Porter Davis homes

lizbf85 · Mar 27, 2017 9:30 am

Hurrow

Waldorf_Grange_Build

Hi all, just wondering if any of you who have already started your build took out additional insurance with your new house during the build stage? I know that PD have insurance. Is that enough?

Do you mean like home and contents insurance, or public liability insurance, or insurance against if PD go broke?

From what was explained to us the first two are covered by PD, I'm not sure if it's possible to do the third?

I am too interested in what you mean by this? I work in the banking industry around mortgages and all personal insurances and i have never heard of such a thing. The builder should be taking all responsibility of the house including builders warranty insurance until date of handover.

lizbf85 · Mar 27, 2017 9:38 am

Mndtll

Hi All, I'm new to this forum. We have just deposited with PD, building the Montague, and are coming up to our WoS appointment in a few weeks.

I know PD advise to attend WoS prior to your actual colour appointment, but is this actually necessary? Keen to hear everyone's thoughts/experiences!

Also feel free to visit my blog https://buildingourmontague.wordpress.com/

150% necessary haha
If your a visual person and want to see things other than a small sample then you will want to have time to research. WOS is very overwhelming and i can only imagine if you hadn't been before and you had to select on the day. All a personal opinion i suppose, it just depends what look you have planned out for your home and if you already have what you want in your head. The stylists are lovely, however can also be a little pushy ( we found) into getting your selection made. IF you were taking too long to decide that is.

Goood luck!

Kannu · Mar 27, 2017 9:46 am

Wow. Thats bad. I was really concerned because my first SS was giving me a date of mid april when Fix stage got completed.
We started the build in Oct.

Waldorf_Grange_Build · Mar 27, 2017 10:06 am

lizbf85

Hurrow

Waldorf_Grange_Build

Hi all, just wondering if any of you who have already started your build took out additional insurance with your new house during the build stage? I know that PD have insurance. Is that enough?

Do you mean like home and contents insurance, or public liability insurance, or insurance against if PD go broke?

From what was explained to us the first two are covered by PD, I'm not sure if it's possible to do the third?

I am too interested in what you mean by this? I work in the banking industry around mortgages and all personal insurances and i have never heard of such a thing. The builder should be taking all responsibility of the house including builders warranty insurance until date of handover.

I just wasn't sure what exactly was covered with PD insurance and was hoping that there was nothing that we could be stung with if something went pear shaped. Sounds like the PD insurance should be enough.

SomervilleBuilder · Mar 27, 2017 11:23 am

Hi All

We've been following this site/topic for a while and found it very useful. We're building the Somerville with a site start date of tomorrow. Happy to answer any questions anyone may have about the process to this point and feel free to follow our blog.

http://somerville44.blogspot.com.au/

lizbf85 · Mar 27, 2017 11:37 am

Kannu

Wow. Thats bad. I was really concerned because my first SS was giving me a date of mid april when Fix stage got completed.
We started the build in Oct.

And now its June? We honestly just gave up with believing their timelines, we have PCI Wednesday and i still don't believe its actually happening. Even sending off the final invoice to our bank today, it just doesn't even feel real.

Kannu · Mar 27, 2017 9:37 pm

Yes, it has changed to June now. What I have realized is it totally depends on your SS ability to organize tradies to come do the work. Its all about good project management

F1natic · Mar 28, 2017 9:19 am

Kannu

Yes, it has changed to June now. What I have realized is it totally depends on your SS ability to organize tradies to come do the work. Its all about good project management

You've hit the nail on the head Kannu! Our build has slipped again for exactly this reason.

lizbf85 · Mar 28, 2017 9:28 am

It certainly does Kaanu!

Our first SS was fantastic, things got done and in a timely manner. Of course he left though becasue we wanted to go back to the smaller builder becasue he was used to that one on one with the customer, in other words he was over servicing all his PD customers probably why he felt like he was drowning and left. Our second was hopeless and just fed us what we wanted to hear and not the truth, couldn't organise a single thing correctly. He got the sack the day before our last PCI ( over 4 weeks ago) after 4 houses of his were vandalized, no proof but i'm sure we can work that one out... Our 3rd seems OK, he is new to PD though so i'm guessing he is still fresh and just wants to get us completed, and moved on. Until we go to our PCI tomorrow and see everything 'complete' will i then believe we are almost at handover..

Ill probably actually faint, if its all complete.

lizbf85 · Mar 28, 2017 9:30 am

F1natic

Kannu

Yes, it has changed to June now. What I have realized is it totally depends on your SS ability to organize tradies to come do the work. Its all about good project management

You've hit the nail on the head Kannu! Our build has slipped again for exactly this reason.

where are you guys at?

F1natic · Mar 28, 2017 9:33 am

lizbf85

F1natic

Kannu

Yes, it has changed to June now. What I have realized is it totally depends on your SS ability to organize tradies to come do the work. Its all about good project management

You've hit the nail on the head Kannu! Our build has slipped again for exactly this reason.

where are you guys at?

have been a day away from lockup for about 3 weeks

Hurrow · Mar 28, 2017 9:37 am

I think a lot of it would come down to the tradies actually doing what they are supposed to be doing, and doing a good job of it. You could have the best site supervisor in the world but if the tradie isn't doing the job properly then it's the site supervisor who's going to cop it from the customer, not the tradie.

F1natic · Mar 28, 2017 9:43 am

Hurrow

I think a lot of it would come down to the tradies actually doing what they are supposed to be doing, and doing a good job of it. You could have the best site supervisor in the world but if the tradie isn't doing the job properly then it's the site supervisor who's going to cop it from the customer, not the tradie.

Fair point, but we've had tradies do a good job, but if they aren't on site then they won't hit deadlines, the SS needs to be on them to make sure not only are they doing a good job, but they are there to do it too. We've also seen that if the SS isn't keeping a close eye on the tradies the time frames very quickly blow out. There seems to be a common theme of tradies coming and going halfway through a job, I'm guessing this is standard industry practice

Hurrow · Mar 28, 2017 9:56 am

F1natic

Fair point, but we've had tradies do a good job, but if they aren't on site then they won't hit deadlines, the SS needs to be on them to make sure not only are they doing a good job, but they are there to do it too. We've also seen that if the SS isn't keeping a close eye on the tradies the time frames very quickly blow out. There seems to be a common theme of tradies coming and going halfway through a job, I'm guessing this is standard industry practice

Yep I agree. There seem to be a lot of moving parts in building a house, and if one part stops moving then it can hold everything else up.

The building/construction industry as a whole doesn't seem to be particularly well structured, all the flexibility seems to be given to the tradies whereas the building companies and customers get dictated to.

lizbf85 · Mar 28, 2017 10:01 am

F1natic

Hurrow

I think a lot of it would come down to the tradies actually doing what they are supposed to be doing, and doing a good job of it. You could have the best site supervisor in the world but if the tradie isn't doing the job properly then it's the site supervisor who's going to cop it from the customer, not the tradie.

Fair point, but we've had tradies do a good job, but if they aren't on site then they won't hit deadlines, the SS needs to be on them to make sure not only are they doing a good job, but they are there to do it too. We've also seen that if the SS isn't keeping a close eye on the tradies the time frames very quickly blow out. There seems to be a common theme of tradies coming and going halfway through a job, I'm guessing this is standard industry practice

agree with this also F1antic! all we saw was emails being pushed around. Our last SS refused to pick up the phone and call becasue there was no 'trail' left.... What an idiot! send an email if you have to then call, someone of them just really have no idea.

lizbf85 · Mar 28, 2017 10:04 am

F1natic

have been a day away from lockup for about 3 weeks

And this totally sucks!!! i can sympathise with you here

Hurrow · Mar 28, 2017 10:54 am

lizbf85

agree with this also F1antic! all we saw was emails being pushed around. Our last SS refused to pick up the phone and call becasue there was no 'trail' left.... What an idiot! send an email if you have to then call, someone of them just really have no idea.

Whenever I give instructions to my BC on the phone I always follow up with an email confirming it all, if its the other way round I ask the BC to do the same because otherwise it could potentially come down to your word against theirs. So far it's all been fine and the BC seems happy enough to do it, hopefully it will be the same with the SS when we get to that stage.

Casahome · Mar 28, 2017 11:12 am

Hi everyone

hope everything is going well with the building.

Please anyone did have a PCI with Porter Davis if yes please how is the PCI went? and how many weeks after for the handover .

lizbf85 · Mar 28, 2017 11:23 am

Hurrow

lizbf85

agree with this also F1antic! all we saw was emails being pushed around. Our last SS refused to pick up the phone and call becasue there was no 'trail' left.... What an idiot! send an email if you have to then call, someone of them just really have no idea.

Whenever I give instructions to my BC on the phone I always follow up with an email confirming it all, if its the other way round I ask the BC to do the same because otherwise it could potentially come down to your word against theirs. So far it's all been fine and the BC seems happy enough to do it, hopefully it will be the same with the SS when we get to that stage.

BC has always been fine for us, we have had 3 as well

always email and phone which has been OK.
Its just when you start dealing with the SS that its difficult to keep track. SS don't have time to do anything it seems. We got sent an email from our SS once which was a chain of emails back and forward between him, the plumber and someone else in the PD office. It was comical!! It was clear after reading that just how slack he was. And we knew exactly why our legal point of discharge has zero action after several months of our follow up. 1. he was emailing the the wrong plumber and 2 they were one word responses with no urgency behind them what so ever.

This is happened right before our PCI so it was a matter of urgency at the time, ill never forget the response we got when we suggested to pick up the actual phone and call the plumber. Its not rocket science.

lizbf85 · Mar 28, 2017 11:25 am

Casahome

Hi everyone

hope everything is going well with the building.

Please anyone did have a PCI with Porter Davis if yes please how is the PCI went? and how many weeks after for the handover .

We had our first one 4 weeks ago, and the property was deemed unfinished.
Tomorrow is our second attempt, so will let you know how we go and see what timeline we get tomorrow.

Are you building with PD at the moment?