Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 29, 2020 1:14 pm Has anyone here had their house built with Kaplan Homes in Sydney or in the process of building with them? I am interested to hear your experiences and any pros/cons. We are building in Edmondson Park and are having Kaplan prepare a capped price tender for us. They promise lifetime structural warranty and a $1000 per week liquidated damage if the build is delayed, and their inclusions are not bad to start with. Any feedback would be highly appreciated. Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 2Oct 20, 2020 3:00 pm We are in the process of building with them. The lifetime structural warranty and their inclusions list are what interested us as well. Much more comprehensive than other builders we saw, and still pretty competitive. As we are still in the early stages I can't comment on build quality and processes etc. however their communication thus far has been great and they've been more than accommodating on any requests to floorplan changes we had. If anyone's actually finished building with them I would also like to know any feedback on build quality or if there's anything we should look out for. Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 3Apr 27, 2021 4:31 pm Hi Guys, Just wondering how you guys went? how was the experience. I am at a stage where I am going to sit with their admin team for a quote/tender. - How was the admin process? any surprises, secrets or issues to face or be aware of? - How was the build quality? From above a lot of you have completed the build already. How is their materials. Any issues with inclusion items? - How is the post sales experience? Any issues faced yet? Their current offer seems very good and admin process so far has been fast enough. Just wondering if it takes a downhill after the tender is signed. Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 4Apr 30, 2021 1:11 pm We pulled the plug on them and went elsewhere. They presented the tender for us and I realised they started adding stuff that wasn’t really required, and their rates for simple stuff is double or even triple what it’s worth. The icing on the cake was them pushing us to sign up and pay a deposit on the spot otherwise we risk losing their offer! Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 5Apr 30, 2021 1:41 pm Thanks for calling out this builder's behaviours after you have paid them the tender fee. I suggest their deceptive, high pressure sales tactics constitute ''unconscionable conduct' per the Austalian Consumer Law's definitions and examples, and should be reported promptly to the ACCC. Its scary to think other customers may have signed on the spot in similar circumstances. Have they offered to refund all or part of your tender fee? Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 6Apr 30, 2021 1:49 pm obbosh The icing on the cake was them pushing us to sign up and pay a deposit on the spot otherwise we risk losing their offer! No one should sign before having a pre contract signing consultation/review with a well qualified building professional. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 7Apr 30, 2021 11:00 pm Kippers01 Thanks for calling out this builder's behaviours after you have paid them the tender fee. I suggest their deceptive, high pressure sales tactics constitute ''unconscionable conduct' per the Austalian Consumer Law's definitions and examples, and should be reported promptly to the ACCC. Its scary to think other customers may have signed on the spot in similar circumstances. Have they offered to refund all or part of your tender fee? There was no tender fee. But the pressure they put on us to sign up on the spot is unheard of. Made me feel like I am buying a fridge not a house worth hundreds of thousands of dollars!! Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 8May 01, 2021 9:40 am To prepare a realistic tender the builder would have to invest in the cost of a contour survey, soil test, other checks and admin etc unless they used such documents you previously organised and supplied them. Did they offer you a 'free' tender, covering these costs themselves? Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 9May 02, 2021 12:23 am obbosh We pulled the plug on them and went elsewhere. They presented the tender for us and I realised they started adding stuff that wasn’t really required, and their rates for simple stuff is double or even triple what it’s worth. The icing on the cake was them pushing us to sign up and pay a deposit on the spot otherwise we risk losing their offer! Hi obbosh, thanks for letting me know your experience. Just to clarify this was with KAPLAN Homes and it was this year (2021)? My experience is a bit different though they are guaranteeing a capped price for build for 2 years where they won’t increase any price from their end. Also they provided documents from their end stating that. They seemed a bit expensive at first but after I looked their inclusions it seemed to cover most of the things to our liking. Also when you say they started adding suff at what stage did they do this? Like they added it in the tender phase without letting you know or were you building with them and signed a contract and they started adding stuff at construction phase? I am worried about latter but the capped price contract should ideally save any in that situation. Just wondering if they tried to increase price from capped price, what was their excuse to avoid that? Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 10May 02, 2021 1:10 am Syed_Shadab obbosh We pulled the plug on them and went elsewhere. They presented the tender for us and I realised they started adding stuff that wasn’t really required, and their rates for simple stuff is double or even triple what it’s worth. The icing on the cake was them pushing us to sign up and pay a deposit on the spot otherwise we risk losing their offer! Hi obbosh, thanks for letting me know your experience. Just to clarify this was with KAPLAN Homes and it was this year (2021)? My experience is a bit different though they are guaranteeing a capped price for build for 2 years where they won’t increase any price from their end. Also they provided documents from their end stating that. They seemed a bit expensive at first but after I looked their inclusions it seemed to cover most of the things to our liking. Also when you say they started adding suff at what stage did they do this? Like they added it in the tender phase without letting you know or were you building with them and signed a contract and they started adding stuff at construction phase? I am worried about latter but the capped price contract should ideally save any in that situation. Just wondering if they tried to increase price from capped price, what was their excuse to avoid that? This was last quarter of 2020. When they prepared their tender, they added items no other builder did. They wanted to charge us around $5k for building on zero lot boundary and potential $10k for concrete encasement of sewer line at the back of the block (you only encase a sewer pipe if you build over it). They also wanted to charge us almost $2k for a bushfire report even though other builder quoted $550 for the same. They added another $1k for kitchen soft close drawers and cupboards. Just keep an eye on these things and make sure you talk to other builders, and don’t believe their sales pitch about losing their offer if you don’t pay a deposit on the spot. Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 11May 02, 2021 10:36 am syed_shadab proceed with caution. Kaplan will prepare a rough initial quote then ask you to pay a $6,000 commencement fee (a.k.a. 'lock-in fee') obbosh says they were pressured to pay this fee on the spot at the meeting. You will only know your final price after further planning meetings and work by Kaplan to prepare the contract agreement. The $6,000 is not refundable if you don't accept their contract. Other project builders offer significantly lower commencement fees. Kaplan clearly explain this in their week by week process details on their website. Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 12May 02, 2021 11:26 am Lock-in fees they offered to me was $1900. They signed a document saying there’s a cooling off period for a 7 days period to get that back. And at anytime if there’s any discrepancy from the price offered at tender (which they guarantee that there won’t be from their end) and we don’t like it they will give the money back. Also they made us aware of what their standard inclusions are and gave us a pricelist to check the price of upgrades if we want to include any upgrade. They did mention it is something that they started doing this recently. And it seems like last year because of these issues you guys are mentioning, they lost a lot of customer. But thanks I will be a bit cautious. All of this for now seems good I am trying to find out what the catch is? Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 13May 02, 2021 3:26 pm OK great!, so KAPLAN home's actual commencement fee now is $1,900, not the $6,000 thats listed today on their website. This amount is comparable to other project builders. You would think if this was deterring a lot of potential customers in 2020 Kaplan would have updated their website with this key detail? This is surprising, because their marketing and social media is particularly slick. It's also potentially misleading. I trust they didn't suggest to you they were providing a 'discount' of $4,100 off their set commencement fee?. The other suggestion i have is to speak directly with at least 3 of their past customers, either in person or on an identified mobile phone number (definitely not by anonymous personal messages) - to ensure they are genuine - about their experiences. Ask Kaplan for the direct contact details of some recent customers that you can selectively speak with them for some balanced comments. Most build experiences are not all perfect. Best wishes for a successful build. Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 14Aug 13, 2021 11:04 am In our case, the 1900 deposit is part of the 6000 commencement fee and we are given a seven days cooling period. This amount was deducted also from the 5% total contract amount. So far, no additional cost or any extra charges from the original quotation except for upgrades. We sign up with Kaplan in October last year and started the construction last June as our land only registered early this year. Re: Experience building with Kaplan Homes 15Aug 13, 2021 7:57 pm A group created to connect with people who are building with Kaplan Homes. A place to discuss your plans, progress, journey and concerns. https://www.facebook.com/groups/kaplanhome/ Building Standards; Getting It Right! Hi, yes, we have the report. The builder has rectified the items on the report and we’re moving forward with the build. Thanks for reaching out 2 1490 11 41609 3 48350 |