Browse Forums Building A New House Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 21Sep 29, 2011 6:25 am Rudolfo, Welcome to the thread! Glad to hear your build with Jennings/Sekisui is going well. They have been excellent during our build and if I build again, for investment or something, I'll definately use them. Prices here are the same as your experience, very reasonable. Building the Piazza 300 with AV Jennings / Sekisui House - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46023 Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 22Nov 22, 2011 9:34 pm does anyone know about any specific exclusions they dont mention. For example i found out that wall and ceiling insulation ($5K) is not part of their base house price. The sales rep told me that it done like this to get the customers in the door. Also i noticed that the inclusions list only mentions three things under additional services, no mention of scaffold, long service levy, water and engineering fees, etc... does anyone know if they intend of charging you later for these things that many other include as standard? Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 23Nov 22, 2011 10:15 pm phildaleg does anyone know about any specific exclusions they dont mention. For example i found out that wall and ceiling insulation ($5K) is not part of their base house price. I don't think they can not include the insulation as by law they need to achieve at least 6 star rating. I guess nowadays insulation is an essential part of the houses like roof, entry door etc. Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 24Jan 27, 2012 9:28 pm phildaleg does anyone know about any specific exclusions they dont mention. For example i found out that wall and ceiling insulation ($5K) is not part of their base house price. The sales rep told me that it done like this to get the customers in the door. Also i noticed that the inclusions list only mentions three things under additional services, no mention of scaffold, long service levy, water and engineering fees, etc... does anyone know if they intend of charging you later for these things that many other include as standard? wall and ceiling insulation is not part of the base price. these will be charged under basix allowance. in our case, it was about $4K. there are a lot of other costs will be added on to your base price. you will have a better idea when you see their tender. Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 25Mar 06, 2012 10:06 am We are building the Piazza 250 with changes in Victoria with Av Jennings and Sekisui House. We have been through a bit of a roller coaster of emotions from being really happy to extremely frustrated and disapointed. We signed contracts at the end of Septemeber 2011 and completed demolishion of the existing house at the end of October 2011. We have all council approvals, but are waiting on the building permit to be issued before a start date can be given. I would be really interested to hear everyone's experiences, and will be watching this site with interest. Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 26Mar 13, 2012 11:38 am Hi Jem 6401. I cant imagine how frustrating that must be, especially at such an exciting time when you just want everything to be go-go-go. I havent started building yet, infact, I dont even have land, but after 1 solid year of looking for a house that the partner and I would love to spend a lifetime in, we have chosen the Piazza 300. We loved the 270 as soon as we saw it the very first time but thought we better look around and consider all options, but nothing compared to it! So after a year and over probably 150 houses being looked at, we are 110% confident in our choice. Whilst we have never seen the Piazza 300 in the flesh we know what to expect and ideally we will start building before the year is up! So basically, I am glued to anyones build posts about their experiences with AV Jennings/Sekisui House. I really hope everything begins for you soon, I know the initial council approvals ETC can be timely. I really cant wait to hear about your progress and see photos etc. I hope you keep this thread going with all your updates!! ***I am also really keen to know from anyone who has built or is building a Piazza 250, 270 or 300 what your expected full turn key price is, by the time you have done flooring, carpets, everything so the house is fully ready to move into. I cannot seem to get out of anyone from AV Jennings and expected costing (I know it can vary greatly depending on different factors, but if anyone can give me a figure that would be great!)*** No Land Yet Building AV Jennings Piazza 300 Should Have Land/Start Construction By End Of 2012 Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 27Mar 13, 2012 11:52 am Wow the Piazza seems very popular! We are building a modified Meridian 240 in Canberra. We have had the land for some time now, and strugged with trying to get a custom design together with another builder before eventually dumping them and falling in love with the Meridian display home. We are pre-contract at the moment waiting for soil tests and Sekesui is getting plans together for planning approval, but the sales person has been by far the most helpful and knowledgeable of any of the builders sales people I have spoken to. Tender /1/12 Contract 14/6/12 Planning 12/10/12 Site 23/10/12 Piers 27/11/12 Slab 12/12/12 Frame 15/12/12 Trusses 17/1/13 Roof 24/1/13 Bricks 13/2/13 Plaster 1/3/13 Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 28May 11, 2012 8:06 am Just thought I'd update this. Since the last update we have seen nothing much other than frustrating delay after delay after delay. We haven't even gotten to contract, despite being quite clear that we need to be in our house before Christmas (for personal and financial reasons). I would have thought starting the process halfway through January would have been sufficient for that, but apparently not! I ended up having to call the NSW/ACT Office so I could deal with someone other than our salesperson but it is still taking weeks to get our final plans and tender done. We love our plan and the costings are very transparent. But I wouldn't recommend this building company to others based on the delay alone. The fact that we are loosing alot of money paying our land mortgage whilst also paying rent while Sekisui House causes months of unnecessary delay is unacceptable IMO. The whole experience has just knocked the excitement out of building for me. Tender /1/12 Contract 14/6/12 Planning 12/10/12 Site 23/10/12 Piers 27/11/12 Slab 12/12/12 Frame 15/12/12 Trusses 17/1/13 Roof 24/1/13 Bricks 13/2/13 Plaster 1/3/13 Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 29Jun 05, 2012 5:16 pm hey all on this forum... Just wanting to know if anyone can confirm the rumours that Sekisui is in administration? I heard the GM got given a letter when he got back on Friday stating the company will be going into liquidation and appointed administration... Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 30Jun 06, 2012 6:45 pm We are scheduled in to sign our contracts tomorrow so I was pretty anxious to hear that a rumour was going around Sekisui may be going into administration. I called first thing this morning and spoke with someone relatively senior in the company (not upper management but not just the display home salesperson). I was told quite confidently and emphatically that Sekisui House is not in any danger of going into administration. I believe the person I was dealing with is quite credible and on the basis of the information they have given to me I'm comfortable enough to enter into our house contracts. Let's just hope I don't get proven wrong. Tender /1/12 Contract 14/6/12 Planning 12/10/12 Site 23/10/12 Piers 27/11/12 Slab 12/12/12 Frame 15/12/12 Trusses 17/1/13 Roof 24/1/13 Bricks 13/2/13 Plaster 1/3/13 Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 31Jun 06, 2012 7:49 pm Wow! Thats interesting news! I absolutely LOVE the design of the Piazza 250 and am glad we built it. Its the aftermath problems ( purely stuff ups like no space in our gutters) where they dont want to accept the faults and fix them. The guy from Maintenance said something to me on the phone today that " they have had a lot of changes in the office lately and thats why he couldnt get back to me sooner" Interesting when you put this quote in conjunction with the rumours about them lately :S Anyways please everyone building with them get EVERYTHING checked because it is freaking hard to get them to fix it afterwards! All the best. Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 32Jun 06, 2012 7:58 pm Shakel - I got the impression there have been some significant changes in upper management as the full transition from AV Jennings to Sekisui House takes place. That could very well be the source of the rumours, who knows. I will be keeping an eagle eye on the quality of the build, thanks! We were always planning to get an independent building inspector. Tender /1/12 Contract 14/6/12 Planning 12/10/12 Site 23/10/12 Piers 27/11/12 Slab 12/12/12 Frame 15/12/12 Trusses 17/1/13 Roof 24/1/13 Bricks 13/2/13 Plaster 1/3/13 Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 33Jun 06, 2012 8:03 pm Not a problem Yea we really should have got one too and I am regretting it now We wanted to move in before Christmas last year and we thought there were no major problems....until after we moved in and tried to clean the gutters >:/ I remember late last year Sekisui sacked a whole heap of people and there have been big changes too. When we were paying the instalments on each step of the build we were notified that that department was moved to be based in Sydney and the people in the department here (Adelaide) were sacked! Very weird! Ill keep my ears and eyes open too and let you know if I hear anything. I hope all goes well. Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 34Jun 06, 2012 8:04 pm Ribbon Shakel - I got the impression there have been some significant changes in upper management as the full transition from AV Jennings to Sekisui House takes place. That could very well be the source of the rumours, who knows. When I read about the rumour, I spent far too much time on Google looking for info (while waiting for the latest source-code to download from Belgium & then a build-and-deploy ... yes I am a nerd!), and I couldn't find anything at all about it. I suspect it's just a rumour, and a change in management would cause rumours. Plus Sekisui seems to be a US+Japanese company, and local management reshuffles wouldn't necessarily affect their bottom-line (similarly with OS management reshuffles affecting anything much locally if one was already underway with a build). Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 35Jun 07, 2012 10:27 am Hi All My partner and I are builidng with Sekisui at The Ponds in NSW and are just about to sign off on our variation (still waiting on them to get the plans right). The customer service we have experienced so far has been rushed and absolutely terrible. My customer service rep said they've had a major reshuffle and she has been given another 80 clients ontop of her already big client list. Not giving me much hope for a better customer service experience. I asked them yesterday about the curing of concrete and they advised 1 day as they use quick hardenend concrete, does anyone else have this experience, it seems like a very short time to me? Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 36Jun 08, 2012 8:24 am 1 day is a bit extreeme. They should wait at least 3 - 4 days prior to putting the frame up. any longer than 7 days and the concrete becomes too hard to nail the framework in. 1 day I don't agree with but anywhere between 3 - 6 days in optimum. Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 37Jun 11, 2012 6:10 pm Aitch72 Hi All My partner and I are builidng with Sekisui at The Ponds in NSW and are just about to sign off on our variation (still waiting on them to get the plans right). The customer service we have experienced so far has been rushed and absolutely terrible. My customer service rep said they've had a major reshuffle and she has been given another 80 clients ontop of her already big client list. Not giving me much hope for a better customer service experience. I asked them yesterday about the curing of concrete and they advised 1 day as they use quick hardenend concrete, does anyone else have this experience, it seems like a very short time to me? You'll probably find the "1 day" has been misinterpreted somewhere down the line. What would have been meant by them, or by the person that told them, is they leave it 1 day between pouring & framing. Meaning: Day 1: Pour & finish. Day 2: Let it be. Day 3: Begin. ... and regarding the new workload of your customer service rep, it's highly probable. The week before last, Sekisui let go of 40 people in their Sydney offices. Remaining staff workloads have increased, and some Site Supervisors have been relocated to fill the void. ~ Russ Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 39Jun 16, 2012 11:12 pm Ribbon Wow the Piazza seems very popular! We are building a modified Meridian 240 in Canberra. We have had the land for some time now, and strugged with trying to get a custom design together with another builder before eventually dumping them and falling in love with the Meridian display home. We are pre-contract at the moment waiting for soil tests and Sekesui is getting plans together for planning approval, but the sales person has been by far the most helpful and knowledgeable of any of the builders sales people I have spoken to. Everyone building the PIAZZA can count themselves very lucky that you signed when you did! It is a fantastic design. I was told by a SC in Vic to 'sign within the week' if I wanted the PIAZZA (around 3 months ago) because they were about to remove it from their designs. Reason given by SC: Sekisui House/AVJ "were infringing on Copyright laws" and were required to remove it from their list. We just didn't want to rush and to be honest I (half) thought it was a ploy to get our business! I'm pretty sure it was the "Yelena" that was also a very similar design to the PIAZZA - and it was removed too, though not sure about the reason behind that decision. Lucky bunch all you that got in on time I'd love to know the company that had the original design, might investigate. Re: Anyone building with AVJennings / Sekisui house? 40Jun 21, 2012 9:01 pm Hi Guys New to this thread... we have signed and are building the Nella 210 with modifications in Croydon Park Sydney. We signed August last year and got approval from coucnil end of March and then Construction Certificate beginning of April 2012. I then went ahead and moved out of our place around Easter and we knocked our place.... the place next door came up for rent so we took it early.... and have been peering over the fence ever since !!! lol The place has been pegged, leveled and the slab was poured 2/3 weeks ago (I also asked about curing and was told one week - didnt happen) it was full on for the first 2 weeks and then there was the staff reshuffle..... new site manager so today back on board the external drainage was done and our frames are booked in for next Wednesday..... they started on site around 5th May, 2012 so far we are ok... new site manager i wasn't thrilled about but things happen so lets just hope the new one works out ok.... ! anyone else building in my area ? i'm Married, 3 kids and most days you will find me and the kids peering over the fence !!! just kidding i just happen to put the bins out when someone visits the site completely concidence ! Our old site manager took redundancy and our sales person who was brilliant has also left ! If your more keen then us look at our blog....my hubby set it up..... http://mysekisuihouse.com Irene Wish you all the best. Once you signed the contract, they will find millions excuses to charge you. And have seen their sites unfinished for a long time. 4 24806 Hi All It has been a few weeks since my last update. The build has been progressing well. No major issues to report. The scaffolding was dropped today, gyprock will be… 96 356725 Building a fence now will help limit people dumping rubbish and soil on your property. Many houses in suburbia on small lots have fences up before a build. I moved into a… 1 4379 |