Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 11, 2012 5:10 pm Hi everyone. I am a customer of Boutique Homes and would like to start a thread dedicated to sharing experiences gained in the building journey with Boutique Homes. In our journey there have been some great moments and some "grey" moments where some outside advice would have been very helpful. This thread is dedicated to constructive feedback/experience sharing/learnings from customers of Boutique Homes. It is open for anyone to ask questions and convey experiences and the only rule is, when writing about your experience be helpful - be specific. I would love to hear about your specific experiences with Boutique Homes e.g sales process, pre construction paperwork process, getting to site, costs, build quality, build times, after sales service etc... Also Boutique actively markets the Boutique Commitment, you can read about it below or visit the builders website, and I also encourage people to share how this commitment was met from the day you walked into the Display home until today. I look forward to reading your story. Thanks Ghunnar The Boutique Commitment "At Boutique care and craftsmanship is our foundation. Our people have a passion for producing homes that are of unique design and quality finish. It is this passion that allows us to make the following commitment to each new Boutique Home owner." Clear and Simple You First Quality Guaranteed Completion Date Assist Re: Boutique Homes customer thread 2Aug 13, 2012 1:35 pm Hi all, can anyone help me... We have noticed that site costs have changed from our PWC to our HIA and that we are now responsible for all service connections. The PWC listed service connections under site costs and was included in the price but the HIA lists service connections under Owner Responsibilities and the cost has been reduced but the cost for rock removal has increased!?!? So the overall site costs are the same but we are now responsible for service connections. Any advice? Also in the HIA payment schedule the builder has excluded from being installed at fixing stage, all stone bench tops and sinks, built ins, baths, and a few other things. These items add up to about $10k, do you think the payment schedule should be reduced so that the amount we pay is for the work that has been completed or just pay for everything at the fixing stage? The builder has also excluded the construction of the garage roof from lock up stage but is still asking for the full payment. We don't mind so much because of scaffolding issues but the other stuff we do mind. Any advice welcome. Re: Boutique Homes customer thread 3Aug 15, 2012 10:17 am We have built our house through Boutique Homes. I think they are also known as Homebuyers Centre. We have had several issues since moving in. There are several components were incomplete, no grouting in several tile joints, the roof plastering joints and paintings had bad finish. I am still under 12 months builder's warranty. Most things are getting done, but very slowly. The biggest issue we had is our fridge space. We gave the the exact manufacturer fridge measurement at the pre contract and confirmed via email afterwards. They still built it wrong. Now our fridge does not fit into the fridge space that they built. The worst thing is that they are refusing to fix it or pay for it because we signed the final contract and in the final contract it was a wrong measurement. They did not take it consideration that we could not tell which number means what in the final building contract, after all we are not engineers! They also did not take it into consideration that we did give the manufacturer measurement at the pre start! One more thing I did not like about Boutique's selling process is that they told us that our land agent is giving us $7000 rebate on the settlement as a favour. I got that in writing! Then I found out that the rebate actually comes off your loan in settlement. Wait for this one, every single person that bought land in that estate at that time got the same rebate. It was just a promotion for everyone & no special favour to us. The sales person gave us misleading information to get the deal from what I can think. So, my experience has not been fantastic unfortunately. Now I am in the process of taking them to the court. I will let the consumer affairs and the law to decide what's fair. Re: Boutique Homes customer thread 4Aug 15, 2012 1:34 pm Hi Zamirahman, so sorry to hear about your experience. Unfortunately when you sign the PWC you sign off that you have confirmed all details are correct. If something has been missed the builder will refer to this clause. If the PWC and HIA are inconsistent with each other and there are no communications either way to explain why then ask why. The building process is long and complex with so many small details. We have noticed changes and things that have been missed and we were not notified we had to cross reference everything. We pointed out all the issues and they were rectified, unfortunately this lead to many weeks of delays. Remember you re a consumer and a client and you have certain rights under various acts. Builders make presales promises and attract customers with marketing e.g. The Boutique commitment, so these are relevant and will have a weighting in your matter. Re: Boutique Homes customer thread 7Aug 28, 2012 9:22 am Hi ghunnar, I'm not building with Boutique Homes,but wanted to tell you about a site called "Product Review" this site reviews everything, from Appliances to Home builders. You go on it, & put in the builder's name. Just keep in mind that as with any business, you will find customers who either got great service, or were not happy with them. The thing to look out for though is to read all the reviews, I believe there are 54 of them, & weigh out the opinions that are expressed. Just to give you some inside info, we went with a project home builder that went bankrupt half way through building ( I'm in Sydney by the way ) that has nothing to do with Boutique Homes....& I think at the time we signed the contract, there were some signs that we didn't take notice of. So to cut a long story short, do your research VERY VERY well, take your time, & if the offer it too good to be true, it usually is.Remember building a home is one of the biggest projects you'll probably undertake in your life, so becareful. I hope this helps & goodluck. Re: Boutique Homes customer thread 8Oct 04, 2012 10:13 am We are in the very early stage of deciding which builder to go with. And are keen on building with Boutique Homes. However, a couple of things that are giving me doubts already. - Lack of inclusions information - Lengthy time for a quote As stated on other threads - their admin is slow. I guess taking a glass half full approach. We prefer a builder that take their time and get things right - than a fast builder messing us around. Let's see what happens. Re: Boutique Homes customer thread 9Oct 04, 2012 1:03 pm Hey Lazy Pig, If you read my blog about our build, you will see how our build has been. In the beginning we too found it weird that there was a lack of inclusions information and how much upgrades costs etc. We were so unhappy with this that we made our sales sit down with us and he printed everything out, how much each taps costs, how much it is to have this done to the counter top etc and what is actually INCLUDED into the price of the house. You have all the right to ask for this, we had to ask sternly twice to get the list and have the sales go through the list with us. We did not experience slow admin at all. On the contrary, everything was quite fast and there were no muck up in paperworks. I have heard from other boutique home owners who experience other wise and our people were different, so I think it depends on who you get assigned. Also, I have heard very varying stories between builds that are HOMEBUYERS or Boutique. I'm interested to know if customers are treated different according to which section of this company they buy with. the conduit would need to be undamaged regardless of what network is in play. The conduit needs to be able to have fibre run through it. NBN and Opticomm are just… 4 2883 10 15745 |