Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 201Apr 25, 2011 11:07 am johnlong it is hard to believe it took them so long to get you your final drawings. our experience with them has been very mixed. Mind you I think most building companies are the same and you will probably find people that had issues with all of them. We are building the buckingham 46 with some mods in rural Vic One of the reasons we went with NBG was that were one of the few that would actually build on our block without charging us a fortune in additional location fees. We are only 70km from Melbourne. We initially signed in Nov 2008, didnt even get quote back until Feb 2010, we signed straight away, paid second deposit and was waiting for the building quote. Well May came and we still didnt have it. Ended up getting given another quote instead which surprised us as we didnt ask anything to be changed. They had made some mistakes in the base price of the house and were trying to get us to sign up for the higher price. I got extremely annoyed and got a refund. Went looking at other builders again. We had also met with the loal builder they would have passed our job to. We paid a desposit with him and were going to build a similar house for the same price We got fleeced for 20k and got nothing. So in the end glad we bailed with NBG as we would have lost alot more. he turned out to be a real shonkster. We paid our $1000 depositi with Clarendon to get quote and they were even worse, for our $1000 we got a quote so full of missed prices that you couldnt even quess what the house was going to cost. They were simply atrocious. We ended up swallowing our pride and going back to NBG as we really liked the Buckingham design and really everything else we were trying to fit into that design. That was in June 2010. I must say the sales process this time was pretty faultless. They had a better process for going through the quotes, fixed any mistakes on the spot, got all our drawings very quickly and had a building contract ready to sign within 6 weeks of our initial request. So signed in July. Got our finance approved August. Building and Planning permits in Sept Then it all went very very slowly. Got the site pegged as we needed to put in a pool, but it was March before the slab was finally poured. Given we live on site I am just going with it this time and not getting too anxious when things go slow, although I do get onto the builder everynow and then. Never had an initial site meeting with the builder, but have since met them when he came up to supervise moving of the frames.. I know the builder was new to NBG and had alot of trouble getting local tradies to do a good job with the builds so is not using his Melbourne based crew to come up and build our house. So I expect that counted for alot of the delay. Mind you they wont find me very accommodating if they try and charge me extra for the delay in time though Building NBG Buckingham 46 on Property in rural Victoria my Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46837 Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 202Jun 03, 2011 10:28 pm portas1971 We are building a Buckingham 320E in Eastern Suburbs, Melbourne. The main reason we chose NBG, is their flexibility of design and site access for owners works. Other building companies don't even allow you to step foot on site without a site supervisor being present at a scheduled time, let alone you do work there We signed up in Feb 2010 and took the 3 month price freeze. We used that time to thoroughly research all aspects of the NBG product and our site etc. NBG did pressure us to sign the Q&A by a certain date, and hit us for another $1k due to a 'so called' price increase. Initially I was furious, but then I saw that the base price of our house had actually risen $18k since our signup! We got off lightly. Contract times & payment stages are very generous towards builder - over 300 days to build a house. I would definitely change this and the payment options if I ever build with NBG or anyone again We made substantial structural changes, NBG were happy to accommodate these. Communication between departments is not great. The way drafting interpreted the written Q&A document into drawings was erroneous. We had 5 sets of plans before final, to weed out mistakes. In my opinion, if anything, NBG lack good communication. From a clients perspective, they are very had to get hold of at the best of times. Once you have paid your 5% and signed off you Colour Selections, you deal with your builder from then on. Which, in my case, is great See the 'My tips for NBG Clients' section of my blog for more info. Cheers Hi Portas1971, I am in the same situation as you, in the eastern suburb, also thinking of doing a knock down and rebuild with NBG, would appreciate if you could advise who your NBG builder is. Thanks. Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 203Jun 18, 2011 1:02 pm Hi Caterpie, From my personal experience with National Builder and their builder Jademark Homes, I would NOT recommend building with them. Firstly NBG. At my colour selection appointment the NBG staff told me that their sales people lie "it's their job, their sales people" is what she said. I had long delays and many errors with the drawings and it was up to me to keep pointing out the errors. You should be aware that once you pay your 5% deposit NBG will keep this money even if you terminate your contract with the builder prior to him starting. You will be left with nothing more than your plans. Secondly Jademark. I have encountered constant delays. A year and a half after signing the contract and I don't even have a finished frame yet. He says workers will be on site but they don't turn up, I get poor excuses and constant ******. He doesn't care if you complain to the building commission, consumer affairs or take legal action. My advice will be to find another company to build with. Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 204Jul 28, 2011 3:14 pm Hi Tool, I've gone through similiar to you. We signed up with NBG November 2009. Sold our home in thinking that the building process wouldn't take that long. They made heaps of errors. I had to carefully check. We signed the contract July 2010, there were still errors on the contract, they promise to have it fix, but now they pass to the Builder and those errors never looked back. I contacted them but they ignore my emaiils and phone call. They said I should deal with the Builder direct when it's not the builder's mistake. I signed my FInal Plans in December 2010. Later I found there were mistake such as our backdoor security will slam into the gutter. I told the builder about this, he said he's building according to the plans. I told him can't he move the door out and he said, if he does, then I need to get the plans change and he has to charge me for it. Next it was the windows in all the rooms. They are not centered in the room. Basically you walk into the room, and the window is alot on one side. It looks rediculous. I told the builder about this, he said he's building according to the plans. I mean we are paying heaps to these drafting company to advise things like this to us. I'm very frustrated with all of these and my builder is not flexible. Since I picked up the mistake and I told him about it, he refuse to change, and still went ahead to do the framing for it. Anyway we are at framing stage adn I'm so over it. How about yourself? Has there been any progress? NBG - Building the Buckingham (Study option) in SouthEastern My building thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=49878 Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 205Jul 28, 2011 9:06 pm Oh dear, our commiserations to all you who have/are having a negative experience. May you have strength to persevere through the process. After 5 months of them not being able to get our plans right we opted out at a loss of $3k. So glad we did. Cheers, Alkalised My Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=49140 Our Blog: http://buildingattheavenue.blogspot.com/ Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 206Dec 01, 2011 8:43 am Hi All, I would advise to stay away from National Builders Group for the many reasons other people have already provided in this forum. I am now paying the price for the mistake I've made choosing this company. In my case, I'd like to summarise the following points: 1) NBG has no control or authority over the builder they assign you. Once they assign you a build, the contract is between you and that builder. That means if you have any issues (which you definitely will) you have to work with the builder. If things don't come to an agreement, you have to take it to third parties like the Building Advice and Conciliation Victoria or VCAT. 2) NBG offers cheap packages for some reason (you have to question that). The builders contracted by NBG use extremely low quality tradies and cheap labour that you really don't want to look at their work. To rectify these workmanship issues, as mentioned, you have to go through a painful process to get other authorities involved. 3) I would really question the staff turnover rate at NBG. This has already been mentioned by some users in this forum. In my case I was told within 2 months by a receptionist that 2 persons who I need to contact "is no longer with the company". Hope that helps. Good luck to all Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 207Dec 01, 2011 9:02 am hhop1- I think if your read back through this thread you will find that it has been posted that NBG is a "co-op" type situation...and that your contract is with a specific builder. That is the way they work and that is quite clear if all the literature is read by the client. Ergo, if you have had problems with a builder, that is NOT NBG fault. I am sorry if you have had a bad experience..... Please be careful that you follow the Forum Terms of use when posting-we wouldn't like to see you placing yourself in a situation where you would be liable for any legal action from NBG. Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 208Dec 01, 2011 9:04 am I was juuuuuust about past the point of no return with them. I was lucky that when I asked a couple of fundamental questions as to the "likely" additional costs of building on our block that has a mere 1.2m fall across the approx. 24m length of the house plan we were looking at, they simply would not tell me. I was even perhaps luckier that the consultant I was dealing with apparently asked the in-house architect/draftsman etc, and was able to get whisper figure of +$80K. That was simply for a pier not slab construction. We got out there and then and got our cash back. A year later I have designed my own home and am now within a week of selecting our own private builder. Our total spend difference will be around $50K more than through NBG but you can imagine the benefits and quality differences I have secured. Decided to knock down & rebuild Designed our own home - building privately with CC Designer Homes Doonks' World - The Thread Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 209Dec 01, 2011 11:16 am Doonks, I did try and got down the private builder path as well. We took the house we liked modified it got plans etc, to be honest was an expensive exercise that wasted a year and got us 24k poorer. We had to pay plans 3.5k and even then they were not sufficieint to build from. Paid builder a deposit, he did notthing, went for a holiday with our money, went broke and bye bye deposit. We took the plans to other builders and got quotes back in the 600k -800k vicinity. We went back to NBG. Even though the build is slow to date the quality has been fine, IU am prepared to wait a bit longer and provide whatever supervision of work is required to get the place built correctly, saving me 200k in the process. Building NBG Buckingham 46 on Property in rural Victoria my Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46837 Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 210Mar 08, 2012 11:25 am Doonks I was juuuuuust about past the point of no return with them. I was lucky that when I asked a couple of fundamental questions as to the "likely" additional costs of building on our block that has a mere 1.2m fall across the approx. 24m length of the house plan we were looking at, they simply would not tell me. I was even perhaps luckier that the consultant I was dealing with apparently asked the in-house architect/draftsman etc, and was able to get whisper figure of +$80K. That was simply for a pier not slab construction. We got out there and then and got our cash back. A year later I have designed my own home and am now within a week of selecting our own private builder. Our total spend difference will be around $50K more than through NBG but you can imagine the benefits and quality differences I have secured. You have made the right choice Doonks. I signed my contract with NBG in 2009 and my house is still only at lock-up with no end in sight. It has been an exasperating experience. Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 211Mar 08, 2012 2:18 pm We have just completed demolition, land surveyor is re-establishing the boundaries by Friday, and builder will commence set out on Monday 19th March Decided to knock down & rebuild Designed our own home - building privately with CC Designer Homes Doonks' World - The Thread Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 212Mar 08, 2012 2:51 pm Tool Secondly Jademark. I have encountered constant delays. A year and a half after signing the contract and I don't even have a finished frame yet. He says workers will be on site but they don't turn up, I get poor excuses and constant ******. He doesn't care if you complain to the building commission, consumer affairs or take legal action. My advice will be to find another company to build with. Tool, you're not building here are you?: Murdoch Ave, Mulgrave ? That house has been built by Jademark Homes. It has sat dormant for over 6months, such that I got to the stage where I thought the owners had run out of cash, not that Jademark were slow walking the job. It's interesting that I went out to Jademark's office (in their house) at Narre Warren to have an initial discussion with them about a price indication on our place. I asked them to pop around the corner and have a look at our site to assess whether they thought it could be done on a slab or required piers, arranged a date & time. They never showed and I've never heard back from them. Decided to knock down & rebuild Designed our own home - building privately with CC Designer Homes Doonks' World - The Thread Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 213Mar 08, 2012 8:01 pm Doesn't surprise me Doonks. I've heard from two different industry sources that NBG have gone under. I don't know how they can still advertise when the business is no longer a viable concern. Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 214Mar 08, 2012 8:05 pm ^^ There was another thread earlier today about the fact that another company has bought NBG. Rowena-good to hear from you! Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: Any comment on National Builders Group 215Mar 19, 2012 12:15 pm [/quote]Tool, you're not building here are you?: Murdoch Ave, Mulgrave ? That house has been built by Jademark Homes. It has sat dormant for over 6months, such that I got to the stage where I thought the owners had run out of cash, not that Jademark were slow walking the job. It's interesting that I went out to Jademark's office (in their house) at Narre Warren to have an initial discussion with them about a price indication on our place. I asked them to pop around the corner and have a look at our site to assess whether they thought it could be done on a slab or required piers, arranged a date & time. They never showed and I've never heard back from them.[/quote] Hi Doonks, No that's not me but I'm in a similar situation. My frame sat exposed in the weather so long that it went mouldy. That's typical of them, they rarely return phone calls. They didn't even turn up to my independent inspectors meeting after they asked that they be present. Hope everything goes well with your place. I'm still waiting for mine to get finished. 4 14438 Thank you so much. This has been very helpful. We definitely wish to settle and get these people out of our life. They are trying to charge us interest on late… 7 14242 Look at your bill from the electricity company. It should detail the charges. You will need to do some estimating and some calculations. Then charge the… 8 4194 |