how long it takes to receive the refund cheque of the deposit? Thanks!