NEW DIMENSION HOMES

My husband and I emailed our wish list and finance to New dimension homes...(broken down in simple terms as below)...

Our finance consists of:
$81,000 deposit
+ $29,000 First home owners grant
+ $130,000 borrowed from the Bank
This totals $240,000 - do NOT add on the First home owners grant as it is already included in the $240,000 TOTAL. (not rocket science, right)???

My husband and I were told that we had to sign on to a block of land before he could put a house on it. Being naive and first home owners we looked to him for trustworthy steps and advice. He said the house and land we wanted was within our budget. So, we gave him the deposits of $2000 for our 740m2 block of land and $2500 deposit for the house.

The land then went unconditional and he later sent us the final contracts to sign. However, when we looked at the cost of the house on the final contract, it was $30,000 OVER our budget.

We then contacted him and asked what was going on and he again, played stupid. We could not get out of our land contract as it was unconditional and could not afford to put a house on this land because of his mistake. The owner of New Dimension Homes called us and basically did NOTHING for us. They kept our $2500 house deposit, even though we didn't build with them and actually came back to us and told us that the house plans they did cost $6000 and we owed them money!!!

Please read our story below and let us know what you think...we would love to hear your feedback and please let all your friends and family know about NEW DIMENSION HOMES....

The first house they designed for us and told us was $240,000 was actually $269,000 because they added the First home owners grant on top of what we told them our finance was.

We corrected this problem with the agent and he then came and saw us in Sale with the redesigned house that he said was within our budget.
We then discovered,while he was with us in Sale that we were over budget by $30,000 which we proceeded to reduce the size of the house and the quality of the fittings to bring it down to $239,999.

Now,we have received the contracts and it adds up $270,000 which is made up of our $240,000 + an error of an extra home owners grant.

This means that the second house he had done for us was actually a $300,000 house which means that after we told him the first one was too expensive he redesigned an even more expensive one.

FRUSTRATED

A sad story indeed, Just goes to show why you need to put things in writing. if you did then have a chat to your solicitor.

In terms of getting your deposit back, it depends on what your contract states...

For sure, they shouldn't be trying to hit you up for the $6000 in plans, unless you signed a preliminary agreement to that effect...

Sounds like N.. D... were playing the game, hoping to push you into a more expensive house...

Was it a house and land contract? Or Land.... And House contracts?

This is horrible for you, obviously very frustrating. I'm really surprised you signed a contract for X dollars, and then they have come up with a higher price (ie $30K more) and just expect you to say "yeah ok". You really need to talk to a soly about your rights with regards to the $6,000 drafting fees (ridiculous) and getting your $2,000 back. Perhaps you should consider VCAT to assist you.

Annie

Thanks for your comments everyone!
We do have some emails that were back and forth but we aren't sure if going to a solictor will cost is more in the long run or not. If we had the money to do that, we would definetly do so.
As for the $6000. they are saying that they have "sold" some things i.e. soil test etc so we don't have to pay it back. They are NOT getting any more money out of us. I am taking this story to the media to make sure the public are well aware of what kind of people they are dealing with...and to SHOP around and do your research.
It seems like there is a big hole in the system as I wonder why we "had" to sign up for the land before we had our house contracts. He could have designed us a million dollar house and we would not have been able to do anything about it.