Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 26, 2009 9:33 pm And tomorrow is our 2nd PCI. I cancelled the first one in November 2008 by calling the CSS and telling him how much wasn't done yet. There are still a dozen things not done and even the Simonds own website have our place listed as 85% last November. My kitchen counters (stone) weren't ordered until December because someone got my house confused with another one. We asked for 2 extra heating ducts that are still not installed, there are no taps in the bath nor in the kitchen sink. Tiles have been broken in the bathroom when the cleaners went through in December even though electrical work and the heating ducts are still outstanding. Oh, and someone has spilt paint on the carpet in the main bedroom then tried to clean it off by just about rubbing the pile off. The list of things not done by the end of January has not come down at all. Our so called completion date was the 3rd of March and the $200 a week does me no good as it only comes off the final invoice, not into my hand. The whole experience has been very upsetting and expensive as we are now paying $3000 a month in housing costs (mortgage and rent). Simonds put in the plasterboard when the house only had sisalation wrapped around it because the bricks were not available. The brick arrived some 2 weeks later but the brickie wasn't available. Then they ran out of bricks with 45cms of back wall not completed. What seems to have happened is that because the house was no longer being built in the "correct" order it needed someone to make sure that the bits that needed to be done were done. Our house sat for 6 weeks in Sept-Oct last year and nothing happened. No work what so ever. Phone calls and emails to our CS person went unanswered. Mind you, they didn't dare send any invoices either! All this I have observed by peering through the windows as we have never been invited to see the house at any stage. No one ever calls us unless I send a message via the "contact us" part of the website. Mind you, if I was them and had done what they have done with not building the house in any kind of order, I wouldn't want to speak to the customers either! Contracts in March 2008 and no end in sight yet. Re: Building with Simonds for 9 months 2Mar 26, 2009 9:56 pm I'm so sorry to hear about your building issues. I think every building job varies, the good and the bad ones, and perhaps you have bad customer service person and construction supervisor. You will definitely get there.. Good luck and hope for the best! Built the Atlantique 37 Mk2 with Carlisle Homes - WE'RE IN!! Building thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14413 ATLANTIQUE 37 MK2 PHOTOS THREAD - updated 22nd August '09 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22399 Re: Building with Simonds for 9 months 3Mar 26, 2009 10:49 pm Hi Asrael, Thats shocking and scary. Hope it ends well for you. We just signed our contracts with simonds. Keeping our fingers crossed. Land Settled 27/04/09. Site Started 30/4/09. Slab poured 21/5/09. Frame up 27/5/09. Building thread : viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15699 Re: Building with Simonds for 9 months 4Mar 27, 2009 6:28 am That is disgraceful and as I have seen on here can happen to all builders. What I have noticed is if you have a great SS, everything goes smoothly. As he is the person that books all the tradies in and co-ordinates everything to the schedule. Plus if he is experienced then he builds up rapport with the best tradies and uses them for all his jobs. I haven't seen one builder on here that has all positive reviews, there is just too many variables. Hopefully everything is sorted out for you and you get to move into your new house soon. Re: Building with Simonds for 9 months 5Mar 27, 2009 7:03 am Very sorry to hear about your situation. I hope that you can move into your new (fully complete!) home soon! Good luck! Building Vancouver 33 - My Thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=89689 Re: Building with Simonds for 9 months 6Mar 27, 2009 1:16 pm hi asrael, May I ask who's your site supervisor? initials will do (you can PM me if you feel uncomfertable disclosing the info publicly) We are also building with Simonds in Craigieburn, and the last thing we need is a slack SS TIA Re: Building with Simonds for 9 months 7Mar 27, 2009 1:46 pm that;s unacceptable. You need to have a "sit down" with simmonds and explain your frustrations. If you are not happy with that idea, I'd get a lawyer to help you make them "understand" their ways. Our new neighbour in our estate built with Simmonds, and the first thing they said to us was they built with SImmonds, and no way would they recommend them. Very distressful time getting their job finished. Cost them a lot of money in extra rent etc with set back after set back. I mean there is good and bad things said about all builders from time to time, but if you can't organise a "sit down" with your builder (be it manager, SS etc) then really, you'd be made to choose that company. You need a fair and reasonable line of communication open to you (as the spenders of over $200,000 of their company's sh*t) at all times. Get tougher with them! Annie A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Building with Simonds for 9 months 8Mar 27, 2009 4:02 pm Thanks for the responses to my post. Here is the latest update. We did a 2nd PCI with Simonds this morning and had an inspector from Kevin Jennings Building Services doing a visual for us at the same time. He concluded there were no major problems but that he thought their mortar work was poor, interior painting about the same and that there were some small faults in the setting of some windows, a distinct draught around the front door and not enough glue had been used with the tiles. Otherwise it was okay. All little things really. The dozen or so things I had sent as a list to Simonds in early March are still outstanding along with 2 telephone points, and several extra power points missing that I could not see from the outside. Our SS says he will have it all fixed by Easter. He was there early waiting for a plumber to turn up to install a toilet that had been stolen (along with a bath and at least 1 downpipe) by one of the people working for them. Apparently he has now been caught and charged but I can see why things get nicked when a house is left unattended by anyone for months at a time. The SS also says we "should have been screaming" when things stopped moving with our house last year but no one at Simonds answered my phone calls or emails. My DH wanted to go put a brick through their window but really...what good would that do? I guess the advice from this comment is, don't let things slide. Be a PITA and keep things moving. I just didn't want to *** off the SS so much he deliberately let things go wrong as I know that can happen as well. So at this point I am marginally more optimistic but we will always be out of pocket the $1k+ a month in rent we have been paying since December. Even if the SS is correct and we get a final inspection by Easter, our bank still has to send out a valuer, the final invoice has to be reduced by the $200 a week (since 3 March)in penalty and settlement still has to happen. So we may be able to move in by the end of April. I know Simonds is able to build;d a house in 18 weeks, just not ours apparently. Contracts in March 2008 and no end in sight yet. This certainly doesn't look good. I would be engaging with an independent inspector to have a look at this. As for the unscheduled site visits, most builders are quite… 1 28290 Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 30236 |