Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 28, 2020 5:29 pm Hi, I'm a first home builder and therefore has very little knowledge and would appreciate all feedback. I'm considering Boutique Homes as an option. I'm in Ballarat, and will be building in Miners Rest. Has anyone around this area built with Boutique Homes? Would love the feedback please. Thank you. Re: Boutique Homes in Ballarat 2Oct 30, 2020 9:39 am Hi, are you game to knock on a recent customers door to ask them directly? I know of a Boutique Homes build that owners recently moved into near us, as we walked past it alot during construction. PM me for details if interested. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Check our Homeone build blog here Re: Boutique Homes in Ballarat 3Oct 30, 2020 1:25 pm MC27 Hi, I'm a first home builder and therefore has very little knowledge and would appreciate all feedback. I'm considering Boutique Homes as an option. I'm in Ballarat, and will be building in Miners Rest. Has anyone around this area built with Boutique Homes? Would love the feedback please. Thank you. I have sent you a PM. Good luck choosing a builder! Countrybuilds Victoria Re: Boutique Homes in Ballarat 4Dec 26, 2020 7:20 pm Hi, I don’t know if this is still relevant, but we’ve built in Geelong with Burbank and were quite happy with them. My son is building with Symmons (build starting in Feb/March). He seems happy with the Service and very happy with the price. Note of caution for everybody. We’ve had the worst building surveyor ever. The owner is on the VBA Prosection Register. No wonder. Jahan Trevena- Lighthouse Building Permits (LHBP). I wish we’d have checked Reviews before we started. Cannot get rid of a bad building surveyor! Worse than termites!! Re: Boutique Homes in Ballarat 6Jun 08, 2021 1:07 pm Persons wanting/needing to search the VBA Prosecution and Disciplinary Register can do so by entering a name or registration number in the VBA link below. https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/tools/prosecution-register 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: Boutique Homes in Ballarat 7Jun 08, 2021 1:37 pm SaveH2O Persons wanting/needing to search the VBA Prosecution and Disciplinary Register can do so by entering a name or registration number in the VBA link below. https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/tools/prosecution-register Thanks saveH2O, that list is useful. I personally think one of the problems in the local industry - particularly among the volume builders - is the potential conflict of interest between a builder and a builder surveyor, who is issuing the majority of that clients permits. Builders should be forced to not give more than 50% of their projects to any individual surveyor. We engaged a municipal inspector (who I knew personally) when we built with a volume builder many years ago, to run independent inspections. This proved invaluable although it did hold up the builder a few times to get some important issues sorted. The builder was definitely peeved off and nowadays I am hearing some builders are charging ~$1000-2000 extra if you do not accept their preferred BS....WTF? Anyhow must be a proud moment for all those listed on the 'Prosecution and Disciplinary Register' to reach such a milestone in their careers! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Check our Homeone build blog here Re: Boutique Homes in Ballarat 8Jun 08, 2021 2:45 pm darb74 The builder was definitely peeved off and nowadays I am hearing some builders are charging ~$1000-2000 extra if you do not accept their preferred BS....WTF? Builders are making a mockery of the Victorian legislated mandate that the Building Surveyor must be appointed by the owner. The VBA leadership is too weak to do anything about it and the Government just doesn't care. Toothless tigers all of them. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 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: Boutique Homes in Ballarat 9Jun 09, 2021 4:57 pm darb74 SaveH2O Persons wanting/needing to search the VBA Prosecution and Disciplinary Register can do so by entering a name or registration number in the VBA link below. https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/tools/prosecution-register Thanks saveH2O, that list is useful. I personally think one of the problems in the local industry - particularly among the volume builders - is the potential conflict of interest between a builder and a builder surveyor, who is issuing the majority of that clients permits. Builders should be forced to not give more than 50% of their projects to any individual surveyor. We engaged a municipal inspector (who I knew personally) when we built with a volume builder many years ago, to run independent inspections. This proved invaluable although it did hold up the builder a few times to get some important issues sorted. The builder was definitely peeved off and nowadays I am hearing some builders are charging ~$1000-2000 extra if you do not accept their preferred BS....WTF? Anyhow must be a proud moment for all those listed on the 'Prosecution and Disciplinary Register' to reach such a milestone in their careers! It's actually very easy to end up on there. In my case, the owner did not want to pay the builder for his frame stage payment and an argument erupted between the two of them. The owner was a very vindictive person and made complaints about four of the practitioners involved in the project to the VBA, all to try and get out of his frame stage payment. The VBA found I had breached two regulations by issuing a permit that did not show the stormwater layout on the site plan of 26,000 hectares (can you appreciate how meaningless this is? The house was basically just a dot), and one architectural sectional detail had the ground as flat under a verandah, despite the engineering for the job showing it sloping away. The complainant above has effectively acted as owner builder, despite the job having a registered builder, and there were outstanding plumbing certificates, without which we are obliged to withhold issuing an occupancy permit. Our building inspector who attended site at the completion of work (because they had failed to notify us of the mandatory inspection stages) said that, "In 30 years of building inspection, I have never seen such bad building work." Re: Boutique Homes in Ballarat 10Jun 21, 2021 11:08 pm Hi guys, well I am in the market for a building surveyor soon. I have heard good and bad things about building surveyors. I have heard that there are building inspectors don't do proper inspections and leads a client into false security sense. Then at the end of the days building inspector surprises owner builder with failure of building. Gets lots of extra fees, poor sod owner builder or small builder. Lots of misgivings bout himself while crappy surveyor is just laughing. How do I find good surveyor with all the problems in the building industry? I think big builders get away with a lot because they are more powerful with the allocation of the jobs. Small builder not so lucky. I hear VBA not so red hot in chasing surveyor that does not do good work and lots of crime gets unnoticed leaving builder or owner with headache. like fire balls in cladding in big towers. Surveyors should have paid attention to Chinese rubbish being dumped in Australia. In Europe much stringent behaviour in building control and supervision. Any comments good Bushy Re: Boutique Homes in Ballarat 11Jun 30, 2021 9:15 pm Have done a little bit of investigating. The J trevena above is not very popular I hear. one engineer I spoke to told me in no uncertain terms to steer clear of this Trevena guy. Has upset lots of people in Ballarat area. i hear one bloke is getting a facebook page dedicated to making builders think the two times before using the Trevena guy. Also I heard he charges like the wounded bull cow plus looks for silly mistakes to add large fees to poor client. RonI above is quite on the spot with his observance of J Trevena and he has also the black marks against himself. good a luck Bushy 10 15753 Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74709 |