Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 27, 2008 8:27 am Hi, I am currently choosing between Burbank's Monash and Porter Davis' Cremone. Having read through the forums, I find both builders have positive and negative feedbacks. But overall, people seem to be more happy with Porter Davis for their customer service and the quality of the house. Besides, Porter Davis seems to have more value with the recent site start bonus offer and previous update promotion. I'm just wondering:
(1) as PD says it has independent quality inspections, can I look and find an inspector myself and how can I make sure that they will modify the defects my inspector pick up? (2) according to PD's procedure of purchase, after 4-5 weeks, 3% deposit and week7, 5% deposit....can I delay the payment and do I have to pay extra? Thanks. Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 2Oct 27, 2008 11:51 am Hello
Our admin phase is now over and just starting to build with PD. So far our experience (if averaged out) is positive. As far as i have seen here, all the builders have negative and positive feedback. However if you are choosing Cremorne then you will be dealing with PD lifestyle which has a very good rating and reputation on the forum. Now as for your questions, we will be having the independent inspection done as well at pre plaster and handover stage, apparantly, no builder should have a problem to this as that is your right. Also many people building with PD, have used their own indeoendent inspectors and PD is fine with them. If the inspector gives the report and there are issues to be rectified, it is builder's responsibility to rectify them, if they are not done you can drag them to building commisssion, keep an hawks eye for those issues to be rectified. Your second question about deposits: you give 3% of the tender price on the day when tender is presented to you and then you pay rest of the money (5%) less 3% and $600 deposit when you sign the contract and you have to pay that as and when you get appointments for tender and contract, if you hold on to the payment, they will not be able to start on the given start date and may also charge the delays from you. There will be many other who will be able to tell you more bout the independent inspections who have already done that. I am sure its not an issue at all. All the best Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 3Oct 27, 2008 12:08 pm To answer question 1 my handover is about a week away and I've seen no evidence of any independant quality inspections ever. In fact I'd put money on the fact that they don't exist. From what I've seen it's up to the site supervisor to pick up any problems and the customer and site supervisor do the final inspection. Maybe they have the council inspect for the certificate of occupancy but I can honestly say there has never been any evidence of a 3rd party inspection and in my building timeline the indpendant inpsections are just ticked off at the same time as the completion of the relevant stages. Unless anyone has ever actually witnessed one happen on their PD home I'm happy to state that they simply don't exist (not on my build anyway).
As for customer satisfaction I was told 16-20 weeks build time and I'm now at week 29 and counting... Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 4Oct 27, 2008 12:13 pm Mozzie To answer question 1 my handover is about a week away and I've seen no evidence of any independant quality inspections ever. In fact I'd put money on the fact that they don't exist. From what I've seen it's up to the site supervisor to pick up any problems and the customer and site supervisor do the final inspection. ..... I was told that they had their own inspectors when I was aranging my own and when I was out there the other day there was an envelope just inside the door with the written report from their inspectors re: our frame stage. So they do exist, but I'd still advise getting a second set of eyes in there. Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 5Oct 27, 2008 12:50 pm We've certainly had our share of problems , and , like mozzie, we'll be over contract period. We've def seen evidence of BSS inspections, though - pink marks on frame, and pencil marks on plaster, but you are also def allowed to get your own in as well.
I have a friend who built with Bbank, and had terrible (COSTLY!!!!!! ) problems. None of them is perfect, I guess you just haveto go with what house you love the best. Quite a few people on here have built/are building the Cremorne, so you'll find plenty of info ! Good luck! Solidarity, not solidity.......The Lexicon of Life Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 6Oct 27, 2008 1:30 pm We are currently building the Cremorne and have to say our construction has been fantastic. We have a great SS and have seen the few items picked up by the BSS fixed before the next stage. Our SS has also taken the opportunity to get things fixed before moving forward which will save alot of time at the end. I'd rather it took a little bit longer and be right than keeping moving and have to rip up boards/plaster etc down the track.
We had alot of issues early on with admin. Our first CSC was not very good and made alot of mistakes. She quit and we had a temporary CSC who was great and then we got another new one who tried her best but we still had mistakes. These mistakes were not directly her fault though it was the people out the back fixing one thing on the plan but changing another. Our relationship with her is now great and we get weekly updates from her. Believe me, I send her alot of emails asking about things and always have a reply within a day. I honestly think that alot of how your build will go depends on how good your CSC and SS is. Some people strike it lucky and some have had a tougher time. We opted not to go with an independent building inspector and we still are okay with that decision. My first phone call with our SS was not the greatest but he's done a great job and doesn't hesitate to let us know what is going on and reminds us that it is "our house" not PD's so has let us change/alter/add a few things which has been great. We've also been lucky over the past few weekends to meet up with other couples who have built the Cremorne and get some tips on PCI handover etc and what to look for. We are still 6-7 weeks off that but it's still good to know. Good luck with your decision oh, and as for your questions about deposits and payments etc....when we signed up we left a $600 deposit which is for the soil test and booked in a June start date. When we had our tender appt we gave them some more money.....not much from memory. The next amount was for $12,000and we were supposed to hand that over at Contract. We opted to keep our $12k until all the plans and PCV's were correct. They actually scraped our block and put in our plumbing before we handed the $12k over. I suppose depending on your start date and how far away your tender and contract appts are will depend on how quickly you need to handover the money. Hope this helps Happy at Home Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 7Oct 27, 2008 3:21 pm Hi,
Im currently building and have seen signs of their independant inspector (BSS) at both frame and prepaint. But they wont give you a copy of the report, apparently it is for "internal use" which makes the inspections pointless to you as you dont know what defects they have picked up on and more importantly what they have decided to fix. I have my own inspector who has picked up on alot of things at frame and rpreplaster so im not relying on theirs. Hope it helps. Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 8Oct 27, 2008 3:27 pm we built with PD too- has been great we had our inspector pick up a few things nothing that couldnt be fixed within the day. PD were great with our other inspection too.
we really enjoyed our build and love our house. Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 10Oct 27, 2008 3:52 pm JoBen and love our house. That's really nice to read. Hope I get to say that soon!! Happy at Home Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 12Oct 27, 2008 4:18 pm JoBen :D we should settle this week then we move in another couple of weeks!! Enjoy that won't you!!! We visited/met a couple yesterday who have built the same house as us. Made me want to move into ours even more! Where did you build and which house? Happy at Home Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 13Oct 27, 2008 6:10 pm Thanks so much for the feedbacks!!
I am now more excited about building the Cremone. Do I need to put in the contract that I will use an independent inspector, or do I simply notify PD a few weeks before the inspection? TA Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 15Oct 27, 2008 9:47 pm Hi,
PD has a site start bonus offer at the moment, with $13,000 worth of category 1 tiles and reflections range carpet for only $3,999. What's your oppion on their category 1 tiles and reflections ragne carpet? Are they good or do I need to upgrade? TA Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 16Oct 28, 2008 7:22 am we got all this too - not much in cat 1 so we are getting our floors done after handover. carpets okay though. we also found the tiles we wanted were discontinued so we had to change our whole color scheme. Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 17Jan 28, 2009 12:51 pm I’m not sure what stages PD actually get BSS to come in and inspect, but we recently had Kevin do a pre-plaster inspection and he’s picked up some serious issues regarding our frame and slab.
I’m not sure what is more concerning… BSS thinking the issues Kevin identified are okay or whether they have even been onsite to do the checks at all. We had been informed that plastering was due to commence next week, but that won’t be going ahead for a while now. Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 19Jan 28, 2009 6:51 pm I built with PD lifestyle range and have been in my home 9 months now..
The pds building inspector does exist When the house was being built i happened to go to the house one day and the Pds building inspector was there inspecting the house..Putting colour stickers where he found a issue. i actually pointed a few issues out to him eg the roof tiles... he hadn't seen there was a problem with them I also got a independent building inspector out. The SS wasn't happy that i did. Even now cosmetic issues are cropping up with the house .. wish they had their maintenance at the 9 month interval. Watch the plastering as its being put up .I'm finding lots of faults showing thru the paint work that Ive never saw at the final walk through . Re: A few questions about building with Porter Davis 20Jan 28, 2009 6:52 pm I built with PD lifestyle range and have been in my home 9 months now..
The pds building inspector does exist When the house was being built i happened to go to the house one day and the Pds building inspector was there inspecting the house..Putting colour stickers where he found a issue. i actually pointed a few issues out to him eg the roof tiles... he hadn't seen there was a problem with them I also got a independent building inspector out. The SS wasn't happy that i did. Even now cosmetic issues are cropping up with the house .. wish they had their maintenance at the 9 month interval. Watch the plastering as its being put up .I'm finding lots of faults showing thru the paint work that Ive never saw at the final walk through . Three options 1 Ask the liquidator 2 Find another PD customer and ask the source of their report 3 Pay for new report 3 12182 You should check your detail drawings, it may show downpipe within brick pier. 14 14021 Hi Suku18 In NSW the statutory required insurances are: 1. HBCF ( Home Building Compensation Fund) - This is if the builder dies or goes broke. But this only covers 20%… 1 2666 |