Browse Forums General Discussion Re: M3tr1con question - fees 21Oct 23, 2009 10:18 pm I got delivered an email the day before I was supposed to sign with M with about a $19,000 increase on my contract. No explanation, no phone call. The CSC's reaction was flippant at best - her comment was "Yeah - I figured I'd be getting a phone call from you". When it came down to it - it was made up of two main items... A change in the house plan (to deal with estate covenants that I was told would be covered by the change in facade... ie. My second choice) and a 10mtre tree that noone could actually find. I decided if they were going to make it this hard before I signed the contract - one could only imagine how much more of a nightmare the process would become. M was a disaster from day dot for me... there was just a complete attitude of "You're a first home buyer - so you're going to have to sign with us or lose your FHBG" which got worse as the 30th of September closed in quickly. There was deliberate stalling techniques including my favorite "We sent someone down to your block to find the tree - but they didn't know where it was" Re: M3tr1con question - fees 23Oct 24, 2009 7:41 am I'm in Victoria. I didn't end up signing their contract... there was just too much risk that they'd find even more ways to charge me extra and the way I was treated just made me incredibly angry. Re: M3tr1con question - fees 24Oct 24, 2009 9:04 am I don't blame you.... i'm starting to feel the same way. Shame i absolutely LOVE the house we've chosen though.... so it's making the decision very tough. I will not sign anything until i have in writing that there will be no other price hikes or hidden charges etc. i'll be getting my lawyer to take a look and add whatever he sees fit into the contract. if they don't like it, i will take my business elsewhere. they can't do that to people! Re: M3tr1con question - fees 25Oct 24, 2009 2:49 pm We had no such problems with M .. they didn't use the FHOG deadline against us, and didn't spring any surprises on us either. They did add render to the portico pier without telling us, to comply with guidelines for 20% contrast on the facade. I asked them about this and they told me why it was done, and said that we can alter it later at no cost. Which is what we did. I agree that they are very slow to respond. Typically 1-2 week turnaround time for a request, except one time when after waiting two weeks I found they had never seen my email at all! When something really was urgent though they got their act together and did it quickly. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: M3tr1con question - fees 26Oct 24, 2009 3:06 pm I'm glad you're having a smooth run... that's the way it should be for everyone. Re: M3tr1con question - fees 28Oct 24, 2009 5:26 pm jspitz Hi Bek, the extra amount got added to the contract price so each progress payment was a bit more-it was another expense we had not factored it! When you put it that way, it doesn't seem that onerous does it? It's not like we need to come up with $4000 or $6000 in cash at the end of it (which was why I freaked out, as I only have like $15k put aside and that's for fences, turf and blinds!).... Will the bank provide it through the mortgage when they make the progress payments? do you know? Or do we have to make up for it with our own cash? I need to understand how all this works before I can commit.... it's just so confusing! Re: M3tr1con question - fees 29Oct 25, 2009 9:21 pm Hi Bek, we built with M3tric0n a couple of years ago, the fee you are concerned about was mentioned to us up front, but we were told by the sales rep that it had never been enforced, in our region at least. We had a similar concern to you, due to us paying the initial deposit to lock in the price and the current promotion, but not being able to gain a clear title on the land until about 7 months later. We were told that a delay would not be a problem. Technically they could have enforced the fee on us but locally they ran by the policy of avoiding aggravation, which is a good thing for all concerned. Be assertive. M3tric0n seem to be playing hard ball with you for some silly reason. Remind them that they know damn well that you intend building a house as soon as you can, but you still have 5 other builders to choose from. Geoff - Decophile. Re: M3tr1con question - fees 30Oct 26, 2009 8:06 am Eager. Thanks for replying. They really do seem to be playing hardball. Even when I spoke to higher authorities, they didn't seem too concerned with me going over to another builder... I can't believe they're willing to risk losing a $300k house over a few grand. It seems crazy. I want to be guaranteed "no surprises" - that's not too much to ask! If other builders ARE guaranteeing that security, then they should as well. Although you say your fee wasn't enforced, I really don't want to take that risk because they seem to be enforcing it here. I've been to see other builders to see what they have to offer, and to be honest they were quite stunned by M enforcing this rule as the other builders aren't, due to the nature of the estate. Surely this is bad business on their behalf... they have competition that are looking after their clients. Re: M3tr1con question - fees 31Oct 27, 2009 6:59 pm Hi Bek, I was also surprised that M did not seen fazed that we were looking at walking. The day before we signed our contract I was so angry about these extra charges that I rang Boutique homes who had our second most favourite house as I was just so over it with M. It was bizarre as I rang the S.C. who I had been dealing with at Boutique homes and guess what he was now working for M! It was so strange that I ended up thinking that it was meant to be that we were building with M even though they were driving me mad!!! Am glad we stuck with them now as we have a gorgeous house that is good value for a 40 square home I felt. It was an absolute nightmare at times but in the end we are happy with the end product. I know how you feel about not getting answers from them, them being evasive and not knowing about unexpected costs. We had no more unexpected costs after the initial huge one and at the end we ended up getting more back on one of the provisional costs than we had expected and they did a few extra things for us that we didn't expect or pay for. The extra amount that was put on our final contract was divided up in the repayments as I mentioned and they just went on the morgage each time. Hope this helps. It does get better once you get away from the head office nightmare. Re: M3tr1con question - fees 32Oct 27, 2009 8:36 pm jspitz - thanks for your reply. It makes me feel a little more at ease knowing that there shouldn't be any more unexpected surprises. We've sorted it out (almost). We are paying a lump sum payment which is added to the mortgage and that will take us to when the land is meant to be settled. If there are further delays, then we will just have to foot the bill but i'm trying not to let that possibility stress me out. I really do love the home we are building... and just can't wait to be in it.. I just hope there are no more headaches and nightmares. It's a real shame that M couldn't match the competition in terms of reassurance, and fixing the contract for a longer period... if I didn't love the actual home so much I definitely would've walked away. Is it just a report written to give to the bank initially and it is based on what and how your payments are made up for, or is it a full service where they go out and… 2 5600 0 19750 You can really use anything you want the main consideration would be how it looks once painted/finished - or the look you want. Cabinetmakers use MDF because its cheap… 2 9960 |