Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 21Jul 15, 2010 5:31 pm Hi Bam, I thank you for putting this up here and I certainly appreciate where you are coming from and the fact that you have our interests at heart. We do all need to be mindful of these points, however there is another side to this. The forum is a place to go to read of experiences, good and bad, without the BS that you read in glossy sales literature. If a company is doing the wrong thing and treating their customers with contempt and without regard, then there should be a way that we can all warn each other. Perhaps PM's for anything 'sensitive'???? Thanks again. Frustrating that it has come to this. Defamation laws used to be such that you could only sue if it wasn't factual. Now these companies can sue if they can prove a tarnishing of their business reputation, true or not. I would argue that by their own actions, they tarnish their own reputations. But, point taken. Cheers Greg Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 23Jul 18, 2010 9:50 pm Hi NMB, So sorry to hear that. Which home are you building? Don't let the thread get you down (Sounds like you are having a bad run as it is!). HH have some beautiful designs, but your plight is becoming a familiar tale. I wish you well. What stage are you up to? Greg Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 24Jul 18, 2010 10:11 pm Tom's Playroom Hi NMB, So sorry to hear that. Which home are you building? Don't let the thread get you down (Sounds like you are having a bad run as it is!). HH have some beautiful designs, but your plight is becoming a familiar tale. I wish you well. What stage are you up to? Greg Hi Greg, Final stage now. We don't mind some defects, just hope we can get our keys soon. Thank you very much, Greg! Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 25Jul 18, 2010 10:23 pm Well I hope handover goes well. Isn't it sad when we get so worn down by the process that we are prepared to accept 'less than perfect'. I know exactly how you feel, after having been there with a company a few years back. It was a pre-approved spec home, on a level block. Took 14 months to build and we had to have the gyprockers come back so many times to replace poor work. Doors did not close properly....etc. You get the picture. These guys charge a lot of money and we should get what we pay for. My recommendation would be to employ a building inspector prior to the end of your 90 day maintenance period and snipe your heart out. Make sure they fix every one of your issues. If not, I have found that the Dept of Fair Trading are a great help and have resolved matters for us in the past...at no cost. Sure takes the shine off things, but in time you will be so happy you have a new home. ALL YOURS! Greg Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 26Jul 18, 2010 10:48 pm Greg, You are so right! I used to be a software project manager, I was very good at finding bugs, but for this house, I rather close my eyes. Some programmers just cannot stop creating bugs, same thing happens in home building industry, I guess, especially after you signed contract, made some payment, … Thanks you again, Greg, you are a good man! Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 27Jul 20, 2010 11:11 am There seems to be a lot of bad and ugly in this topic. Maybe some good would be a welcomed change. I am at week 31 of a 40 week contract with HH and internal linings have been done and painting is about to start. I am expecting they will finish within the next few months and have to say I am generally happy with what is being delivered and have not had any major problems so far. I have managed to pick up a few mistakes/problems early, some the supervisor has managed to fix while others the supervisor wasn't interested in so I had to email the contracts coordinator directly to get the issue resolved. We still have a lot that can go wrong from now till completion so I may change my tune. I'm sure there will be defects at the practical completion inspection but that is why I am planning on hiring a private building inspector to document them so I have a formal list for the builder to work to. I do not plan on paying the final instalment until any major defects are resolved. Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 28Jul 20, 2010 11:05 pm I guess that we are just not lucky on our building process, our experience is really bad by any standards. But, luckily, we, especially my wife, are not only accepting “less than perfect”, but also “less than normal”. Having said that, I still think Greg (Tom’s dad) is heading to the right direction and we all should take more advice from him. Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 29Jul 21, 2010 9:36 am I agree 100% with Greg's advice and I believe this is great advice for any builder. 1. Get a private building inspection done and raise any issues you are aware of. Best at PCI prior to handover/final payment. 2. Agree with builder what defects need to be fixed prior to handover/final payment and what will be fixed after. 3. Keep nagging until you get everything fixed 4. If all else fails go to the Dept of Fair Trading or I have heard your private building inspector can help with dispute resolution. Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 30Jul 21, 2010 8:58 pm Hi guys, Thanks for the nice comments....I couldn't agree with me more! Just a little point, from experience, you are responsible for making the final payment at practical completion. The terms of practical completion are outlined in your contract. I agree that you should not pay the final payment until you are satisfied with the product. However, in this case, the law will find in favour of the builder if you have not made your final payment. The law is an ***! If you do go to the Office of Fair Trading, they will advise you that the matter can be pulled at the Tribunal prior to it being heard due to the fact that you are in breach of your contract. There is case law to support the builders (some crown case involving Brewarrina Council from memory). Related to an unpaid contractor and an unhappy Council who disputed that the job had been completed. In synthesis, better to get the inspection leading up to the period BEFORE practical completion. And document everything. Digital photos are your friend. Cheers guys. By the way, after 11 months of battling Council, we received our Complying Development Certificate yesterday. NOW THE FUN BEGINS..... Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 31Jul 21, 2010 9:00 pm micks_k I agree 100% with Greg's advice and I believe this is great advice for any builder. 1. Get a private building inspection done and raise any issues you are aware of. Best at PCI prior to handover/final payment. 2. Agree with builder what defects need to be fixed prior to handover/final payment and what will be fixed after. 3. Keep nagging until you get everything fixed 4. If all else fails go to the Dept of Fair Trading or I have heard your private building inspector can help with dispute resolution. Hi there Micks, Glad that you are having a great run with HH. Hope that you get what you are hoping for. Best of luck. Greg Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 32Jul 21, 2010 9:40 pm Tom's Playroom Just a little point, from experience, you are responsible for making the final payment at practical completion. The terms of practical completion are outlined in your contract. I agree that you should not pay the final payment until you are satisfied with the product. However, in this case, the law will find in favour of the builder if you have not made your final payment. The law is an ***! I recall reading the section of the contract relating to pratical completion and it does have clauses relating to not making final payment if the house is not complete. I take your point about saving hassles getting an inspection prior to the PCI and the builder asking for payment. Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 33Nov 07, 2010 11:10 am Hi most of you guys seem to be building with Huxley Homes for their split level designs. How are they with their normal designs? We like the Avalon @ Oran Park Sydney and after seeing their catalogue of single storey homes we really like some of their other floorplans. Any info or anyone who has had experience could please chime in? Also, how flexible are they with hiring your own tradespeople to carry out certain things on the job? I want to hire my good mate who is an excellent sparky to do the electrical for me according to my electrical plans (as i want to pre-run alot of data cabling, and put in more powerpoints / downlights etc. before not after the walls get done!) Most other builders have said NO unless i myself am a licensed electrician. anyone shed any light on this? -mandv Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 35Mar 31, 2015 2:55 pm We signed up to build with Huxley and that was worst mistake in life. They have taken away all the excitement and left us with utmost misery and heartache of a broken dream of building a new home. • We initially signed up for a home and land package with them and paid 5% plus the usual deposits to secure the lot. They were very pushy to get our money and always ask for money at very short notice and made all the sweet promises to sign the tender. All they are interested in is taking your money, but if we had any questions or queries about the purchase they would always give us the cold shoulder and never have time. 2 months later, still no signs of land registration and every time we ask them, they didn’t have answers, never returned phone calls and never gave us an update on the progress. Upon chasing them for a month or so we found out that developer increased the land price by $50,000 which they have no control over apparently!! In another words, they didn’t have any formal contract with the developer to safeguard the buyer for potential price hike. It was only through a phone call we made, that we found out of the price rise, so even though Huxley was aware of this for some time they had no intention of telling us till we made the call. Since we couldn’t afford it any more, we had no choice but to withdraw from the contract and asked for the deposit back. • Despite numerous phone calls and chase up with the sales agent, there were no signs of refund of almost $19,000. This is very typical of them that after they receive your money they don’t know you anymore and level of service is absolutely shocking! We decided to talk to GM of Huxley Homes and he was the worst person we have EVER come across in terms of service. He gave us numerous deadlines to process the refund which he failed to meet, and threatened in an email that if we pursue the matter further he will delay payment. We even agree to that because we just wanted our money back but he failed to deliver on this promise again. Therefore we had to lodge complaints with Fair Trading of NSW which didn’t achieve anything. • After numerous contacts and empty promises we had to take them to NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal where the matter was heard and the GM requested for another 5 weeks to process the refund… We finally got our money back after 6 MONTHS of chase up. We probably still would be waiting for it unless we went to the court for an order as Huxley made no attempt or have any intention to give us our refund. • This has caused us so much heartache and difficulty for which they have never given a simple apology. They are the worst people you can ever go to in terms of service, but very quick and polite when it comes to taking money from you. So please, if you are reading my review, do yourself a favour and avoid Huxley Homes at any cost. Re: Huxley Homes? The good, the bad and the ugly. 36Aug 16, 2016 6:52 pm For those who are still thinking of building with Huxley homes, please read below story: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslo ... 1db46311d3 at most it will have a short lintel which could be moved up just below the ceiling or even above. Above means you need to patch the cornice and might need to deal with… 2 61362 You might be able to apply to divert the sewer at your expense. In NSW you would contact a Water services co-ordinator and they would give you advice as to whether or not… 1 16130 do not pay until you are satisfied with workmanship windows require flashing over the head archithrave and up under weatherboards 3 28260 |