Snowdon Review

Hi,

I would like to ask anyone who has built a house with Snowdon whether they have a bad experience or good.

I build a house with them 2 and half years ago. Recently made a complaint to fix defects on sagging plaster ceiling, wall plaster peaking + nails popping out.

They sent a Inspector wearing a Boral Shirt, to measure the plaster defects and made a report a week later. I believe this person is one of their staff to make false reports so they don't have to fix the defects.

The Report states it meets the Australian Standard and no fix can be done.

I am a bit surprised that Australian Standard seems to be poor when it is really obvious under natural or artificial lighting.

Even touching the wall and ceiling it feels like a Lump protruding not flat.

Please share your experience if you have built with Snowdon.

I know I'm thread mining this old thread but I was looking for information on Snowdon and came up slim so thought I might add to this old one for anyone else in the future.

I've been spending a few weeks going back and fourth with the Sales/Design guys as Snowdon, they are a custom builder so everything is up for grabs, the answer is always yes, the only question is how much? To that end they haven't been entirely transparent on the break down, after what seemed like some small changes the price jumped 60K! But we have been talking in generalaities and I've just really kicked into okay, what is this going to cost and what can I kick out if it comes in too much, so break it all down. So it's probably farer to say I'll report back in a few weeks when we have been right through the narrowing stages.

I've built before with Porter Davis and aside from a roof that still leaks 5 years later the experience wasn't too bad (for a first build) so my expectations are pretty high. Aside from the pricing issue above the guys there have met my expectations so far, their designs are pretty good but they ability to accommodate any changes is really their trump card. We've taken them photos from other houses, off the net, from these forums and they have been added to our file and noted on the design and the result is something we are really happy with and meets our building wants and requirements totally.

They have been up front letting us know that custom builds do require more input from the owners than other builds to make sure the result is correct. Not very surprising but again happy that it's been said up front.

The sales pressure is pretty much not there, which is great IMO, maybe they can see that we are invested in our design already (weather thats a good thing or not time will tell, but I have my suspicions) but they are happy to iterate on our design as many times as it takes and haven't yet pushed for anything concrete to 'lock in' the price of materials of any of that BS I went through with PD (and now working in building myself believe me, it's BS).

Anyway theres some feedback for the people hunting around for a builder, at this stage I'd say give them a look, they are not the best decorated homes, we get most of our ideas from a mixture of the other big guys and they are happy to take all the best bits and put them into one house ( for a price )

Hey Mikky
Did u end up building with Snowdon?

I seem to be mining an old thread here but has anyone had any experience with Snowdon Developments?

We recently began to make some enquiries after visiting them at Mickleham. At first I thought it would be Hamilton Property Group but it seems that they contract building through Snowdon and use a mortgage/finance broker.

Reviews are thin on the ground it seems after a Google search; only found a 4/5 review at ProductReviews ..

Any info or advice for these guys?

Cheers,
Richie

Oh jeez.

I just dug a bit deeper and found this:

http://www.product review.com.au/qa/snowdon-developments.html

Doesn't look good!

Hey Richiemeister - did you end up building with Snowdon?

Copying my review here so maybe I can save some people their money -

Everyone's a smooth talker and extremely helpful before they get your deposit. Once they have your money it's a different story! (Same goes for Hamilton Property Group -their agent).

6 months after settlement they don't even have a building permit! They won't give me answers and refuse to get things into gear and get onto site. They've told me they've applied for permits, etc. when they hadn't and I only found out when I called the relevant bodies.

Avoid them like the plague!

That's so disappointing to hear.

I have since signed contracts but titles keep getting delayed. What area are you building in, if you don't mind me asking? I would lose my mind if I had to wait that long for a building permit!

Titles are a problem but that's on the developer side of things. Building in Mickleham.

Your builder problems start from when you get your title - they wont do a thing toward building your house

Building with Snowdon Developments has been a far worse experience than we ever could have imagined. We signed our contract in August 2015 and now over two years later we still can't get a date when the work is to be finished.

The quality of work is extremely poor and the communication is horrendous both with us and internally within Snowdon.

Last week, after 2 years, there are still 72 issues to be addressed. These aren't mine but from a licensed building inspector.

I would avoid these guys at all cost.

That's terrible! Is that defects in the build or is your house still under construction after 2 years? Either way, that's so frustrating.

I'm concerned about quality - I think a lot of the new homes are literally built from flat packs these days...it's not like it used to be unfortunately.

There are still some builders with great quality out there. Snowdon is bad simply because they're morons.

I take it you're still having problems? I have a colour appointment in October. I guess I'll see how things go from there... 😕

Hi,

Just wondering if you have any updates regarding your build with Snowdon?

We are building with them and are extremely unhappy with their quality of work

thanks

Where abouts are you building?

I am also building with them however construction is yet to start. My land has been titled for 6 weeks now and they can't give me a timeframe for permits in order to commence construction. I'm watching two of their builds nearby and they have been building since Feb 2017 and still not ready. They appear to take forever with things... Not a good sign of what's to come. I signed with them back in March 2016 and have had nothing but issues. Haven't even started building yet... imagine what its going to be like when the build starts.

What sort of issues are you having? I keep asking everyone but no one is being really specific about the issues they're experiencing and I just want to know what to look out for. I recently picked colours and was told maximum 10 weeks from time they received my file to start of construction - I'm about halfway through so let's see. I was also told 4-6 months for construction (not sure if I would like my house thrown together in 4 months only!), so I'm concerned if you have been watching a house for 7 months and still not finished!

Any tips?

Very poor communication is the main concern. Also timeframes. Everything seems to take very long. They haven't been able to give me a timeframe on permits. Everyone tells you different things and it's extremely frustrating. Do you have building permits yet?

I had issues with my contract and doing upgrades and also had issues with getting my colour appointment. I have been constantly chasing things up for the last 18 months with them... very long and draining journey... and I've still got a long way to go.

I just recently had my colours appointment and I'm waiting for my variation to come through, so I'm at the very early stages. I had to wait a while to get my appointment but that was because my land was not titled yet and even though I asked a few times, they said to wait. I see their point, titles could have taken forever.
Maybe issues with building permits relates to where you're building? I also wonder if they group houses together in similar areas so that they focus on one area at a time instead of being spread across Melb. I hope this is not the case because if no one else is building with them near me, I might be waiting a long time.
I can't believe it has taken 18 months for you and you still don't have building permits - did you sign contracts 18 months ago? were you waiting for land titles during that time or did Snowdon/Hamilton just take that long to do everything. very worried!

I signed contract over 18 months ago. Land finally titled in August. Houses all around my block in same stage are well underway and they still haven’t organised permits to commence construction. No updates either, I am constantly having to follow things up.

Hello how is your build going now with Snowdon Homes did this improve?