Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 12, 2009 11:37 am Hi All,
We signed up with Sim0nds home July last year but have decided to cancel with them due to many headaches. We agreed to go with them on the condition that they fix the site cost at 9k. After making the deposit, there was no contact with us until Sept when some lady called up and said we must make an appointment for colour selection, like it was our fault for the delay. So we rocked along to the colour selection only to find out that the floorplan wasn't what we bought & we were been charged for most of the so called "sale discounts". We immediately wrote a long email to the CSO regarding all the issues. She never returned my email nor voice messages. Then surprisingly our contract was ready!? What happened to tender? Once again, we trusted that everything was in order and went to the contract signing appointment in October. And guess what? Nothing had been fixed! Site cost was 13k, incorrect floorplan & still been charged for sale discount items! So there I was patiently went through all the issues with the sales manager. Apparently the CSO had been sick and was behind on emails & messages. I accepted that explanation. So I went away once more trusting that things will be corrected this time since I've got the sales manager involved. Not! The contract was supposedly fixed up by November. I went to pick up the contract in November to carefully analyse. And geez nothing had changed! Up until this point I have been patient and have not complained even one bit. I've had enough by Jan and decided to cancel the contract. Our cancellation letter was emailed to them early Jan and after many many many follow ups, it's still not actioned yet! Their CSO simply don't return my calls or emails. The sales manager keeps promising that it'd be done. They even told me that I won't get any money back. Why not? All they've given to me is headache after headache. Besides our land wasn't titled until Friday 6/3/09. I am so frustrated! Please give me some advice on how I can get my deposit back and get the job cancelled. Thank you Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 2Mar 12, 2009 11:54 am My goodness, I could've written that and it is almost as it happened too!! It sounds like a recurring theme down at Sim0nds land!
Well we walked away before signing the contract, despite their contracts guy practically doing everything bar holding our hand down to the paper to make us sign it!! They were pretty good with the refund, mind you it was a $1500 deposit but they gave us majority of it back. Actually, apart from the majority of the work the sales girl did, that was probably the only thing that ran smoothly!!! Now because you have signed the contract, it would probably be more difficult to get out of. Maybe you should engage a solicitor to help you out? Some contracts are worded so you have to pay a certain % of the build if you break it but hopefully there is some sort of loophole! Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 3Mar 12, 2009 11:56 am Wow that sounds awful!!
How much money did you outlay? Did they do a soil test, construction drawings? If they did a soil test, you wont get that portion of the money back. But with construction drawings, they cant expect you to pay for it if it wasnt even the plan of the house you actually wanted. I say fight them, and tell them what you told us, that nothing was done right. At the end of the day, they quoted you on the wrong house! Good luck, heaps of people on here will know what to do and advise you. Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 4Mar 12, 2009 12:14 pm All,
Let me clarify. I've not signed any contract and no soil test was done was our land was only titled last Friday. The deposit was $1500. I should really get all of it back! Only only things they've done for us are: - colour selection - contract preparation but this was more a nuisance to us than anything! They skipped the tender stage. I guess they just wanted to lock us in. Had they presented the tender to us we would have cancelled then if there was so many of these issues. Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 7Mar 12, 2009 12:28 pm I can't believe they charged $1,500 for that!
Henley only charged us $500 which was fully refundable until the soil test had been done - this was clearly stated in the document we signed. Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 8Mar 12, 2009 12:29 pm You should be able to get the majority of the deposit back. Altho they wont give you the whole refund as 'work' has been put into preparing this contract. That happened to me with M3tricon. We got half our money back because we got to tender stage. We didnt have soil test done, no colour selections, only the tender contract was drawn. Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 10Mar 12, 2009 12:37 pm mattydals I can't believe they charged $1,500 for that! Henley only charged us $500 which was fully refundable until the soil test had been done - this was clearly stated in the document we signed. Plantation charged us $1500 initial deposit and then a further $1500 at contract signing stage AND we paid for our own soil test using Plantations recommended soil testers DEQ ourselves before we paid the first $1500 because we weren't sure if we would need peiring and didnt want to put down $1500 if it ended up we did need peiring. Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 12Mar 12, 2009 1:16 pm Oh my god! I just got off the phone with the sales manager. I made him work on my request then and there and he's going to give me back over $800. Let's see if I get the cheque next week. It'll be interesting to see the break down of all the costs. Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 14Mar 12, 2009 1:50 pm $800 seems fair. If they've presented you with site costs, they would have done a soil test and contour survey. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 17Mar 12, 2009 2:37 pm P&s joles, no soil test & contour survey done yet as I decided to cancel before our land was titled. Love to see what the costs incurred are. I'm guessing they will have taken out fees for the colour consult. Stevep79 & Principessa Finished building Wisdom Homes Impression 33mkII in The Ponds, Sydney http://lilypadintheponds.blogspot.com Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 18Mar 12, 2009 2:39 pm P&s joles, no soil test & contour survey done yet as I decided to cancel before our land was titled. Our first soil test was done in 2007, we didn't title til August 2008. They hadn't even started to develop the land when our first soil test and contour survey was done. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Frustrated!!! I want my deposit back! 19Mar 13, 2009 8:31 am PnSdreams ICK how did you manage to get the majority of the deposit back? They are really using bullying tactics with me! I'm so over it and just about to give up. Um, we were on pretty good terms with the sales girl still, so we went through her. I will have to dig up the paperwork but I think they only charged us for the prelim soil test and some other search they did. I think it was a few hundred but I'd need to check. But we had done colours, electrical and were up to contract signing stage. I think its important to not give them a hard time, its so hard not to get angry but I think this just makes them more stubborn with it all! I would be wary. Is you site demilished but nothing else done? Sounds like liquidity problems to me. Our builder did the same. Got hundreds of thousands of dollars of… 2 15391 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 5645 In NSW the maximum deposit for building work is 5% until the builder provides HBCF insurance 1 4821 |