Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 03, 2012 10:24 am Hi Everyone, We are new to the site, however I have been following it for a while. I hope someone can shed some light on a recent experience we have had with our land sales agent and land project manager as we are first time builders. We are very excited to be building in Carramar as we have always wanted to live there. We chose our house plan and had it drawn to our specs with New Gen homes. Our rep has been nothing short of brilliant. He has gone out of his way to give us a great experience and we got everything we wanted in the home, only going about $13k over budget which i was happy with. Our land is a corner block on a slight downward slope. We were shown on the block layout when we paid our deposit (with all the dimensions) that a retaining wall had to run the full length of either side, with a 'corner' retainer coming 8 mtrs across the front (leaving 14 mtrs of open frontage for driveway ect). Because of the slope, we were advised in an email from the project manager of the estate that to have a front facing garage the house would need to be set back 8mtrs to allow for the driveway, as it can only be to a certain max gradient. Which we were fine with and had the house plans drawn up to reflect this. We went to visit the block yesterday and it has been FULLY retained across the front with a set of stairs put in (like a cottage block with rear parking). The project manager isn't answering our calls/returning our emails and we were given absolutely NO information about this change. Now our builder is rushing to get another design drawn up as we are waiting on titles to be released in a few weeks so we can start building. However, we now have the only option of a side facing garage (which doesn't appeal to me at all), at a HUGE extra cost (expecting around 15-20k for the change)! We are absolutely devastated that we weren't notified about the change so we could deal with it if thats the way it had to be. Not only that, I still have the email from the project manager of the estate, stating that a front facing garage is an option for this block!!! So we went ahead and found a house that we LOVE. We paid our deposit and signed off on the plans. Now the house has to be altered and we may even have to pick another design. More money flying out the window!! Re: Building in Wildwood Estate, Carramar. Retaining wall is 2Jun 14, 2012 7:43 pm Hi Did you get this problem solved? What lot number did you purchase? If you read the small print on the sales plan it states that the plan is only for identification purposes and should not be taken as a representation in any aspect. How did the builder fix a price in your contract without getting a site survey and engineers certificate of inspection done? Also how did they get you to sign a building contract without putting your plans on your block and having a fixed price in place? We are first home buyers also, but very wary of singing a building contract until absolutely everything has been considered and we are happy with what is being presented to us. We are at preparation of plans stage but as you probably know builders are very keen to get you to sign asap. PM me if you need any help! Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5142 Hello, We are about to build and the plans show a part of the exterior wall is being built on top of a limestone retaining wall. Does this mean the retaining wall will… 0 6949 Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 30235 |