Hi!
I have been on here for a few weeks and lurking for longer and thought that since our unconditional finance went through yesterday, that it was time for me to start my own thread
We are second time homebuyers, but this is our first time building. We sold our first home at a loss and decided to rent for a year to consolidate, but when the owner of the house put the rent up $110 pw to $700, I threw a tantrum and we decided to look into building. Single income family, 3 kids and a debt and we are starting all over again due to our borrowing capacity, despite our disposable income
So I rang around and was told we'd get a 280m2 block with an attached both sides 3x1. ummmm no. So we have managed to find a company who will do us a 360 block with a 3x2 with a theatre... we shall call them "the devil".
From the start, I advised SalesGuy that I was mildly OCD and that something he thought was a small deal, would make or break our decision to sign. I said bathroom tiles, oven and kitchen sink. I was told that we could choose whichever tiles we wanted, though bigger tiles would cost more to lay, that because our lender having rules about appliances being included in the contract, a stat dec stating that we would supply our own to be installed for handover would be fine. Similar for the sink.
So we signed the initial contract and made a few changed to the floorplan. Then we waited and waited and waited and waited. We heard nothing for well over 6 weeks. Then it came back that we had to move the garage over to comply with the estate's rules and it was costing us an extra $2k. During this meeting, we asked to remove all BIRs and raise all of the windows from the floor. All of a sudden, the land was titled and about to run out of time before we lost it and we had no building contracts to give the finance people because "we were making too many changes". Errrr, huh!? SalesGuy got really condescending to me, which I told the Dinosaurman, but he hadn't seen any sign of it, so I thought I was over reacting. So the building contracts came through on the Thursday and they wanted them back the next day. The contracts were wrong. So not only were we about to lose our land, the contracts were wrong and there was no time to fix them. I refused to sign and absolutely copped it from the sales guy. I had him on speaker phone and FINALLY Dinosaurman heard the condescending and rude way that SalesGuy spoke to me. He told me I COULD NOT make changes and that I had made too many already. I was saying that I didn't want to make changes and just wanted to correct the contract before I signed. I rang up and spoke to the sales manager who assured me that I didn't have to sign and they'd fix it. SalesGuy phoned me back and said yes, and go into the office to sign forms with ContractsWoman and we would get a variation. So we get into the office and I tried to ask ContractsWoman a question and got told that if I didn't want to sign, she'd start the cancellation process. HUH!!!? I immediately asked to speak to the Sales Manager again and he sat down with us and did all the amendments we had asked for and hadn't been done. We signed the forms so we didn't lose the land. A week later we got the variation. It was missing a couple of things. DinosaurMan rang up to advise them and was told that we hadn't discussed that at all. Problem was, it was marked on the photocopy we had insisted we get. So then it was amended and something that we were told wouldn't cost much extra, was costing close to $3k extra. I argued and got nowhere. After this, we insisted we get a prestart file and found out that they "may have been mistaken in a less than honest way" about the tiles (2 shops and no owner tiles or tiles bigger than 30cm2). I questioned this over the phone and was told that the other questions were no as well. I was also told that despite being told that the prestart money needed to be paid closer to lockup, that now it has to be paid at prestart. The variation hadn't been signed yet and formal finance went through and now we aren't allowed to change anything, I don't get anything I wanted and I am locked in.
I cried when the finance went through. I was secretly hoping it wouldn't, so I wouldn't have to build through these people who have so far made this happy experience, living hell for us.
So YAY! (sarcasm) We are building. I am hoping that once it goes to prestart and building, that the people are nicer and the experience will become better.
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Signed up Jan 2013
Titles: July 2013
Prestart: Oct 2013
Everyone else on street in their house: Dec/Jan 2013/2014 (as we were promised)
Building Permit: Jan 2014
7th? April: SLAB!
14th May: Bricks delivered
25th June: Sand and stuff delivered for bricks
28th June: Bricks started (AFTER ALMOST 12 WEEKS)
12 August: Bricks finished (mostly) and block cleaned
25 August: Roof frame finished and eaves, garage ceiling and alfresco ceiling done
7 Sept: Electrics, water and gas done
9 Sept: Gutters done
30 Sept: Roof
7th Oct: Grey walls
10th Oct: Glass
15th Oct: Ceilings
18th Oct: White walls and smashed door
23rd Oct: Cabinets installed- Laundry incorrect
27th Oct: Lockup- with a smashed door
28th Oct: Plumbing done for tiler
4th Nov: Tiling meeting, tiler started and laundry removed
5th Nov: Garage pour
7th Nov: Garage damage
10th Nov: Garage damage ripped up
11th Nov: Tiling done except grout and above benchtops (cos we have none)
13th Nov: Laundry fixed
14th Nov: Electrical final finished, pavers delivered