Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 144Jun 26, 2012 3:06 am They sent the authorized tender to us by courier today as we are booked to sign the build contract on Thurs 28/6/12. During the colour appt, the colour consultant advised that our flooring comes in with a 10% discount from original price of $14540. It was meant to be $13100 for the Cat 3 bamboo floor but in the tender, they have not taken out the 10% discount. All of a sudden a ghost amount of $1650 has arrived in the tender for "6 star energy upgrade for north east facing facade orientation"... what the h**l is that??? We did not request any upgrade for a 6 star energy whatever!! Sahara Q1 as far as we know provides 6-star energy rating for the whole house and I cannot understand why they want to charge us $1650 extra. The total build cost is mind blowing!! A section of the tender also says: "the builder is to provide a clear building site clear of all obstructions including long grass, etc, prior to the builder commencing work on the site. Are we expected the do a clearout of the land after it titles?? A lot of surprises are surfacing left right and centre. I need someone who is in the know to advise. I have a very strange feeling about signing this contract as there are legal loopholes I feel most volume builders generally exploit us poor customers on. Does any one have a clue on this?? Squeaky bum time!! Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 145Jun 26, 2012 8:37 am Hi destiny, ok, email your admin about the 10% discount, get that rectified. Star ratings - check that your estate guidelines (if in estate) or council requires 6 star. energy efficiency varies from facade to facade, orientation and design (eaves etc), that extra amount can be, for extended eaves to certain areas, double glazing to some windows etc. In our case it was close to that amount, we needed an additional solar panel due to north facing aspect and we needed some double glazing. I believe the OWNER needs to make sure the block is clear of any major junk etc prior to site start Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 146Jun 26, 2012 5:56 pm ooohhhhh wow, i am furious..... just had a massive fight with our admin, they are basically still charging us for it, and saying if we have to change this and that again, we have to re-submit to developer, and problems with council again blah blah I am so so disappointed with our builder, they have such a lack of knowledge of things that they should know about, their process is so unprofessional..... im gutted, after such a great sales experience, a fantastic home layout, a great colour selection, the rest has been the most stressful, drama, problem I have ever dealt with.... I have been in sales for 15 years, I tell you I would have been out of business if I worked this way.... so, I am now looking into pulling out of our contract with Henley homes.... I was warned about them by many, but still believed that it would be different. how wrong I was..... I have asked our admin to get her manager to ring me tomorrow, it will be the last straw, unless i am satisfied with their response, then i am looking into my options to pull the contract and start over, Hell, we have wasted 6 months already so whats another 6 months......... so who would I call regarding getting advice on this... Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 147Jun 27, 2012 12:53 am Oh Tengals, what the.....ffff I'm very saddened by this. It would be such a shame to rip it all up and pull out. They would've won. I have email our admin and you won't believe it these were her words: "The prices that Cosham provide are only a guide price...Anything that is incorrect can be changed for you after your contract signing appointment via a Post Contract Variation document to the contract..." It is clearly written in the document that charges will apply for post contract variations. Maybe I'm wrong. The purpose of going to a colour selection and asking for pricing is to ensure that you are within budget. They are now turning around saying Cosham prices are guide price. That's BS. I asked the CS and repeatedly asked her: 'is this the price? are you sure? I got the affirmative. I was supposed to pay $13100 for my floor, they want to charge me $14500 just because they prices are mere guides. BS!!!! I will be onto the admin tmrw. Things are getting tedious. Sales and colour were a breeze. I hope things aren't going to get worse Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 148Jun 27, 2012 10:28 am You are correct .... the colour appointment at Cosham only provides a guide. They are not confirmed prices. Depending on the item as well. Usually with tapware, toilets and etc prices are pretty firm and correct what they provided us. However, kitchen prices for material upgrades are only a guide. We got quoted initially $8000 but it turned out to be only $5000. It was a win for us but yeah lets see what the final contract comes down to. cheers Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 149Jun 27, 2012 6:50 pm destiny Oh Tengals, what the.....ffff I'm very saddened by this. It would be such a shame to rip it all up and pull out. They would've won. I have email our admin and you won't believe it these were her words: "The prices that Cosham provide are only a guide price...Anything that is incorrect can be changed for you after your contract signing appointment via a Post Contract Variation document to the contract..." It is clearly written in the document that charges will apply for post contract variations. Maybe I'm wrong. The purpose of going to a colour selection and asking for pricing is to ensure that you are within budget. They are now turning around saying Cosham prices are guide price. That's BS. I asked the CS and repeatedly asked her: 'is this the price? are you sure? I got the affirmative. I was supposed to pay $13100 for my floor, they want to charge me $14500 just because they prices are mere guides. BS!!!! I will be onto the admin tmrw. Things are getting tedious. Sales and colour were a breeze. I hope things aren't going to get worse they are great at doing that...the old "post contract variation" thing..... for me it's like well why can you just do it right now??? I think the real issue is, these people fail to realise we dont know the inner if's and how's about how some of this stuff works, so instead of reassuring us, they just get kinda pushy etc≥..... for me, yesterday was the end of the road, it all came to an end... Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 150Jun 27, 2012 6:55 pm ok, so update time.... DEVELOPER APPROVAL TODAY!!!!!! all signed and delivered...FINALLY... now, after me sending a massive, stern and validated letter outlining my "henley experience" and requesting I speak directly with the manager today..... well at 3.30pm today I received a phone call saying that Henley are going to wave all the associated costs with the wider garage and modifications that were needed..... I was very pleased, still a shame it had to come to that, but pleased with the result.... We do apparently still require a re-survey to asses the slab going up against our neighbours slab/garage wall, that should be done by friday.... I wont be paying anything extra there thats for sure, as I am on fixed price site costs.... so it looks like things are still moving, and certainly for the moment things have been satisfactorily rectified. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 151Jun 27, 2012 11:13 pm All along Tengals, I never had a doubt that you'd get there in the end. It's a journey. We are going in tmrw to sign the contract. I'm very close to Sean @ Sales. I called him up and he asked me to forward him the email I sent to our admin (asking for rectification). He has emailed my admin and asked her to rectify ALL the items we requested. She left a message that she had 2 clients signing their contracts today and promised to look into it and raise a post-contract variation form. I guess it's too close to do up the paperwork from scratch. I'll let you guys know how we go tmrw Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 153Jun 28, 2012 10:34 am Hey tengals, So happy for you. Hopefully it will be a smooth ride going forward. We're nervous about another soil test and etc because we need to knock our existing house down. Hopefully nott too much movements, which will bring our site cost up. They have already charged us ridiculous amounts throughout the contract. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 154Jun 28, 2012 10:55 am thanks nam, yeah, it all gets long in the tooth..... They still havnt given us a expected site start.... FYI - it has been exactly 5 months since we signed in the sales office.... and their has been maybe 2 weeks holdup due to our end. to say this part is slow...jezus LOL Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 155Jun 28, 2012 1:14 pm Façade changes mean resubmitting for developer approval. That means delays, and delays cost money. Similarly if the estate guidelines stipulate 6 star, then they have to provide it. Lastly, yes, the lot being clear is your responsibility - anything higher than ankle height grass and they can charge to have it brought in to a state where it's acceptable. I'm going through the exacty the same thing at the moment, ensuring the lot is kept clear, as site start could be any day now. Building a Delta 21 at Craigieburn - http://homeofzero.blogspot.com.au/ Deposit: 26/02. Contract: 22/05. Settlement: 29/05. Site start: 18/10. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 156Jun 28, 2012 1:20 pm akashra Façade changes mean resubmitting for developer approval. That means delays, and delays cost money. Similarly if the estate guidelines stipulate 6 star, then they have to provide it. Lastly, yes, the lot being clear is your responsibility - anything higher than ankle height grass and they can charge to have it brought in to a state where it's acceptable. I'm going through the exacty the same thing at the moment, ensuring the lot is kept clear, as site start could be any day now. for sure and totally understand that, builders responsibility to know the developer guidelines. They have copies of them and have built more than 80 - 100 houses in the estate over the past 8 years. but yet submit facade designs, and setbacks and required plan components that do not at all adhere to these developer guidelines....... That is not on. And yes their negligence has cost ME DELAYS, TIME AND MONEY wasted on interest, repayments, rent etc..... now although they have waived the costs regarding the garage and facade, they have to do another re-establishment survey as the garage is up against my neighbours garage. It was always supposed to be like this AS PER DEVELOPER GUIDELINES. So, again because they did not adhere to it originally now I have to waste another week or two, while they sort this out, as it should have been sorted out with the original survey, if they had have followed the guidelines. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 158Jun 29, 2012 2:50 am tengals destiny, how did you go today? Sorry guys for this late update. It was in the end, a very good day. The admin girl was very calm, polite and sought to resolve our queries. We had three major queries: 1. Sudden bill of $1650 (6 star energy for facade facing North East): We were angry about this as no one had discussed this with us prior to sending us the tender. She went up to her boss and they came back and explained that the house is sitting north east on the plan and will not meet the 6 star requirements of the developer. To bring it to the required 6-star rating, they have to charge us this amount. 2. Sudden bill of $3790 for our bricks which was $2402 at our colour appointment. Our admin discussed with manager as well and they agreed to the original amount of $2402 ($1388 saved) 3. Bill of $14650 billed for our bamboo flooring which was $13102 during colour appt. Colour consultant clearly informed that we will be getting a 10% discount if we chose it. We complained about this and admin spoke to her manager about this too. They agreed to honour the 10% discount. ($1548 saved) 4. They tried adding $50 for round rose shower head in the ensuite. Agreed to delete this ($50 saved) 5. In the contract document, they stated that the eave at the edge of the garage on the right side of the house was deleted due to limited space and to meet requirements. We asked for a credit on this and was awarded $88! ($88 saved) 6. Our admin said she will raise a post contract variation form which we signed. I took photocopies of all her notes. (No one messes with me We also asked about the Sumitomo Advantage where Henley will pay us $450 every month for 3 years. She checked if our build qualified for it, which she affirmed. She printed off the Advantage document and ticked the $450 per month box for double storey builds and got a copy of that too. SUMMARY: It was a very productive day as they did all what we asked for except the $1650 for the 6-star requirement. No issues there as it's better to have developer approval plus fulfil council requirements. In total we saved $3084. We did not get to do electricals today as the admin said the final drawing for it was not yet ready and she will include all in the post contract variation. She sent us an email to confirm that we will not be charged any money for any item included in our post contract variation in the future. We are very happy we signed finally. Land doesn't title until Dec 2012 (as we bought off-plan) so there's a very long way to go. Hope I haven't left anything out Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 160Jun 29, 2012 1:34 pm Great stuff guys! Just a quick question when do I get the drawings in the mail? I got my contract signing on Wednesday and was hoping to get it by today. I don't want to wait until Monday/Tuesday as it gives us less tiem to review it and make any changes. Cheers Hi, If you give a set of criteria as to what means 'good' to you, it'll give others prompts to respond. We considered Henley early on but there were two factors that… 1 10505 You have mandatory building inspections and privately engaged building inspections. The difference between the two comes down to inspecting the building so it's safe and… 3 18063 Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39714 |