Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 21Aug 30, 2009 6:53 am Its been a while since I posted thought id provide an update. Our sales consultant was james also hes awesome asset to the company and a no cow manure kinda of guy exactely what you want when your building. Our house started and the frames and slab went up really quickly. I was happy with places until friday. I got a call from our administrator on tuesday to say our builder had left the company and we would have a temparory builder until a new one could be employed. The New builder hasn't called me and i think its unlikely hes even been on site. Thing that also scares me is i spoke to our old builder Mark on the thursday before the tuesday and he didn't mention he was leaving. From what I can tell he left on the friday. From what I know about employment is that you have to give two week to terminate employment unless their is some serious misconduct. So I can only assume he was sacked for misconduct eg stealing or bad building practices. So at this stage it seems nobody is looking after my house and places are unable to tell me who will acutally complete the house being built. I'm in the building industry and this to me has all the makings of a job thats going to end up a complete stuff up as from one person to the next will have no idea what the last person did and mistakes are more likely to happen. not very happy atm. Seems they only had 2 builders on the books and looks like mark looked after almost all the western suburbs so those in the west will all cop the same problems with them! Total Breeze Air Conditioning and Electrical - Based in Melbourne http://www.totalbreeze.com.au Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 22Aug 30, 2009 10:32 am octain .... I got a call from our administrator on tuesday to say our builder had left the company and we would have a temparory builder until a new one could be employed. The New builder hasn't called me and i think its unlikely hes even been on site. Thing that also scares me is i spoke to our old builder Mark on the thursday before the tuesday and he didn't mention he was leaving. From what I can tell he left on the friday. From what I know about employment is that you have to give two week to terminate employment unless their is some serious misconduct. So I can only assume he was sacked for misconduct eg stealing or bad building practices. If by "builder", you mean your site supervisor, it's extremely common to have two or three or more different ones during a build. I doubt there are many people at all who get through their construction period with the same SS; there's just a very high turnover of staff in this industry. It's also common to get no notice of the change, and to have a delay in getting a new SS appointed.... So I wouldn't go making assumptions about sackings or misconduct, based on nothing more than not being told about the change. The guy may have been in negotiations with another builder for weeks, for all you know - major building companies are always poaching each other's staff. Your temporary SS may or may not have been on site yet, but he's probably busy going over files and familiarising himself with the jobs he's inherited.... realistically, you have to give him a few days to get up to speed. If you don't hear from him by the end of the week, give your admin person a call and chase him up. Relax and try to be patient - this happens to almost everyone, and it isn't necessarily a big deal. Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 23Aug 31, 2009 8:49 pm Most site supervisiors are builders I think youll find. They only use the term site supervisor because their not all are qualified. Secondly I would say it VERY uncommon to have 2 or 3 "site supervisors" on the one project. After building my 4 house this is first time ive had more then one. I'm in the building industry and where I work the average time of employment there would be around 4 years. I would suggest any work place where there is a frequent turn over of staff less then a year may need to have a good look at themselves. I think even if he was poached to another company he is required to give a minimum of 2 weeks notice unless by negoiation by both employer and employee. I highly doubt any employer would let and employee go early unless they had someone else lined up for the position. The only other grounds to dismiss and employee without 3 warnings would be serious misconduct. As I say I saw him only a few days before which he organised to meet with us and introduce himself. This is all speculation of cause and possibly won't effect our build however a Few people did message me and ask how places where to build with and this is my experience so far and so far I've been happy with things up to this point and can only hope this doesn't effect things going forward. Total Breeze Air Conditioning and Electrical - Based in Melbourne http://www.totalbreeze.com.au Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 24Aug 31, 2009 9:08 pm Wow, no broadband and 6 month wait for phone.........incredible in today's world!! What about TV?? I heard it takes an hour and a half to watch 60 minutes up that way !! Signed with Carlisle - Atlantique 36Mk2 altered & upsized Botanic Ridge Estate - Build started 22nd Oct 2010 Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 25Aug 31, 2009 9:40 pm octain Most site supervisiors are builders I think youll find. They only usethe term site supervisor because their not all are qualified. Well, I'm not trying to start an argument with you, I was just trying to understand who you meant. "Site Supervisor" is the usual name given to the guy who supervises your build, and that's the term you'll find used here... When people refer to their builder, they usually mean the company, so it was a little confusing. octain Secondly I would say it VERY uncommon to have 2 or 3 "site supervisors" on the one project. After building my 4 house this is first time ive had more then one. I'm in the building industry and where I work the average time of employment there would be around 4 years. I would suggest any work place where there is a frequent turn over of staff less then a year may need to have a good look at themselves. I think even if he was poached to another company he is required to give a minimum of 2 weeks notice unless by negoiation by both employer and employee. I highly doubt any employer would let and employee go early unless they had someone else lined up for the position. Um... Nope, now I am going to argue with you. We had THREE site supervisors during our build. Also three customer service/admin girls. Go read through a few threads here and you'll find plenty of others who had the same experience with various volume builders. And we had no notice with any of our changes, or at most a day or two - they just happened. Maybe you've just been lucky before? Whatever the reason, you might want to think twice about making comments on a public forum about misconduct or theft or whatever....especially when you've given quite a lot of detail that could identify the person concerned. Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 26Sep 04, 2009 9:55 pm Hi I am thingking of buying a house and land package with Places Homes, I am going to the Tarneit display tommorrow. I am not comfortable with the fact that they don't have any displays of the homes which they have for this house and land package. I would like to know if anyone has bought one of their homes off the plan without seing it, it doesn't seem like a wise thing to do afterall it is a huge investment. Allthough i have noticed that many of the volume builders are starting to not have displays of smaller homes and are selling them the same way (off the plan). I would also like to know your opinion on the overall quality and standard of theIR homeS. Thanks (GO THE BLUES) Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 27Sep 05, 2009 6:22 am KEK, I guess what it comes down to is wether they build a house well or not and I will have to agree to disagree on the multi site supervisiors as I've in the building trade for 12 years and seldom have I seen 2 or 3 SS on the job and when I do it tends to be a complete stuff up. This obviously doesn't mean it will be. I'm glad you build went ok. but where you at all concerned about the high staff turn over? id like to make one thing clear thou. I'M NOT suggesting in any way shape or form that it was misconduct. In fact other then some extremely circumstantial evidence I have nothing to suggest it is. More suggesting it is possible and would be extremely concerning if it was. Subject to the fact they told me nothing of why he left other then it happened in one day. Ive got no idea! So far all I can say is the house is going up quickly and all looks great. Quality look good and they use a lot of the contractors that other more expensive builders use so you'd expect a similar quality. From experience thou most of the problems arise at the fit off stage so will hold off my reaffirmation of this till then. So far so good thou Total Breeze Air Conditioning and Electrical - Based in Melbourne http://www.totalbreeze.com.au Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 28Sep 05, 2009 10:41 pm Thanks for that info I am not too concerned about more than one supervisor as i understand that othe turnover of staff is inevitable, just hope that it doesn't cause too much confusion and that the builders are competant, that is the real worry . Happy to know that the construction is going well for you that is reassuring, i saw the display today allthough it isn't the house we have selected it does reassure me that they build to a reasonable standard. The sales consultants seem to be very experienced and that is reassuring, came away with a good vibe, the deal is transparent so that gives me confidence to make a decision. If you feel that there is anything in particular that we should be aware of please let me know Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 29Sep 28, 2009 4:03 pm Just thought id give you the heads up on how places are. Just got to lock up stage on the house and all looks good. Got a building inspector to look thought it and he was pretty happy. few small thinks, like tiny problems that places agreed to fix straight away. Workmanship wise, got to say spot on. Building inspection report mention the brick work as some of the best hes seen in 12 months. Seem to be building a nice house and fairly organised. A few of the doors and windows needed to be leveled but that was picked up by their own building inspection people. Got new SS temp one until we get a new one. he seems pretty good. Still a bit ** off thou with yet another change to come. Can't see why they don't just keep this one. Overall there building us a nice house. Thats what matters certainly a lot better quality then any other house I have built. Total Breeze Air Conditioning and Electrical - Based in Melbourne http://www.totalbreeze.com.au Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 30Sep 28, 2009 6:00 pm great to hear how good its turning out even with ss drama's, you must be stoked to have an independant inspector say its some of the best brickwork he's seen! hopefully the quality is thier forte when they start mine in dec. Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 31Oct 01, 2009 9:59 am I am really happy that your house is going well Octain, hopefully quality is their forte! However starting their houses on time is definately not their forte. Our site start was Aug, it's now October still no start, it is really frustrating watching the months go by when our land sits there bare! They have all the permits so this is not the issue. All I can say is beware when you are quoted a site start month, don't take it too seriously as you probably won't get it! We are also building the Glendale 28, well eventually!! Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 32Oct 02, 2009 11:30 pm giraffee I am really happy that your house is going well Octain, hopefully quality is their forte! However starting their houses on time is definately not their forte. Our site start was Aug, it's now October still no start, it is really frustrating watching the months go by when our land sits there bare! They have all the permits so this is not the issue. All I can say is beware when you are quoted a site start month, don't take it too seriously as you probably won't get it! We are also building the Glendale 28, well eventually!! Sorry to hear about that. Ours started a little late too but it was due to estate and building permits coming back to slow .Once they had them they started right away. However I know they have taken on a lot of projects recently and obviously lossing an SS has prolly put things back a bit. Nice choice on the House btw which facarde did u choose? when U get some pics chuck them up if you can interesting to see what other people are doing and how different one design can look. http://brendanlouise.blogspot.com Total Breeze Air Conditioning and Electrical - Based in Melbourne http://www.totalbreeze.com.au Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 33Oct 23, 2009 4:49 pm Hi Does anyone have any working drawings for the Glendale 28...something that i can get measurements from...wifey and i are building in brookfield...but we live in the Northern Territory....we have not seen the house but think its the best floor plan for us fingers crossed we made the right choice...we switched from PD to a bigger house...we were going to build the lisbon 24 in the access range but glendale came across as better value for money...Does anyone know what selection choices you get from hopetoun and how different they are from the access range in PD. We are trying to do everything via email and post so things are getting tricky....we dont know what choices you get. We cant leave the NT because of our isolated location and work commitments so this is going to be challengeing to say the least but we are hopefull of getting things right. Anyway all the help we can get would be appreciated. You can also email me as well chriswall001@hotmail.com Thanks GOING SLIGHTLY MAD Glendale 28 Check out our BLOG - complete photos of all disasters and progress http://ourglendale28.blogspot.com/ Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 34Oct 30, 2009 8:59 pm DSon't think they will give you copies with messurements on them. Understanably thou. They spend alot of money getting them just right I suppose they just don't want people coping them. Hopetoun selections for PD vs PLaces is very similar from what i could tell PD people have a bigger range to choose from but the only difference really is they use different brands but i think all the stuff is pretty much the same. Total Breeze Air Conditioning and Electrical - Based in Melbourne http://www.totalbreeze.com.au Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 35Oct 30, 2009 9:14 pm Hi Octain Got them thanks from our SC...just waiting for the hopetouns pack to come via mail...to make our selections...thanks again GOING SLIGHTLY MAD Glendale 28 Check out our BLOG - complete photos of all disasters and progress http://ourglendale28.blogspot.com/ Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 36Nov 05, 2009 6:37 am Hi guys We are very close to signing with Places to build the Glendale 28 also. We don't seen to be making too many changes. Everyone happy so far? Any blogs I can follow? Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 37Nov 09, 2009 4:14 pm just got an email today from Places, "In November Places Homes are excited to launch our NEW 24seven customer portal. As the name suggests, the unique 24seven portal provides all our customers access to complete progress details for their new home, at any time 24 hours per day, 7 days per week." very exciting indeed its not up and running yet but hopefully will make the whole process a little easier (aslong as it does'nt make things frustrating). Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 38Nov 09, 2009 8:10 pm gemmaandlilly Hi guys We are very close to signing with Places to build the Glendale 28 also. We don't seen to be making too many changes. Everyone happy so far? Any blogs I can follow? Just had my second last inspection yesterday house is close to being finished. building the glendale and got to say am really impressed. Their has been a few small issues. But on the whole they have been really good. On my inspection I noticed our site supervisior had gone around made the plaster replace a whole heap of cornices that had bowes in them. I had previously been though and no picked them up and prolly won't have. It just shows their level of quality. He also pointed out a number of things I missed and explained to me they would be fixed. Been getting regular updates from my administrator as to the progress of the house. They like to say they will give you a call once a week but often, it's once every 2 - 3 weeks I found. Which is fine with me because sometimes there is alot to tell if their waiting on parts to come in or something like bricking to get finished. Ive built a few homes and got to say so far this is the best experience ive had with a builder. i got a blog brendanlouise.blogspot.com its not always update but im getting there lol Total Breeze Air Conditioning and Electrical - Based in Melbourne http://www.totalbreeze.com.au Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 39Jan 01, 2010 1:25 pm Hi guys iv bought land in heritage springs in pakenham and building with places site started 14 sept 09 had a bit of a delay with bricks being out of stock for 3 weeks at lock up by 20 nov and fix 23 nov nothing happening since we are building the deacon 28 how have your experiances with places been. Anyone building in pakenham Re: Anyone heard of PLACES HOMES LAND LIFE builder??? 40Feb 24, 2010 6:55 pm Hi Can anyone list out the standard range of bricks and roof tiles used by Places Homes ? Thank you You should pressure clean your roof first and make sure the paint you buy also is anti mould. 4 18580 Sounds like rubbish to me. Ask for the contamination report which I doubt they have. If it's part of a normal subdivision it would have had a contamination report done… 9 5656 |