Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 201Jul 18, 2012 9:15 pm That's interesting that it seems like Henly have taken on too much work. We're building with Henley too, on the other side of the Hume in Doreen. For a while our admin was pushing us for our title, but now she's backed off quite a bit. We're at the "soil test" as well, and after a delay getting a compaction report she says that they are doing the next few processes to get to site. She has been super cagey about dates as well. I've noticed though that no one in our estate has gotten any further. The blocks most ahead are house and land packages I think, and all they have int he pipes sticking out of the ground to pour the slab around. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 203Jul 19, 2012 10:14 am I'm looking for a builder at the moment.. Interesting what some are saying about Henley being under the pump. They've just started a large advertising campaign by the looks (TV), slashing prices on their new homes while including the 30k (or the like) of extras?? Wouldn't of thought it will help their situation. http://www.vic.henley.com.au/pdf/pricelist.pdf Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 204Jul 19, 2012 10:33 am thanks for the link.... the end nett price is very similar to the old price with the sumuto cashback over 3 years..... As I previously stated, I'm not sure whats happening in there, they seem far too busy or something. any changes or the like can take 2-3 weeks to get done, then they come back incorrect! we are going on 4 weeks now for permits!! and still don't have them. I read all over the net that other peoples builders are getting the permits no dramas within a few days to a week I think it's purely a processing issue coupled with other internal problems, in the end we are the ones that get messed around. such a shame as their designs and offers are fantastic. Anyway, we are at the final paperwork stage and feel a little better that we have spoken to someone higher up that assured us that we are only a couple of weeks until slab so, lets wait and see..... Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 205Jul 19, 2012 10:54 am Hello there We are in the mist of building with Henley at the moment, and this topic was a really interesting read because I must admit that our experience with Henley is totally the opposite. There were a few drawing fix-ups and pricing double ups that had to be corrected, but I didn't think it was anything too out of the ordinary. They were all fixed with in a few days. We decided to build with Henley because of two main reasons: - house design - all upgrade prices are fixed, not just a provisional sum When we did our pricing, they had a upgrade package specifically for our estate, so that we could sleep ease that our developer guildelines were met. All our upgrades we requested were fixed costs, where as with other builders, they were only allowing a provisional sum which will have to be finalised during tender. Our estate stage settled at the end of June, and we were the second house to get on the way, with our concrete slab due to be poured tomorrow morning. There are about 30 blocks in our stage, and at the moment, only 4 houses have made a start. We also have a contract administrator calling us on a weekly basis, updating us on the progress. We haven't met our site supervisor as yet, but we have spoken to him on the phone, and he seems be a really nice guy, very easy to speak to. I hope that things to pick up for everyone, because some of things posted are unacceptable, and we would definitely not have signed with Henley if we had to go through the same. Mike and Jen Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 206Jul 19, 2012 11:15 am thanks for the post mike/jen, glad to hear it's not all doom and gloom for all of us..... we too picked henley because of the reasons you mentioned, but the admin documentation side of things has been terrible. can you give us an insight into your timeline with henley? like when you signed, tender, contracts, permits, DA etc.... see our land was titled and ready to go, our finance was all ready to go. there was not holdups on our end, that is way we are so frustrated with the whole thing. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 207Jul 19, 2012 11:56 am I wouldn't go off our signed, tender and contracts timeline because that was all done before we settled so we were never in a rush to complete any of those stages because settlement date was being pushed back on a monthly basis In our estate, the first building that went up was being built by Simmonds. They got thier developers and building approvals the day after settlement. We waited a week, and heard nothing, so we chased it up, and they told us that it was just submitted because of some delay (I think it was something do to with our soil test results) and approval was received about 3 or 4 business days after submission. The land was scraped within the week, but then nothing for about a week, until about a week ago, when they hooked up the electricity, and laid all the plumbing before our slab is to be poured tomorrow. Oh, I forgot, I'm not sure if it was just for us, but we had to sign another copy of contract drawings and finishing schedule too. I think the purpose of that was mainly to sign off on concrete slab details. I hope this helps. Mike and Jen Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 209Jul 19, 2012 12:59 pm Yeah, that's why I was surprised about what you've gone through. All the developer's guildeline should have been taken care of by your sales person. They normall attend seminars about the estates near the sales office, so they should know what is required to get developer's approval. Not really sure what building approval entales. If I were you, I would chase up with the council and developer to see if you're house has been submitted by Henley. That way, you'll have piece of mind that Henley has done their part, and it's up to council and the developer now. My mate at work told me that the council were taking their sweet time to approve their building permit when they were building, so his wife sat at their office and demanded they approve it that day, and she got it Mike and Jen Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 210Jul 19, 2012 1:17 pm we finally got DA nearly 4 weeks ago, but it was only because i got involved and had 3 meeting with the developer and builder to get it passed/changed. seemed like the builder were submitting things with our home that no way the developer would approve it. That is what was so frustrating. It was clear as day things NOT to submit, but henley continued to do it anyway, so it just kept getting knocked back. Then one of the biggest things was the side setback which finally they moved it, but then needed another site re-establishment, and re-assessment of the slab and possible underpinning etc....which took weeks and weeks. This should have been avoided from the start if they had have followed the Developer guidelines and they did the right thing and sited the house in the correct spot. Its been a compounding issue of heaps of things that has left us with this very very lengthy timeframe, thus we are fed up with waiting and getting the run around. Regarding the permits, now all volume builders don't go through council for permits, they go to a private surveyor who can stamp them within a day or 2, but ours is going on 4 weeks so far. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 213Jul 19, 2012 2:09 pm Not at this point in time, but we do regularly post in this topic though, and will probably post up our progress there http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=49481 or you can just PM us any time Mike and Jen Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 217Jul 19, 2012 2:32 pm Tengals, Great news. It's sad that it has to be escalated but at least you are getting somewhere. Fingers crossed I won't be falling into the same pithole. They mentioned about the second soil test being done this week. Lets hope we will be good to go with approvals by end of August. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 218Jul 19, 2012 2:40 pm namweng Tengals, Great news. It's sad that it has to be escalated but at least you are getting somewhere. Fingers crossed I won't be falling into the same pithole. They mentioned about the second soil test being done this week. Lets hope we will be good to go with approvals by end of August. i hope so for your sake... fingers crossed for you. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 219Jul 19, 2012 9:42 pm tengals at 3 pm today I get a phone call from a "higher up" person at henley. Well, he was very impressive. Well spoken, great agenda and tone. Very understanding and apologetic. After my little rant to him, he informed me that he had been reviewing and personally running around the office all morning sorting it all out. Well well well, he informed me that all should be finalised by friday, onto construction team most likely monday and he informed us we will be at slab within about 3 weeks. I think what you've experienced here is a good example of where service in general is these days. Does the biggest purchase of your life warrant good customer service? NO!.. and what a shame it is. A break contract threat is required to get some preferential treatment. This is ever so common in the building industry. I've built 2 houses (one with a custom builder / one with a large mainstream), they were awful for several reasons, primarily in relation to bumps in the road along the way. The way I see it is, a perfect build can only be had if you play by their rules only, the more changes you make to the plan / house, the more trouble you're in for. It's a cut-throat market at the moment, where the large builders like Henley don't profit greatly from a build. Their staff are stretched... The loudest / most annoying customers will be prioritised and the rest - well, they'll get around to later. As I said... they're all more or less the same. Good on you for playing hard ball though and getting the outcome you were after. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 220Jul 20, 2012 11:10 am tengals hi there, no we have not been to the taylors hill one. can you remember if that one has the garage on the left or right? yeah well a few days thats what they say, but from past experience im not holding my breath hi there, the garage is on the right hand side. good color theme. i loved it. 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 10531 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 18084 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 39760 |