Anyone building with Zuccala Homes in Aurora Estate??

Hi,

Just wondering if there are any people out there building with Zuccala Homes in Aurora Estate, Epping?? If so can you please provide feedback/ experience good or bad on this builder. So far it is frustrating dealing with the sales consultant to get prices for certain items.

Any information would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks in advance.

Hi Polo,

We are not building in Aurora, but are building with Zuccala.

We found our sales consultant great, but not as happy so far with contracts admin and have had delays (with not much expalnation) on build start. Found contract admin extremely hard to contact.

In saying that, we got a package that included just about everything which is great, standard inclusions we were happy with.

Any other questions I'm happy to help

Thanks Arabella. We are being consistantly told by our SC that at the moment they are flat out at HQ trying to complete contracts for first home buyers by 30 June, so it could be why you are having trouble at moment. Even if that the case they still should treat their current client with respect. Overall at the moment are you happy with them??

We recently put a deposit down as they won't provide us with a house quote, so trying to get as much info on them as possible before we signed on the dotted line. Been researching on the net for the past few months and not much info on them but when there are they seem to have positive feedbacks. I will probably go around the estate and ask their previous client on feed backs (should have done this at the start) . I've been talking to another member on here about them and so far it seems positive, however, I am unfortunate that he is not building in Aurora.

Did you upgrade alot above their standard inclusion and if so how did you find it cost wise??

It is frustrating not being told how much items costs and are told it will be given at contract signing. We are told that we have to skip tender and go straight to contract if we want to get it done by 30 June. I wonder if anyone experience this?

Thanks and any info would be appreciated.

Well we are not completely happy, but not overly unhappy either. Just wish things were moving a bit faster, but I'm sure everyone does when building!

After making a holding deposit on our h&l package, we went in to meet our sales rep. and went through what upgrades we wanted and she was able to tell us the costs at the time (apart from stone or diamond gloss which depended on measurments). We didn't change much, just a few smaller things like basins in bathrooms, hand held shower, upgraded to diamond gloss laminate, downlights etc. We were happy with standard, but as to standard carpets and tiles we're not sure yet, we are doing our selections in 2 weeks time so will know more then.

We didn't have tender either, and went straight to contract. This was fine for us because we wanted the contracts asap. We have made some variations since then which they have been very good with. We only spent about $3k over base price. Hopefully we will be happy with carpet and tiles! We will be going in before our appointment to check everything out so will have more of an idea after next weekend.

There is not much out there about Zuccala but we have come across a few people that were very happy with their build and quality. Hopefully it gets going soon! Let us know how you go and just ask if you have any other q's

Thanks Arabella for your reply and offer. Now it's a waiting game to see if we would get our contract by 30 June (hopefully we do or we have to pull the plug on building).

We haven't got much pricing from them so have no clue how pricing goes, but can you tell me (if you know) whether their pricing for upgrades are reasonable?? Hopefully the price is reasonable and not outrageous like some other members on this forum experience with their builder.

Hope your contract will be smooth and has no problems. Keep us inform on how it went.

Our package included just about everything, even blinds! Only things we will need to do is aircon and landscaping

To give you an idea, some of the things we changed were;
Square inset basins $245 ea
Remote for garage $600
Shower niche $165
Window locks $15ea
Flyscreens $35ea
3 way heat/fan/lights $250ea
Downlights were $100ea $60 in liue of batton lights
Hand held shower $35

We were going to go with caesarstone but decided against it (was $3610) and went for diamond gloss in kitchen and bathrooms which they charged a total of $915 for. We were also going to add evap. aircon with 5 points for $4950 but decided we will do this ourselves later (as it will be cheaper!) so we managed to get them to include the plumbing for it for nothing.

Will let you know after the weekend what the standard range of tiles and carpets are etc once we have a look at the range.

Just keep hassling them to do those contracts! If they know you will put out if you don't have them by 30 June you should be right. We told them we wanted ours by a certain date which they did for us even through Christmas.

We're building with Zuccala atm.

The major problem with them is that they take agessssss to respond to variations and enquiries. Their admin staff is shocking and i think they cant cope with the workload which is a real shame.

Kristy Clohesy never answers the phone or enquiries back and the reception is usually rude there. You have to go through 10 different people to ask for 1 thing or change and then it takes 3 months for them to even action it after you've hounded them every week.

Exactly the problems we had mrroberts

Our contracts girl has now left but nobody bothered to tell me, I ended up going back to the sales lady to get on their backs! Kristy is now looking after us

We are waiting for permits now so hopefully that won't take long and we can finally get onto the next stage and out of the office!

Polo, we did our selections this weekend. Not a great range of tiles to chose from but we did find ones we liked in the standard range. Just upgraded cupboard handles, splashback tile & added feature tile to bathrooms, and wanted different colour paint for skirts, doors & architraves - couldn't beleive that was an upgrade!

Now will just have to wait (for a while no doubt) to see how much those things will cost!

Yeah, and I think it will only get worse.

2 people who look after the variations and contract administration have left in the past month - Kate & Anita. I think the ENTIRE workload has now been passed onto poor Kristy.

Varations are taking a L-O-N-G time... I've been waiting for a little over 5 weeks for a simple colour variation.

Thanks Arabella for the update and great to hear that you found something in their standard range. I hope you will get your permits soon and smooth sailing from then on.

We are still waiting for contracts, now with the extended FHOB and extra $6k from state govt. (lucky they took their time lol) we can take our time and request to go through tender instead of being push straight to contract.

That's very poor customer service, start to wonder whether it was a wise choice to go with them. I hope they get their act together. We really don't need anymore headaches.

All the best guys, and keep us updated on your building progress.

The "easiest" way to deal with Zuccala is that ensure you write down ALL your own variations and examine your plans carefully especially measuring your kitchen, lounge rooms etc so you have an idea of the sizing and space. Also keep in mind your electricals, tv points, and telephone lines as it is easier to put them in at construction rather than later.

My own experience is that i gave all my variations in 1 shot because if you change things later it can be harder to do...which we are finding atm. Ive found that other things that can be changed later, i'll do myself without asking for variations. Granite benchtops, shower heads, cupboard handles etc.

You can also visit Zuccala's tiler, Satelitte solutions - which also carries other Cat 1 standard tiles that you may like.

My property just has started to build since signing back in 2007 ...that should make you guys feel a bit better in the "time" department!

We're building in Aurora Estate, but not with Zuccala.

We bought our land in late 2007, signed our building contract in March 2008 and we are about 4 weeks away from handover.

Is Zuccala taking as long as our builder? Our building contract allowed for 350 days.

Oztish, we are having problem with them now, the admin are a real headache, but with build quality and time we'll wait and see. Anyway from remembering the time built for those galleria's on rockfield st it didn't take much time compare to the S!monds houses.

At the moment we regreted changing to them from JGK due to their admin but we have no choice now but to stay with them (it's a long story). We are praying that their construction stage will be smoother than the admin process meainng build quality is good.

All the best Oztish with handover and the maintenance period, especially when Mel is no longer building in Aurora. As mention in the other thread, keep in contact on this forum.

Polo - there's still a few Mel homes to go up (like the 3 houses right next door to mine) - they're all with my builder.

From what I've seen from the Zuccala and JGK homes around us - they've all gone up really quickly, in around 5 months. In 4 weeks time it will be one whole year since our slab was poured.