Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 22, 2009 10:32 am Hi! I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this and has any advice for us! My husband and I are first home buyers, we exitedly gave a holding deposit of $3000 for a house and land package. No contracts have been signed. We did however sign some papers which basically said we agreed to the 2009 inclusions, that the sales man had shown us the correct block and any changes we made to the home (just where the plug sockets & antenna sockets were to go) The sales guy promised he would have our contracts within 1 week. As we didn't hear from him we went and spoke to him, he said they'd been delayed due to the 'changes' we'd made (which was just the sockets etc.) 1 week later we still hadn't heard anything. We started then getting cold feet, not only because of this, but because of the ****** we had already been told regarding the facade and the inclusions when we very first spoke to him. We did an online search on the company and found many bad reviews for them. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention who the builder is but you'll know by going to the product review site!!! So two and a half weeks after we were told we'd have our contracts we went to the sales office to tell them we were pulling out. The sales guy tried to talk us into staying with all the usual and offering us $7000 off of the price. He said he could do a letter to the bank with a 'fake' receipt to say we'd paid a deposit to them of $7000. My husband and I didn't really like the idea of it, but thought we'd go away and think about it. The sales guy told us if we decided to pull out to e-mail him. We e-mailed him that weekend advising that due to financial instituation difficulties we'd decided to pull out. (This was not a lie as we've been having trouble with the whole 10% v's 5% deposit thing with the bank as we'd had pre-approval for a 5% deposit) We asked for a full refund of our holding deposit. Three days later and we hadn't heard from him. My husband called the sales guy yesterday and was told that we weren't to deal with him any longer and would need to deal with his manager. He also told us that if we get any refund back at all, it will be minus any work they have had to do with the changes and organising a contract!!! We have signed no contracts at all.... only the papers noted above. We have not even sighted any land contracts etc!! Does anyone have any advice on what to do or say or has anyone else experienced this?? Your help and advice would be much appreciated..... Re: Advice Please!! ....Refund of holding Deposit 2Apr 22, 2009 3:01 pm WE had two instances where we got our full refund back. And this was mainly due to site costs and issues with the cut of our land and fall. Without sighting what you have signed I would like to give you the following peice of advice. First, buyer be ware. This is obviously a little late but is always the first rule of engagement. Second, who owns this builder? Find out who the owner is or CEO and attempt to go to the top, if these sales people are giving you grief. About the last thing a builder wants is bad publicity and usually these builders are quite fair if an issue like this arises. They live and die on their reputation. Go as high as you can with your issue and in a fair but firm manner explain the situation and as there has been no outlay such as site surveys, soil results etc, request firmly your deposit back in full. An interesting fact. One of the largest builders in Victoria makes a huge amount of money out of deposits never returned or returned in full. We managed to get our money back from this builder in full. Even after soil tests and initial engineerings. I went high. Its a very long story but I politely but firmly held my ground. I did mention that I would speak to every governing body if they didnt cooperate. we are selling and moving to the coast, if you know someone who wishes to buy in Mernda Villages, please visit this link http://www.realestate.com.au/property-h ... -107083288 In NSW the maximum deposit for building work is 5% until the builder provides HBCF insurance 1 3281 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 3458 A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 3054 |