Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 19, 2013 7:59 am Hi Folks, Firstly, reading all the topics, I think this forum is great. It bridges the gap between reality and sales spin when buying a new home. I am very close to putting a deposit down on a henley home. The henley floor plans seem to best suit our lifestyle when comparing to other plans. That being said, a quick google search of "Henley Reviews" is an eye opener to the amount of negative feedback of the builder. It is certainly concerning but I don't think it is the whole picture.........a negative experience has a bit more gravity to post a comment on the internet as opposed to a positive experience. From my point of view, an attractive floor plan is worth enduring terrible customer service and post sales care. I guess my challenge at the moment is that I don't know what kind of "Gotchya's" i need to look for before committing my hard earned money. I wanted to find out from the experience of the lovely readers of this forum, before I commit to Henley, what kind of questions do I need to be asking and what kind of things in the contracts do I need to be looking for? Are there things that I can proactively do once I am committed to keep the builder inline? Are there independent services out there that can asses the quality of the build during the construction phases? Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks. Re: Henley ....things to know before signing on the dotted l 2Jan 19, 2013 8:25 am The biggest gotchas are: Site costs for extra excavation and foundations. Cost of upgrades - The fittings you see in the display house (see http://www.anewhouse.com.au/?p=20) will typically add 50% to the cost of the house, if you want all of them. Finishing off the paths and garden. There are plenty of independent inspectors around with some advertising on homeone. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Henley ....things to know before signing on the dotted l 3Jan 21, 2013 5:13 am Just remember it's all a 'process' they've done a million times and they're their to sell. Such as they don't give you pricing on the options before you do the colour selection as they want you to choose all the options you'll need to probably find more money for. Then you'll get the office admin can't give you updates as the SS hasn't updated them. You speak to the SS and he hasn't received communication from office admin. Saying that we're more than happy with the end result and I'm sure they're all the same. Doing it again I would pay for the independent inspection at every stage it would have saved us a lot of time and energy as we had 3 Site Supervisors and the last one spent most of his time fixing all the problems. Re: Henley ....things to know before signing on the dotted l 4Jan 21, 2013 7:04 am You'll always find bad reviews on any builder, people are much more vocal about negative experiences. We built with Henley 2.5 years ago and are really happy with them. Our main issues at the time were the office girls, they were terrible with communicating information to us and answering questions during the build. We found it easier to deal direct with the site supervisor, however not all of them like you having their number and prefer you to go through the office. Try not to make any changes after signing the final tender, as you'll receive variation fees. Add in as many extra powerpoints as you can, even if you think you have enough, add more. Check out for all of the light switch locations also, with Henley we found some in silly locations, so had them moved. Note that at handover also, they only do a 'builders clean', so you need to go through and clean the entire house, as it will be left in a really ordinary condition Our experience post-handover was pretty good, if we had an issue, a maintenance guy would come out straight away. Saying that, 2.5 years in, we have another issue in that our alfresco ceiling appears to be dropping, this had been an issue in another 2 Henley homes of the same age as ours over the last few weeks. We need to contact the warranty department, which I've heard will organise it to be repaired. Re: Henley ....things to know before signing on the dotted l 5Jun 03, 2013 3:28 pm just Erin 2.5 years in, we have another issue in that our alfresco ceiling appears to be dropping, this had been an issue in another 2 Henley homes of the same age as ours over the last few weeks. We need to contact the warranty department, which I've heard will organise it to be repaired. Just Erin.... good luck with that, we have what sounds like exactly the same problem and Henley said to us that the plaster separation and discolouration around the brick columns is "wear & tear" and we "should have better maintained it" (we have never used the alfresco space). Unfortunately Henley won't budge from this position after admitting liability when they first inspected it and, along with 2 other matters so we had no choice but to apply to VCAT - scheduled for a full day hearing later this month. An independent building inspector believes that the ceiling damage is caused from acid used to clean bricks applied after the plaster ceiling was installed. In any event, he cannot believe that Henley are refusing to cover it under their warranty. I have photos of the damage but I can't work out how to attach them to this post. We have also endured backyard flooding for years - recently discovered to be caused from storm water lines laid at the wrong angles during construction. Henley has denied liability for this. We also have a water damaged ensuite now spread across most of the floor. Henley say this is caused from not "drying the tiles after a shower" and have denied liability. Henley has already replaced another shower block in our house after admitting liability that a water breach was responsible for our drenched carpet. There has been many other poor workmanship matters we have had to work through during the 7 years of living in this Henley house. I would be grateful to hear more about your alfresco damage and the 2 other houses asap. This may support my VCAT case against Henley. Many thanks. Re: Henley ....things to know before signing on the dotted l 6Jun 06, 2013 3:44 pm We just had a problem with our Alfresco also. Guy fixing it said quite common, they used too small flushing for the surface area of the roof so when it rains hard it can't escape, goes in to the roof and starts to affect other things. Said no idea why they keep using the same process as he's seen it quite a bit. Lucky we got it fairly quickly we've been in for around 2 years now. 4 10817 Hi everyone, Looking for some advise. We are about to build an above ground pool in our backyard. There is a private sewer line running under the pool at 1.6m… 0 11731 In WA zero lot is actually zero lot. We build 10mm in from the boundary. My house and my neighbours house have garages that sit only 20mm apart. When I had our roof done… 3 7023 |