Handover is Tomorrow!

Our Adenbrook home is finally ready for handover tomorrow.

We had a look yesterday and there are still a few things not done...it gets kind of worrying at the end! How can they do all this in one day

During the handover process, how picky should I be? I have not been able to get inside the house for several weeks but I have noticed a few paint chips etc on the exterior. So, how picky is too picky? I have paid a lot of money for a brand new home and I think to expect it to be perfect is pretty much my rights.

Also, with a new house, to what extent will the builders fix up the yard/dirt? The yard is a complete mess and just looks disgusting. Do they level out the soil, or do they just clean up their mess and thats it?

Thanks guys, will let you know how the new home goes and show some pictures soon!

Personally I think you should take this opportunity to be as picky as possible - you wouldn't expect a scratch on a new car would you. Once you pass this opportunity it will be next to impossible to get very minor things rectified.

I reckon they should leave the site in a reasonable state of appearance - ie. not in a huge mess. I don't think they can be expected to level out soil etc. but then again - if you don't ask you won't know and they can only say 'no'. So I would ask them - no harm. Good luck and look forward to the pics.

Be picky……you paid for it, point out EVERYTHING you see straight away, then look for more!

Hey there aaurora, have you had your final inspection yet? Or to Adenbrook do it on handover day? I thought that you have final inspection about 2 weeks before the handover day. Then depending on the builder, you have a 3 mth or possibly 12 mth inspection to rectify any issues?

Nevertheless, be picky, take a note pad with you and write down everything you notice room by room. Put coloured dots on the issues, if you need to. Then both the builder and you are clear on what you want rectified. Make sure everything is clean as scratches to benchtops etc can be hidden under dust/dirt etc.
Also make sure you get up in the roof and check up there too. A lot of people forget to look up there in their inspections.

The others are right. Be picky, it's YOUR house.

Good Luck and Congratulations, i am in envy.....we are just starting the process. Let us know how it goes.

ditto to everybody above ... be picky!!

you will probably not pick up on everything and the supervisor should pick up a lot of things that you necessarily won't. We asked our supervisor the same question 'how picky can we be'.

His response was 'if you can visually pick up something that doesn't look right from about half a metre (from the problem) then it is a problem!!'.

ie. if there is a brush stroke that looks crappy in the paint and you can see it from a metre away, get it repainted.

Make sure you check all painted window frames as well - just in case they haven't covered up nails very well etc.

As for the backyard, they should clean up the site so that it is free from all building material. they won't level your backyard for you obviously, but they should come through and scrape off the top layer of crap (this is what they did for us anyway).

We also have just had our 3 month inspection and quite a lot of things were picked up by the supervisor. Our list had 4 things on it to fix .... when he left there were 16 on there!!!

Good luck ... look forward to hearing how it went.

I personally think that it's the builder's final decision wether they will fix what you asked for. You can pick and point as much as you like but at the end of the day I think they will only fix what they think is acceptable. But that's speaking from personal experience. However, I don't have any bad feelings towards our builders and the state of the house.

I was SO picky it wasn't funny. I think at one point our supervisor just put the sticker/dots on the stuff I picked out just to shut me up. LOL Then later on he said..."You haven't left any work for your inspector to do." Haha

Anyway, they fixed most things maybe 90%. What they left we will bring up again in the 3 month inspection and see what they say. Our inspector also gave us some advice in that if you're willing to be a little bit more flexible then the response you get at the 3 month inspection is more positive. Something about if you end up being one of those annoying absolutely picky people who won't let one little bit go that they have that noted and they think you're just one of those unbearable clients who is just being difficult for the sake of it.

Having said that I totally understand your desire to have that 'perfect' house. I WAS one of those. The biggest thing I learned in this whole experience is that a house is made by hands. Never will it be 100% perfect.

But like someone else said, if you don't ask you won't know. Good luck and how excitement!

No, we have not had an 'inspection' at all, as such. we have just been going for a look by ourselves at our own time. I have not had much interaction with the supervisor but the customer service lady in the office has been very helpful. I think I would have preferred more interaction to make a more positive experience. Oh well!

Hey aaurora,

We've almost finished fixing stage with Adenbrook. I asked the question about levelling out the block, as we paid for 50 / 50 cut and fill and retaining walls. It's seems that only pertains to the area around the actual footprint of the house.

I have to say that looking at the other 30 - 40 houses being built, our site is by far the worst bomb site. Garbage and offcuts everywhere including on the neighbouring properties. The storm water pipe leading to to street, crosses the nature strip above ground in a half uncovered trench???

I know Adenbrook watch this forum.........so if at handover, the site is left in its current mess or there is argument over quality, I will simply post pictures of the defects on here until rectified. Hopefully it wont ever come to that.

Cheers

Did you employ a private certifier or you just accepted the one recommended by your builder?
For the former, your certifier would do a final inspection just before the handover and give you a detailed report on the status of the house whether it meets the acceptable building standard. No?
For an average home owner how do we know?
G'd luck.

Nah, I reckon they will have cleaned it up by the time both of us have our handover day. I think they are too professional to leave it in complete disarray. But I agree that our site has been one of the messiest that I have seen in the houses getting built in our area. I am sure there have been worse, though!!!

It doesn't help matters when we go to look at our house and it is messy, I get a bit stressed about it. But I try not to worry too much as I am sure they will have it presentable.

Hows everything going with your place, northlakes?

Honestly.....apart from the mess, things are going well......they should be well and truly done by week 19 or 20.....not bad for a rendered 2 storey house. Everything in the right place......very exciting to see it all finally coming together.

http://boo-and-hermans-house.blogspot.com/

take someone else with you on your inspection that is not going to live in the house. Everybody sees things from a different point of you and fresh eyes always bring another element. I use to be a property manager so am use to checking every bit of house and knowing the "*******" spots. I helped my friend when she was buying a house and she couldn't believe some of the things i could pick out that she never thought to check, things that helped her avoid buying a problem house.

And CONGRATULATIONS - i hope it all goes well.

Are you not thinking of asking a home inspector to have a good look? This additional $$$ will be well spent.

Ozn

Well, we are all moved in now! Pictures to come - I am on dial up at home at the moment so I won't even attempt to upload them from there.

Everything went pretty good, there was a few problems, mainly plumbing which we have spotted and are getting it fixed. The hot water system was not connected properly so we had to go without a shower for a weekend (thankfully we still had the rental to go to!). We are overall pretty happy with the house and we didn't bring in a building inspector. perhaps we should have but I wasn't sure if it was necessary.

I am pretty happy with the way Adenbrook has performed, as I have mentioned there are a couple of problems, like downpipes not connected and the hot water system is still leaking but they have been keen to fix it promptly. We did get a tempreature thing for the shower but we have solar water and apparently they do not work on solar water systems! They are installed anyway, but just don't work!!

We are having a great time in our home as it is very beautiful. I am loving the kitchen with the stone top benches and lovely Blanco stove. Now comes the hard part - landscaping!!

Congrats on moving in Looking forward to the photos !

Hi aaurora,

Congratulations What state did they leave the block in?? I'm not even going to make comment about not connecting downpipes

The block was all cleaned up, thank goodness!!!! And they even spread the dirt out nicely too So don't worry too much!

No, no, go ahead and talk about the downpipes! Do you have a couple of funny ones, too?

Sure do......one that encroaches on the laundry door..as in, you trip over when going through the doorway. Another to the back of the house that doesn't actually have a stormwater pipe in the groung to connect to.

Glad to see they cleaned the block nicely for you though.

That sounds a bit *******!!! Adenbrook usually prides themselves on being a quality builder, to have something like that going on is a bit sad.

Why did you choose to build with them? I am sure we could have gone for a cheaper builder but then you'd have to expect worse quality. We are paying extra for good quality, and thats what I would expect.

Hey congrats on being in your new home!

Look forward to some inside pics as we loved your outside colours - a bit similar to ours