Porter Davis homes

They won't let you take the contract till you PAY the DEPOSIT

To my understanding, PD normally only do wet areas as standard unless flooring is selected as part of a promotional package. Why did "the client" choose the flooring upgrade if they wanted to do their own flooring?

With my experience of credit back after or during the build. you will not getting a resonable amount. prepare for it.. good luck

We've already paid the initial deposit for the tender.
Contract deposit is only to be paid on signing the contract. Why would I pay the contract deposit without signing the contract ? And why would I sign the contract without knowing all the documents & drawings are correct !

Immediately after you sign the contract you need to pay balance 3%. After sign the contract we told CSA that we will transfer online after we go home. she told us transfer 1st and email a copy of receipt. 3 days later we got the our copy of contract by post. This is how PD works. you have 5 days cooling period but already paid 5%. do you think you will get all money back if you withdraw during cooling off??? NO. they will deduct for admin, soil etc... and refund balance.

Our contract did not have Engineers drawing. PD said no soil report is enough.

Do you think you have time to check all the documents and drawings before sign? PD will not change the contract even though you find out mistake. They will do post contract variation if it is their mistake. Sometimes you will get PCV without any cost variation.

went to the PD display house just to be able to compare where our light was to go and the sales guy asked how we were going - he was surprised that you couldnt take to contract home too... by the way sometimes they change things and dont even let you know......something I will take up before we pay final payment.

OUR BUILD

Hello All,

Given that we have now recently started the actual building process, like many others on here I thought I would keep everyone up-to-date with our own building project and share our experiences along the way.
Coincidently, our neighbours are also building at the same time as us and are at the exact same point of the build, so their builder provides a good point of comparison, which we intend to refer back to during our build.

Site Start began at the end of Feb with our site strip / "Cut & Fill". On the same day our SS resigned. So as to keep our build going we were quickly appointed one of PD's Construction Managers to oversee the job until PD can recruit a replacement SS. Although staff come and go all the time, it’s a little frustrating that (i) we won't have the same person overseeing our build from start to finish & (ii) as the replacement SS will probably need time to become familiar with PD's processes / trades people / etc, we're a little worried that there could be a risk of the new SS not being able to keep a close eye on our build in the early stages of construction. Hopefully this is nothing to worry about, although time will tell!!!

A week or so later our retaining wall was erected. This was followed by the drainage being laid in preparation for the pouring of our slab.

Slab was meant to be poured at the start of this week but due to the amount of rain we have seen recently, the ground was declared too wet by the Inspector and as a result pouring has been delayed. I am waiting to hear back from PD as to when they now intend to pour.

Although it’s very early days into our build, thus far our Neighbour's builder seems to have executed the early stages with greater care. Just a few examples:

1) Shortly after our Site Strip was completed, we noticed that our concrete crossover has now cracked along its entire width near to where the crossover finishes and our boundary begins. This, we believe, was probably caused by the heavy trucks and machinery which was driving over it during our Site Strip.
In comparison, our Neighbours Builder has laid a wooden platform / mat (over their Crossover) which I guess is to protect it from similar issues.

2) At the same time as item 1, we noticed that the concrete cover of the Electrical Pit which resides adjacent to our crossover and main public footpath was completely smashed leaving an exposed pit, which could cause an injury for anyone walking along the public path. However, after visiting the site a week later we noticed that this has now been replaced.

3) Prior to our Site Start, we had a new fence erected along one side of our block. During the Site Scrape, vertical strips of blue paint (about 4-8inches in length) were sprayed down our fence at regular intervals along its entire length. Although these marks were probably used to aid the guys when determining where to cut and fill, the result is that we will now have to either (i) leave these unsightly blue spray marks on the new fence or (ii) or paint the entire fence (all 34m of it!!) after handover to cover them up.

As a comparison, the Neighbour's Builder used pieces of hazard tape tied to the fence, which can be easily removed,

4) With regard to our retaining wall (which is constructed of H-Sections and Sleepers) one of the lower sleepers in the wall is damaged and is not sitting correctly against the inside face of the H-Section and as a result the bolts which tie the sleepers to the H-Sections are not fully engaged. Also, we have more blue paint sprayed on this newly constructed wall. I'm assuming that these blue marks were probably used to help set-up the positions of the drainage pipes. Again, this now means that we will have to paint this new wall after handover to cover up the marks !!!

5) Our Meter Box, has been sprayed in black paint with our lot number & House details on the area of the box which will be visible once the home is finished.

Our Neighbour's Builders used only pencil on the visible side with pen on the unseen side.

Regarding the drainage was has been laid for both ours and our Neighbour's home, the Neighbour’s Builder used plastic caps to temporarily blank off the pipes whilst ours were blanked off using gaffa tape - definitely a minor consideration, but perhaps indicative of a greater level care ??!

Although I know that these items are very minor when compared to some of the workmanship issues that other posters on here have commented on, it still concerns us that this could be an early indication of the level of workmanship / attention to detail that we can expect during our build.

Given that our Construction Manager has indicated that he doesn't want me to contact him all the time (which to some degree I do understand given their workload) then I am reluctant to bring this up at this stage - I will withhold complaints until absolutely necessary just in case there are greater issues that arise in the future!

Will keep you all posted as we progress …

Regards,
Chorlton

Good comparision

Chorlton, I'm curious as to who your neighbor is building with? PM me if you prefer

Who is your neighbors builder??

If anyone would like to know who the other builder is may I kindly ask that you PM me and I'll let you know, as I don't believe it is right to potentially "advertise" other builders on the PD thread..

Just my personal view.....

Hi Chorlton,

Is there anything that PD did better than your neighbour?

Hi SSAZ,

Firstly, for all those who are interested in reading my ongoing posts, I'd just like to clearly state that I do intend to provide as accurate & honest a comparison between my build and that of my Neighbour as I can.

Obviously, we have put our faith (and money) into PD delivering us a great home (just like the PD display home we visited all those months ago) so of course we want PD to produce us a home which is at least equal to that of our neighbours.

With this in mind, we have our fingers crossed that our ongoing comments about PD will be nothing but positive !!!

However, in answer to your specific question, at this particular time given where we and our Neighbours are, I would unfortunately have to say that there isn't anything which PD have definately done better.

Hope this clarifies,
Chorlton

Hi baronx,

I'm sorry you felt pressured in any way during your contract signing. I assure you it's not PD's aim to bully or pressure clients, which is why we allow clients to book additional appointments if they wish and allow for the 5 day cooling off period.

For now all I can suggest is to keep in contact with your CSA & highlight to them any questions you have regarding the contract - they're the best person to help guide you through the process. Regards, Jess.

Jess, in our case we wanted to do some reviews and be sure if our selections were good ... and in an appointment we have a few hours ... to think it over booking more appointments, post contract variations etc etc are all fine .... but not all of us have all the time in the world to travel to the PD office. if tenders are emailed out with no issues whats wrong with mailing the contract draft?
Well, is PD unsure of its quote?

Jess
the discussion about contracts makes me nervous. I'm the sort of person who sits down, reads, rereads and gets out my red pen to highlight things I don't understand. I don't retain information well if I've not learned it properly. If I'm sitting in someones' office while paying a babysitter to watch the kids I'll be nervous, I'll be watching the clock and I won't understand what I am reading. It is in both of our best interests to have me understand the contract. If I understand the contract because I've read it properly I'll have less questions for the SS and CSA - freeing them up to get on with their job. It may not be PD's aim to pressure clients by this policy, so what is the aim? What does it set out to achieve? And is there another way to achieve this? A compromise position perhaps?

This is why PDs policy is not fair. It is bully tactics... saying to a client “you have 1hr to review the contracts then sign. If you’re not happy take more time off and attend another contract appointment”. You know what most people will do, sign the bloody contract because they cant afford to take more time off.... You cannot expect people to take time off work, hire baby sitters, etc etc to attend additional appointments to read over the contract. This is ridiculous. It would save everyone time, money and stress if PD just sent the contract/colour selections/drawings for review. Other builders do this. What is there to hide???

Using the 5day cooling off period as a tool for people to read over the contract and find issues is not on. This period is supposed to be for unforeseen circumstances and should not be abused.

Maybe if PD stopped wasting peoples time and instead invested time into the improving procedures, clients would be happier. At the end of the day, it’s the clients that make the business. Think about it. No clients = no jobs. Keep ******* people off and see what happens

Team PD,

User "lastone" in the reply above have put it very nicely why it's not a preferred option to read & check the contract at the PD offices.
Moreover, every time we have to come there, we have to take time off from our work. That's the money we are loosing just because PD won't allow us to read and check the contract & drawings in our own time. For the money we'll be paying PD for building our homes, that's not asking too much... Is it ??
People need to be sure of what they are getting into before signing their contracts. In my view cooling off periods can't be used to rectify mistakes in drawings etc and should only be used to end contracts !

+1

Hey All!

I am building the Cannonvale... Is anybody eles? Or has anyone else?

Very Excited, by the looks of things we have one hell of a ride on our hands hahaha

Any feedback is appreiciated

Mishell =)