Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 05, 2008 8:40 pm Good day!
Just wanted to ask if anyone has built a home with avjennings? what was your experience like? Did they complete on time with a minimum of stress or ????? we are thinking of building with them and wanted to get other people's opinions.... thanks for any information.... Re: building with avjennings... 3Nov 07, 2008 8:31 am My sister and her husband built with them 14yrs ago and didn't have any issues - lovely first home.
My in-laws were going to build with them 8yrs ago however at that stage they wouldn't build on a drop edge beam so ended up going with Mirvac. Sorry - no other info about them. Re: building with avjennings... 4Nov 07, 2008 10:45 pm We almost built with them...
but decided to cancel... (issues with communication and how some people in the company treated us during contract stage)... we didn't get our deposit anymore... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: building with avjennings... 5Nov 07, 2008 11:48 pm thanks for all the replies..... we also have issues with some people in the company... though have not paid any money yet...but seems they are very keen to have money first before giving us any information about what we can expect.
grrrr....this is really very stressful and we have not even started. need to do some more scouting again.... Re: building with avjennings... 6Nov 08, 2008 7:31 am We were keen to build with them when we first started looking, but they wanted us to pay too much money (almost 20k) that we might not get back for a variety of reasons, like the DA not getting approved etc. Might be something you want to check with them if you haven't already. C&G -------------------------------- A new building chapter begins.. Re: building with avjennings... 7Nov 08, 2008 3:02 pm thanks Bobbuilder... we surely would look into it. Though now we are not sure if we will build with them. Its difficult to look for a builder that you will be comfortable with and who can be trusted. Re: building with avjennings... 8Nov 11, 2008 11:09 am I have recently build with AV Jennings (hand over in Oct 2008 )and wud NEVER build with them again... mainly coz of communication problem and the way they treated us, once they take the money (had to pay some intial aamount).
AV Jennings would not give their building supervisor's number to you, which made it very difficult for us. you have to go thru the office for everything hence was a lot of communication problem. Trust me people.. its very important to talk to your building supervisor, while building.... Finally got to meet the building supervisor on the walk thru day... who turned out be very very ARROGANT. hated him!!! We changed the house plan a little bit in july,2007(just before we signed the contract)and it took them 4 months to draft a new one mainly coz they said their design engineer was not coming in (had his daughetr hospitalised). the new plan was ready in November, 2007 It was a nightmare to get them to start the building work too. For few months (till january i guess) they kept saying, "we will post u the letter soon about building dates". Finally we lost it and kept calling the office every single day to get an answer. The lady we were dealing with was pretty rude too. Nehow she told us they havent been supplied with enough building material so when that is done, they will inform us. I managed to get some manager's email, but all in vain... He never replied but called me after a week. He told me he the delays are not under there control.... huh... Our walk thru wasnt very pleasant either... AV Jennings provided us wid security Alarm box (in the WIR) without any powerpoint next to it. When questioned from the supervisor, he said.. the contract says we provide alarm, not a power point... haha was such a moron,,, we had to ring up the office to get a powerpoint put next to teh alarm so that it cud work... Oh and no one cud beat this one... Our water meter is placed in the middle of our driveway and our building supervisor has washed off his hands off saying its not AV Jenning's responsibility... We have gone to consumers affair,. and waiting ...... In short we had heaps trouble at every stage with them...... So the whole building experince was very disheartening.. and I would suggest to all the people out there NOT to build with AV jennings.... AND amongbalay... i have heard very good things about Porter Davis.. one of my colleague built with them and is the happiest person... You wudnt believe this... but he (colleague) was so happy wid the building supervisor, that he ended up giving him (building supervisor) a BLUE LABEL!!!!! haha.... Re: building with avjennings... 9Nov 11, 2008 11:19 am anny AND amongbalay... i have heard very good things about Porter Davis.. one of my colleague built with them and is the happiest person... You wudnt believe this... but he (colleague) was so happy wid the building supervisor, that he ended up giving him (building supervisor) a BLUE LABEL!!!!! haha.... Would that be a Jonny Walker Blue Label I presume So apart from the bad communication and the other couple of issues, what would you say the overall build quality was like? Re: building with avjennings... 10Nov 11, 2008 12:08 pm anny Our water meter is placed in the middle of our driveway and our building supervisor has washed off his hands off saying its not AV Jenning's responsibility... We have gone to consumers affair,. and waiting ...... OMG Re: building with avjennings... 11Nov 11, 2008 12:45 pm Cozmo anny AND amongbalay... i have heard very good things about Porter Davis.. one of my colleague built with them and is the happiest person... You wudnt believe this... but he (colleague) was so happy wid the building supervisor, that he ended up giving him (building supervisor) a BLUE LABEL!!!!! haha.... Would that be a Jonny Walker Blue Label I presume So apart from the bad communication and the other couple of issues, what would you say the overall build quality was like? @COZMO Yes ur rite..LOL it was Johnny Walker... We had way too many problems (not just couple of issues)....and due to their bad judgement of putting the water meter in the middle of our driveway, we are still not able to do the concreting of the driveway... Mud gets in the house... I have heard from other friends (who recently build) that they were asked from the builders where would they like their water meter to go... AV.. dint even contact us.. very SLACK..... AV... just doesn't think about their customers much.. they have a DONT CARE attitude,, mainly coz i guess they are a big company and losing one or two customers might not make a big difference for them (here im only guessing ) As far as the building quality is concerned its good... we are happy...But thats the only hting we are happy about... rest everything was a disaster.... mainly coz we chose a WRONG builder..... its only been a month dat we moved in,,, so time will tell... Re: building with avjennings... 12Nov 11, 2008 10:54 pm our neighbours are building with them and its seems like the biggest mess. We're in an established area and we signed off on their plans (as their neighbour) in early 2007 and they expected them to start in about May/June 2007. They demolished the existing house and the block sat empty for nearly 12 months!!!!
They started in about May/June 2008 and they are still getting the bricks done. They have got 1 brickie and he seemed to have disappeared for couple of weeks but is now back, but the progress is so slow. the contract says that they'll be done by mid Feb but no way possible. They had really bad probs with the contract ie 'yeah, sign it now, and we'll fix it after'. All post contract changes cost a lot of money. I would be VERY wary about dealing with AV. they seem rubbish! anthea Re: building with avjennings... 13Nov 12, 2008 9:41 am That water meter issue takes the cake!!!!
Fawlty Towers Builders Pty Ltd We were not asked where we wanted our water meter, but it was put at far side of driveway (garage wall on boundary line) which is fine and the common sense position for it to be. Re: building with avjennings... 14Nov 12, 2008 10:29 am Yes... Consumers affair guy has told us that if we hav not changed the plan after the water meter/tap was installed then its the builder's responsibility to have it in an appropriate place... Lets see what happens....
Moving the Tap/water meter is a costly affair.. roughly $1000 ( hire a plumber who charges $450-$500 and this plumber has to apply to water dept for the move of tap/water meter. Application fees to move the Tap - $85.00, Plumbing fees- $175 or so and Tapping fees - $ 150. or so). all these fees goes to water department.... And as Anthea said "sign it and we will fix it later".... thats so much like AV Jennings..... We had to go thru that too... but the sales consultant we dealt with intially (the guy who sits in the display homes office) , who has now left the job was very good.... so he took care of it all... We started having problems once our file was shifted to the office and we had to talk to this very rude gals who did not know wht on earth was goin.... she wud give very lame answers.. and yes most of the times she wud not get back to you.... so u chase it up.... call her again... and luk at her audacity... She wud ask us to be patient!!!! OH LORD... they were such a waste of time.... Please DONT build wid them..... Re: building with avjennings... 15Nov 13, 2008 3:42 pm interesting to read this about AV jennings.
I like their belmore 310 design, weighing up the pros and cons against a 2 storey henley design. Their base price is around 160K for this house, however I plan to budget an additional 90K to finish the house off (including driveway, landscaping et al. think that would be enough ? I have spoken with some of their sales people, who (Also) have given me the familiar line "oh yeah, we can change this and that, after we enter contract" only in the building industry... who here signs a contract for a new car without knowing the purchase price !!!!!! Why are priates scary ? Because they yaargh.. Re: building with avjennings... 16Nov 13, 2008 8:02 pm anny Moving the Tap/water meter is a costly affair.. roughly $1000 ( hire a plumber who charges $450-$500 and this plumber has to apply to water dept for the move of tap/water meter. Application fees to move the Tap - $85.00, Plumbing fees- $175 or so and Tapping fees - $ 150. or so). all these fees goes to water department.... Where about are you ? I am also intending on moving my water meter / tap at the front of the house and was told that as long as you moved within 600mm left or right of the existing meter, you need to submit the application to CityWest Water Melbourne at no charge. The only charge is for a plumber to move it for you and i found one who is charging only $280 for that distance. Cheers Re: building with avjennings... 17Nov 14, 2008 8:27 am I am also in western suburb. I knew moving the meter to 600mm was ok.... but we have to move the water meter/tap away by few meters mainly coz its in the middle of our driveway.... City west water told me those figures I would have to spend for the move.
I have applied to the consumers affair regarding this tap business... Lemme see wut they come up with... If they get AV to do it then good.. If not your plumber will come in handy... Thanks in advance. Re: building with avjennings... 18Nov 14, 2008 8:34 am Captain Morgan interesting to read this about AV jennings. I like their belmore 310 design, weighing up the pros and cons against a 2 storey henley design. Their base price is around 160K for this house, however I plan to budget an additional 90K to finish the house off (including driveway, landscaping et al. think that would be enough ? I have spoken with some of their sales people, who (Also) have given me the familiar line "oh yeah, we can change this and that, after we enter contract" only in the building industry... who here signs a contract for a new car without knowing the purchase price !!!!!! @Captain.... yes they were very helpful with us when we wanted to change few stuff here and there... To be honest we dint change much,, we extended the rooms and rumpus at the back coz we had space. Sales people are usualy good, ours was excellent.. Once u sign the contract and ur file moves to the office, den all d problems start (in my case thats wht happened).. U have to deal with those rude customer service people who have no idea what on earth is goin on. Never return calls and even if they do, u will be asked to be patient.... One major draw back ----- U never get to speak to ur Supervisor.... U have to pass on messages to him via one of these gals in the office... Our case was even worse.. coz the gal who had our file was sick a lot.. so heaps of other gals use to take her call.... Things got really really messy..... Lot of miscommunication happened.. and due to that we cud not get our left over bricks.... Have u signed the contract as yet? Re: building with avjennings... 19Nov 14, 2008 9:25 am naa, havent signed anything yet.
I want to make sure I can get the mods done that I really like for a "reasonable" price. ie a spa and vanity setup of my choice (not a fan of the half-depth vanitys, the wife has faaar too much stuff), and an extension to the garage. Nothing significant, but I dont want to be "taken to the cleaners" over it. I can deal with rude people, as long as at the end of the day they do what you ask for, fix their mistakes and do a good finish. One good thing about their houses (compared with say rossdale) is that they put in plenty of storage space into their designs. Im big on practicality stuff, like access and storage, so thats why they appeal to me I guess. Im weighing it up against the henley wilshire, which for me is my preferable solution, but the extra 100K scares me quite a bit ! Why are priates scary ? Because they yaargh.. Re: building with avjennings... 20Nov 14, 2008 10:37 am yes Captain.. we liked their plans too.. we have build springwood 24 with extensions nearly every where... I have to say they use quality things..... we are also happy with the job they did,,, and so much depends on ur supervisor..(If he has strict standards then gud).. with who u wud never get to speak to...
fixing their mistake- they dint do it for us regarding left oevr bricks.... We told one of the girl (who was looking after our file) to keep the left over bricks, but it never got to the supervisor, and he removed them all. Here i must mention, dat the dis gal was getting sick a lot of times and other gals were taking her calls too... So i dont remember who i spoke to.... We never got the bricks back.... When escalated the matter further... we were told to read in the contract that all the unfinished material is builder's property.. but i do believe we paid lumpsum in the contract for all the unfinished material too.... Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 29918 go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110211 |