Help Needed With Brighton Homes

Hi...wondering if I could get some advice. We’re in Sydney planning to build the Miami 16 Executive in northern NSW with Brighton Homes. We are at colour selections and had two days in Brisbane- it was very rushed and at $93+ thousand price tag above consolidated tender price- the trip is now virtually useless because we think the prices are gouging us. Eg $827 per square metre for splash back- I’m not kidding! This tile was suggested by the design team to fit a Hamptons design. $3k for one appliance tower. $1500 surcharge to have a ‘white’ paint colour for architraves and skirts. I have found the whole experience so bad I don’t know how to keep going. It takes about 4-5 days to get answers from the studio on simple questions ...and some questions just don’t get answered. My phone calls always go to a voicemail so I’ve just about given up phoning. I’m nervous about being ripped off and want to engage with someone but they are always sooooo busy with other clients. I can’t jeep popping into the studio like the locals ....I’ve asked for phone appointments for 30mins- ignored. Soooo frustrated. Worst experience ever.

How do I break through with this company????

LOL pay up...money talks
The frustrating thing is, you've handed over a deposit and they are counting on you going nowhere else soon
Goodluck

No, we haven't handed over a deposit. We can walk away from $3K we haven't got to contract stage yet. Somehow everyone else seems to have a different experience. I think it is that we are not physically in Brisbane where people talk in person at the design studio.

That's the standard modus operandi
The more you hand over($) the quicker they service you
Next they ask for $10K for engineering etc...
They still gouge though, LOL face to face they usually smile

We are slightly further along than you with a build with Brighton Homes and I can sort of understand your feelings. I'm not sure if anybody ever builds a 'standard' house, all the blogs I've read here seem to indicate around $100k in extras is fairly common. I'd actually like to see a standard display house somewhere, all the displays I've seen by various builders are all optioned way above the standard level.

Even for us resident in SEQ I think the studio/selections process is problematic. It's not simply a matter of distance, it's the time thing. We can't just keep popping in to the studio either. There are an awful lot of decisions to be made in filling out that Colour Selections document in a very short allocated time and not a lot of chance to really get to know all the options then do a touchy feelly thing to choose a truly considered selection. We ended up trying to work out their suppliers and went to places like National Tiles that seemed to carry a similar range and Beacon Lighting for the electricals. Selecting a tile or paint colour for a wall that doesn't exist yet and you can't see in the daylight and at night with the chosen floor covering etc is always going to be a gamble and it is STRESSFUL.

I have had misgivings about some of the things we originally selected, but I have also found that things can be changed if you feel you have signed up for something that you really want to change in hindsight. Nothing is set in concrete until they have got the building plan through approvals and materials ordered. Work through the PM, email seems the most reliable contact. I think the consultants times are pretty much fully booked so phone calls are pretty hit and miss.

In reality consider how much work Brighton Homes put in up front for that $3k deposit. Drawing up and modifiying plans, getting surveys done and getting through the selections process is time consuming and expensive for them. I suspect 3k wouldn't cover it if you started out on your own build.

December is a crazy month in the building industry, everybody wants things finished and to be done and in by Christmas. I was speaking to our PM and he indicated he was looking after something like 60 builds in various stages of completion. I'm surprised he is still sane.

As to the cost of various selections, I've had a few variations I've wanted to make to our plan that I thought I might do myself after the build and most have been costed in the ball park of what Brighton Homes was asking for similar work, slightly less to a whole lot more. None was as cheap as if I could do it myself. I found some things just weren't possible because they are not available from the selections available. I just remind myself this is a project home builder, not a bespoke builder.

Varsity,

Thank you sooo much for sharing your experience. I feel better hearing that it isn't just me. The $100K in extras is not something we want to pay when we are pretty sure they actually cost about $25K to provide. Just one example, an appliance tower in the kitchen costs $1,560 - in laminate. that's a massively inflated price with a massive massive markup. To have an appliance tower in polyurethane is another $1,500 - $3,060 in total!!! that's just one item I can quote. Splashback tile $827 per square metre!! etc etc. When I queried these items (and a few others) it took over a week for someone to respond....during which time my phone calls were not responded to. As you say, the MyChoice Studio is so bosy constantly booked with appointments that there is no time for people to answer the phone calls. I spoke with the Operations Manager and suggested that a different model was needed for me to go forward, and that if people could not answer my emails or phone calls, I would appreciate someone letting me know WHEN they might be able to do so. that helped marginally, however, I do get the impression that I am becoming a "difficult" client....when actually my requests are very reasonable.

Our PM gives us the impression she is quite young and not experienced at customer facing. She's good on the technical, but insisted on charging for items we KNEW had been costed by the sales person in stage 1. Despite out protests at our technical meeting, she still insisted on us paying. When we got back to Sydney we rang the Jules in sales who immediately had the duplicate charges wiped out. I still don't understand why our PM did not ring the sales lady to confirm! Brighton think this is just one of those things and it got sorted.....but for us, we are still building a relationship....outside of Jules and it is not building trust when "mistakes" are made and we are not listened to and we have to fight for what we know is right. A house is complex and makes us wonder what on earth happens when we don't spot things.....super charges?

So, back to the interior selections. Practically nothing of what I picked in early December works...because it simply is NOT in any way value for money. Flying up again in three weeks to spend another two days in the Studio....this time, I am going to control what happens; and insist I get to see the entire standard range before I make choices.

Since my first post I have worked out that I will take a laminate butlers pantry; laminate bathrooms; laminate laundry - and then after handover swap out the cupboards for polyurethane. This will be somewhere between 25-30% of the cost of what Brighton charge for poly. .....that does not account for there is no rebate on the original laminate cupboards.

We are going to try and select what we CAN'T do ourselves - e.g. square set bathrooms; tiled wet areas (can't get handover unless they tile these).....and then swap out ourselves after handover. Will do our own feature doors; install ourselves plantation shutters; do some feature tiling; etc etc. We've worked out we will save somewhere around $40-50K

Thanks for your comments. Very much appreciated.

We are building the Miami Executive 16. I'll repost once I've been to the Studio again.

Cheers

As a Builder myself the thought of Variations haunts me to be honest, but only during construction is it a real costly problem. Pre construction it is usually a much simpler and cost effective way of working and the ideal way. I'm not familiar with how Brighton undertake their business or design options but I must agree some of the items you have raised such as an extra charge for white? $827m2 for a tiled splashback are very usual but if you have requested a particular mosaic or maybe an enamel paint then I would agree with the costs.

Also the appliance tower let alone any joinery item will be costly : )

Be sure you have a clear understanding of what they are delivering prior to construction because changes later will be more costly and will also delay the job.

If you need any further help happy to review it for you. Contract if the next key step, if it gets tp that PM me.

Myles Clark

The prices I can see for DIY flat pack laminate oven/microwave towers run about $800 and my experience with pretty much anything to do with renovation is it costs at least double the materials price to get the same thing fitted and installed by licensed trades, so a $1.5K quote from Brighton Homes for the installed oven tower sounds about right.

On our plan we didn't like part of the standard kitchen design for a 2.7m pantry run that included a simple pantry and cupboards. I drew up a design that suited us that changed the builtin pantry and cupboards to a joinery pantry, appliance alcove and oven tower and was told the combination was not possible in the kitchen joinery options available in the colours selection. I thought I'd leave out the run and install our own cabinets later, but I too found out the gottcha of not being able to get practical completion without a finished kitchen with installed oven! In any event I had a kitchen maker quote for my design of the run and it came in at $8700. Eventually we found a combination of cabinets available through Brighton that gave us most of what we wanted, except for a tambour door on the appliance cupboard, and that was costed at a $6.5K variation. Not exactly like for like, but in the ballpark.

I'm not trying to be an apologist for BH, but make sure you really are looking at like for like when making comparisons.

We also built the Miami with Brighton, moved in, in March. H1 is pretty dead for Brighton, not many threads or people who have built with them on here. You’ll get a lot more information on the building with Brighton FB page or on Instagram. Good Luck!

thanks Myles for responding. I've renovated myself 5 properties so have a pretty good understanding of what is involved. I appreciate that with a builder if they break into a new box of tiles and use only a couple....they have to pay for the whole box....and they have to account for some tilers not being able to cut effectively; breakages etc etc. The tiles themselves....I was STRONGLY steered to by Brighton in the MyChoice Studio...the tiles fitted my design brief....but they did not show me anything else. They are a mosaic which would cost me at full retail about $200 a square metre. Yes a pricy tile.....BUT the remainder was for laying. Yes, they are harder to lay....but I don't think circa $600 per square metre is reasonable. These tiles were to go into the kitchen AND the adjacent butlers pantry. Brighton have a calculator that works in minimums of 2 square metres of tiling i.e. PER AREA you pay for either 2, 4, 6, 8 square metres. So, if your splashback was tiny (mine is mostly window) and it measures 4.1 square metres of tiling - you pay for 6. If your butlers splashback is 4.1 you pay for 6. In total 8.2....but you pay for 12 - both for the tile AND for the labour....on top of, the tiling and labour already built into the basic house price.

WHITE architrave painting....yes I am 100% certain after having asked for an explanation from the Operations Manager. The Brilliant White (the only true white offered) in the Taubmans Custom Range which they use....cannot be guaranteed to fully cover in two coats. In case a painter needs to return to touch up areas that didn't fully cover in two coats I will be charged $1,500 surcharge to have white enamel. I won't be given a three coat system for paying the extra....its just for touch ups. If not required, I don't think I get a rebate....but will ask further.

I painted my own house with my husband. Five bedrooms; two storey. We used Dulux White on White for the architraves...we covered in two coats...but we weren't starting from a primed new timber.

Re cabinetry I do want polyurethane and have costed with Sydney Doors the replacement of the Butler's Pantry doors.. Brighton want $3,000 on top of the already priced laminate doors (aka basic house price) for poly. Sydney Doors will provide doors and hingers; skirts; fillers etc etc for about $1K....retail price to me. I've come to realise from some credible sources that many people take the laminate cupboards and swap them out after handover.

It's possible Brighton Design studio consultants work on commission.....I don't know but my next visit I will be taking a different approach and not accepting their ideas so much....and asking them for more options.

Thanks to those who have responded....it helps.

Thanks Varsity....the quote for a polyurethane appliance tower. Two shelves; Two cuboards; (non poly) shelf for oven and (non poly) shelf for microwave was $3,000. I costed the same item with Sydney Doors....I'm sure I'm comparing apples with apples. I've also built three full kitchens in my renovations in the past. I think that is the problem for me....I do have some understanding of what is involved. Not stingy with money....just don't want to be gouged and held hostage. We'll keep going with another design meeting and see how things turn out.

Hearing and reading these particular issues is one of the reasons I get frustrated with these types of businesses that take this poor approach when it comes to construction. This is were it starts to spoil what should be an exciting process.
I agree that additional costs are valid but at a stage where you are so early and it doesn't impact the actual construction onsite, the associated costs proposed are no where near fair and reasonable.
Hit them hard with costs you have gathered, they cannot argue with what you have right in front of them and all you need is a justification for their costs that is valid for the work they're doing.
Looking forward to hearing more
MC

I'll post after I have had another design team meeting later this month. Resigned that much of this house will be done after handover. Perhaps that is normal with project builders.

Post Contract & Handover is becoming the new norm if you wish to save
If you get stuck post here
Projects to do after handover
Cheers
Chris

I have some people say the bricks looked NOTHING like what they chose. I tried to get into the display centre, so I could physically see the inclusions, and they said it was for only after I signed a contract. Worried I will get into selection centre and bricks will be poor.
Very poor feedback from a number of people.