Building with Montgomery Homes

Oh I’ll do the skylights now as it will probably need a truss or two to be customised and be easier to get that done now then after handover… I’ll just have to deal with the % markup

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How are you getting on with your plans and progress? Everything has slowed down for us due to the working from home/COVID restrictions affecting Montgomery staff.

Hows your build going Grace?

We’ve delayed the concept plan meeting due to lockdowns. We aren’t in a rush as land registration isn’t planned until July. Still just researching and conceptualising…

I’ve made a draft electrical plan that I want to take say to beacon and do some after handover selections, but other than that not much else.

Ah okay, we've had a concept plan and expecting the tender tomorrow. It's 2.5 months since we paid the deposit which is a little longer than we'd hoped, but understandable in the circumstances.

We are hoping to commence knockdown in January and build immediately afterwards. We have accommodation and demolition provisionally arranged, just need to get the final plans and CDC, finalise finance with the bank and get things rolling now.

Could I ask what's your experience been actually going through the Pre-Construction phase ?
We are building up in the Maitland area.

Nothing crazy or custom... Carolina 251 with some very basic changes to ceiling heights and deck size

Signed our commencement in May, under the expectation that we could get to contracts by Oct... Throughout the process we were a bit worried about how long some of the steps were taking (1month to go from us signing Prelim Contract to it being assigned to the Drafting Q, 6 weeks from that to actual Drafting to commence, another 6 weeks after that before Plans were ready) . All up we are 180 days into Pre-Con, and we've not even submitted to DA yet. Their latest estimates put us at not getting Contracts until next year Feb ! All the while my colleagues building with Macdonal Jones and Metricon , who started almost a month after us, flew through these stages and got Contracts early Oct/Nov .

We've felt "done in" by the "Price Lock In" promise where we were convinced to lock in our price early before EOFY, when their Base Build prices would go up... with the understanding that we could surely get through this process in 6 months time. That lock in is/has run out and there seems to be little to no explanation from MH or the Sales person as to why the delays.

Anyone else seen this time of lag building with them this year ? Or are we alone in this experience ?

Thanks !

Hi aplasticow

Look I’m definitely not as far along as you are… we are still awaiting civil works to complete before land registration.

I do know the recent lockdown slowed things down at MH. I pushed back appointments to avoid the travel at the start then didn’t want to do zoom meetings. Also my client liaison came down with Covid so it all could’ve had a knock on effect…

We are having similar delays, we paid a deposit in June, achieved a concept plan in August and have had almost zero progress since. We haven't seen lodgement plans yet, and our initial plan for a start in November/December isn't happening. We have been told to expect March and a contract length of 44 weeks. Our issue is that we are doing a knockdown-rebuild and are currently living in the house, so the lack of certainty is a real headache.
I love the house design we have gone for, but am starting to lose patience with MH. If it is really the case that other builders are forging ahead, then I'd consider cancelling and accepting the penalties. I heard that some builders are refunding deposits and the timber/building supply shortage is a global issue.

Hi tricky Ricky

We are in a similar predicament with Montgomery . We wanted to start building in feb but very unlikely . We’ve been sitting in the ‘assigned to drafting ‘ queue for a month now and was told it would be ready by December . It is still sitting in queue though.

We feel like we are harassing them for progress updates - really stressed as tender expires in feb and we can’t afford to pay price incenses .

Let me know if you’ve seen any progress . We were told we would see things move quickly from here but definitely not the case - quite the opposite !

I wouldn’t mind if Montgomery could extend the tender.


quote="TrickyRickyDoo"][quote="aplasticow":ugopsujb]Could I ask what's your experience been actually going through the Pre-Construction phase ?
We are building up in the Maitland area.

Nothing crazy or custom... Carolina 251 with some very basic changes to ceiling heights and deck size

Signed our commencement in May, under the expectation that we could get to contracts by Oct... Throughout the process we were a bit worried about how long some of the steps were taking (1month to go from us signing Prelim Contract to it being assigned to the Drafting Q, 6 weeks from that to actual Drafting to commence, another 6 weeks after that before Plans were ready) . All up we are 180 days into Pre-Con, and we've not even submitted to DA yet. Their latest estimates put us at not getting Contracts until next year Feb ! All the while my colleagues building with Macdonal Jones and Metricon , who started almost a month after us, flew through these stages and got Contracts early Oct/Nov .

We've felt "done in" by the "Price Lock In" promise where we were convinced to lock in our price early before EOFY, when their Base Build prices would go up... with the understanding that we could surely get through this process in 6 months time. That lock in is/has run out and there seems to be little to no explanation from MH or the Sales person as to why the delays.

Anyone else seen this time of lag building with them this year ? Or are we alone in this experience ?

Thanks ![/quote:ugopsujb]
We are having similar delays, we paid a deposit in June, achieved a concept plan in August and have had almost zero progress since. We haven't seen lodgement plans yet, and our initial plan for a start in November/December isn't happening. We have been told to expect March and a contract length of 44 weeks. Our issue is that we are doing a knockdown-rebuild and are currently living in the house, so the lack of certainty is a real headache.
I love the house design we have gone for, but am starting to lose patience with MH. If it is really the case that other builders are forging ahead, then I'd consider cancelling and accepting the penalties. I heard that some builders are refunding deposits and the timber/building supply shortage is a global issue.[/quote]

I hadn't even considered the tender expiring, ours is valid until late January, it'll be interesting to see what happens there. I have to say I'm quite disappointed and concerned now. It seems that Montgomery have taken on too much work. At least anyone who looks at this thread and is considering Montgomery won't be caught with the same issues.

That seems so long.

We are turning our split level CDC approvals around in around 8-12 weeks from concept to approval.

For mine in North Ryde, I got the survey 3 weeks ago and should have approval in 2-3 weeks. We have a very fast design team.

Here is one of our latest split level designs. Budget is $850,000 incl demo and pool.

It is extremely long, 6+ months concept to approval with a lack of communication about the reason is absolutely bizarre when other builders such as yours don't seem to be having issues at this stage. I was expecting issues with supplies including timber, but not this.

One of the reasons we've gone with Montgomery is because of the 3 level (lower/middle/upper) upward slope design suiting our needs and on the basis of recommendations from friends and am hoping things might improve.

Hi Nicole,

Are you able to help explain how their tender works? As in what stage you progressed to, before they will put an expiry date on the tender along with price rises. And how long their initial tender is valid for.

I am considering obtaining their free tender or the $1.5k detailed tender. But don’t really want to get time-pressured into anything too soon. Just wanting to initially see how accomodating they are for some minor adjustments to one of their plans.

Hey there

We got a free tender but it’s only valid for 6 months otherwise subject to price increase . Seems like ages at the time but by the time you wait after each step it goes ! We did make a fair few changes to plans but each change took ages to filter through the correct channels !






quote="Chiz"]Hi Nicole,

Are you able to help explain how their tender works? As in what stage you progressed to, before they will put an expiry date on the tender along with price rises. And how long their initial tender is valid for.

I am considering obtaining their free tender or the $1.5k detailed tender. But don’t really want to get time-pressured into anything too soon. Just wanting to initially see how accomodating they are for some minor adjustments to one of their plans.


[/quote]

Oooo I love the Newport ! We nearly went with this design but changed to cayman 255 at last minute

One thing I would mention is that when you go for the first tender presentation there will be some pressure to sign up immediately, they will put a discount ($5000 in our case) if you do. You then need to pay the deposit to secure that.

They were very flexible with modifications, however if I was to go through the process again I'd have spent a bit more time pouring over the plan and visiting the show home to figure out what we wanted before going to that tender meeting.

Hi Nicole

Goes like this

1.You notify them of what you want to build + where you want to build it
2.They will do some preliminary estimates then book in a Tender Presentation at their showroom

3.Here they will take you though the Tender item by item, as well as some of the inclutions available to you. Discuss your plans/changes/ideas and "guestimate" rough pricing
4.You'll be asked to pay a "Commencement Fee" as a deposit + sign off commiting to proceed to the next stage which involves actual surveys and geotech investigations of the property.
5.The Commencemnt Fee/Deposit is generally there to pay for/cover the costs of those follow up tasks. There's usually a 7 day cooling off period on this, so if you go home and change your mind BEFORE they have done those, you get your money back

All up I think the Commencement Fee is about $7500. It's at this point/date, where you've signed and payed the initial Deposit that your "Price Lock In" period starts.

So that's Initial Tender

Once that cooling off period has lapsed (or you waived it), they will start a more robust tender process based on the Surveys and Geotech.

During this period you can make plan adjustments as you see fit until you are happy and you finalise the general layout and adjustments . It's only once you've signed off on these final changes that they will issue an updated Tender + Final Concept Plan drawings (taking into account what they learned from the Surveys + Geo + Your proposed changes).

You will now have Updated Tender + Final Concept Drawings (For us this took about 2 months ... May to July)

You'll be asked to signed off on this , and from here on in, any minor/major changes to the plan will cost admin fee's

You'll also be asked to sign a "Schedule of Costs" which outlines the various Tasks leading up to Final Contacts and the costs assoicated with them. Basically saying , if you pull the plug anywhere in the process, you'll be billed for things already done.

Once you''ve signed off on the above, it goes to drafting, selections get's booked in and all the other "fun" stuff like waiting for BASIX and DA starts (which takes FOREEEEVER)

Now, regarding the Price Lock in stuff ...

Your Tender Price goes up by a % of tender amount every 2 weeks post the expiry of your Price Lock in.
Because of "reasons" our price lock in has been extended till start Jan next year, and if we manage to get to contracts by end Feb, we are looking at a $3000 increase. In comparison, if we qouted the same build with them today, we would be looking at about a $20k increase).

So all up... The process up to this stage has been an bit of a pain in the arse. I suspect COVID has some severe impacts to the MH staff we dealth with, and maybe they just werent setup for remote work/disruption as well as other builders ... I won't classify our experience thus far as categorically "Bad"... But their communication with us throughout the process has been very sparse and at times disorganized. For now we'll just keep battling through

It seems to be so normal for Project Builders to be taking so long in the pre construction phase. Once you have paid your Deposit and locked in it seems the story changes and so many people having the same problem.
We signed in March not with MH but with Masterton. and we are at the stage of signing off on final plans and final tender amounts, however I have gone through everything with a fine tooth comb and have found discrepancies with so many things. I have asked the question of who we should be contacting whether it be an Ombudsman or The MBA . i personally will take this to current affair or similar eventually if there is no resolution I read on another post that all complaints should go to ACCC as the more complaints there are the more chance of them looking into the industry. I am in the midst of doing this.

Yeah thats a pretty good outline of the process, we just received our 'final tender' and concept plan and have noticed a few items missing... wonder if that means I need to submit a variation and pay the fee!! hahah f*#kers

Just an update from our pre-construction process, things have suddenly moved rapidly recently with the selections at Thynk + Kitchen Cultures, final lodgement plans etc all going through and CDC in progress. Was very impressed with Thynk albeit accepting that prices with the builders margin in are a little higher, but there is some wiggle room for negotiation.