Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 28, 2010 10:33 am I was just wondering if anyone had built with Orbit Homes recently? We are currently deciding between the Calais 30HT and the Barclay 31, both of which are on display in Tarneit. I was just hoping to get some feedback on them. Re: Orbit Homes 2Jun 28, 2010 10:57 am kystar2 I was just wondering if anyone had built with Orbit Homes recently? We are currently deciding between the Calais 30HT and the Barclay 31, both of which are on display in Tarneit. I was just hoping to get some feedback on them. Nothing on current build quality, sorry. It's a family company been around for yonks... not too big, not too small. Never heard anything bad. Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Orbit Homes 3Jun 28, 2010 11:11 am Thanks Ed, I have a friend who has designed some kitchens for them and she's never heard any negative feedback about them. I saw some negative stuff on here about build times but it was all from last year and mostly seemed to be the QLD stuff. I guess it's always good to get current feedback Re: Orbit Homes 4Jun 28, 2010 1:02 pm I may have answered my own question: http://www.productreview.com.au/showitem.php?item_id=52019&order_by=item_review_insert_timestamp&is_asc=1&next=34 A lot of negative feedback, but the majority of the negative stuff is from last year and earlier. Hopefully they have pulled their heads in or it'll be back to the drawing board for us Re: Orbit Homes 5Jun 28, 2010 1:08 pm kystar2 I may have answered my own question: http://www.productreview.com.au/showitem.php?item_id=52019&order_by=item_review_insert_timestamp&is_asc=1&next=34 A lot of negative feedback, but the majority of the negative stuff is from last year and earlier. Hopefully they have pulled their heads in or it'll be back to the drawing board for us I had checked this site when we are hunting for a builder too and after going through most builder reviews, I can safely conclude that it probably is not the best way to judge or get a review as it seems only ppl with problems during the building experience have used this site. You should probably get better responses from this forum..... 26/2 - Sales 23/3 - Colours 31/3 - Tender 14/4 - Contract 7/5 - Taps 12/6 - Site start 15/6 - Slab 27/6 - Frame 1/8 - Lockup/Fixing 29/9 - PCI 25/10 - Handover Re: Orbit Homes 6Jun 28, 2010 1:40 pm ^^^ I suppose you are right, people are more likely to complain about the negatives than to rave about the positives. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a lot of people building wiht Orbit on here, I guess we either have to find another builder with a similar design or take the risk Re: Orbit Homes 7Jul 17, 2011 8:03 pm We signed up with orbit homes about a year ago ,weve been delayed on the settlement of the land by 5 months by the developer other wise we would be well into the build by now. we are building in the Springridge estate ,Wallan. Orbit have done about 3 variation changes to our house but nothing too drastic and nothing to be upset about. When we went to colour selection we spent about 20-25g in extras with them + extending the house and they wernt willing to be negotiable even with one dollar. but at the moment orbit is awaiting on our developer and weve noticed they're allready building a few in our estate and are currently building 3 side by side in one street so .... a few people mustve signed up with them. will update with future progress. Re: Orbit Homes 8Aug 29, 2011 3:21 pm Just got told today by our case file manager that our building permits have been issued by the council and said they can start building in 2 weeks which is good to here they're keen on action. Also met with the SS today on site for our 1st meeting ,seems like a good guy. Will keep more posts comming. so ,so far so good with orbit. Re: Orbit Homes 9Oct 04, 2011 5:56 pm just an update for anyone who might be interested in Orbit Homes. We settled our land on the 22nd of August and and by the 23rd of September Orbit had obtained council consent and had started scrapring and diggiing the site so ...not a bad effort. last week there was no movement at all but Friday we saw some work had been done and went back Monday and had a look and they had set up Temp fencing with a digger doing more work. Re: Orbit Homes 10Oct 17, 2011 6:11 pm 17/10/11 Slab is now complete, great action here by Orbit. They are now waiting for our first progress payment but they said they wouldnt wait for payment before they start frameing stage and that they would keep on going ....but now they say because they want to keep going that the power will "Most likely" will not be hooked up and that we will have to foot the bill for Orbit hiring a generator which is quite expensive $100 delivery ,$100 per day hire and $100 for collection of generator ....gee thanks Orbit. Re: Orbit Homes 11Oct 30, 2011 7:49 am Was told by Orbit on Friday that our Frame stage is complete 28/10/11. Still they are having to rent the generator on my behalf at my cost, because "apparently" the power company is taking there sweet time hooking up the power. Generator hire duration to date 18th-28/10/11. They said the generator will go back to hire company over Melb cup weekend but went up there at 5pm Friday and the generator was still there ..but they said if the power is not connected over the Melb cup weekend they will have to hire it again. ..THIS IS COSTING ME A SMALL FORTUNE!!! So from 18th-28th frame was completed and they say I will receive my next progress invoice in the mail very soon. I organised for an independent building inspector to come and inspect the "Frame stage" and for Orbit to not carry on working so the inspector could do the inspection, not blocked by work undertaken since frame completion so the inspector could have a clear visual of all work done, and was told they cannot stop work and would carry on. Although Orbit has been "some what" helpful to accommodate my request they sent an email through stating penalties that they will impose on me for late payments. ...I felt this was unnecessary and although was told over the phone by the friendly case manager, of the content of the email before it was sent to me, that it was not threatening, but ....it is hard to not take it that way and is a bit intimidating I must say and felt a bit disappointed by the content. I will show that email to the Building Inspector and get his/her view on it. But in any case, Orbit is moving quite fast ...shame about the generator (which is out of Orbits hands, "unless" they didn't organise connection when they were supposed to) and the email that stated potential penalties that would be imposed on me if I hold payments up ..even though I gave no indication that I would do so. Inspection by Inspector still to take place. By man_love at 2011-10-29 Re: Orbit Homes 12Oct 31, 2011 10:42 am Congrats on your progress. That's unreal about the power, ours was the first thing done after the site scrape, just a lonely meter box on a pole in the middle of nowhere. Are there other houses going up around you? Seems unusual to not have it done yet. Michael Built Carlisle Atlantique 36 Our build thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50256 Re: Orbit Homes 13Nov 01, 2011 9:36 am @MmmmBalf ,Yes mate its gone beyond a joke now. Today i bit the bullet and did Orbit homes job for them and rang Origin Energy myself and apparently Orbits application was terminated as the connection came back as failed. Origin neglected to ring Orbit to let them know as according to Origin, Orbit applied on the 9th of October ,which is along time to attempt to supply, fail connection and then fail to let the customer know (which is extremely S*!t house!) But we were told twice by Orbit that they would ring Origin to find out what was happening ..obviously they did not. All it took was for my phone call to alert Origin to their fault and to re-action their connection. God knows how long this would have gone on for if I didn't make the call and keep letting that generator bill keep adding up. Orgin told me it could be another 10 days before connection could be live. Even though telling them their fault is running up a big bill in equipment hire, still they said urgent connections are not done by Origin. ...GEE THANKS ORIGIN! I WILL NOT BE A CUSTOMER OF YOURS IN MY LIFE TIME! ...Surely Orbit homes has some accountability here about this that will help in the generator bill. Re: Orbit Homes 15Nov 14, 2011 6:23 pm Our roof is now on and and generator is now gone. We were told by Orbit that they will foot the bill for the generator "For now" they said. Reasons being that Origin has given them lots of trouble hooking up power to sites on quite a few occasions. ..But we will see. By man_love at 2011-11-14 Re: Orbit Homes 16Nov 15, 2011 12:33 pm Hi AE36, Good to see your Orbit home coming along nicely. Very interesting to follow your progress. I'm just curious... What made you go with Orbit ahead of the other builders out there? (If anyone else out there is with Orbit, feel free to answer!) My partner and I just met with Orbit (referred by another mate building with them) and are very impressed with their customisation process. We have 2.8m of fall on our block and are keen on a split level house. No other volume builder would go down this path. But we are sure that Orbit will come in more expensive because of their flexibility... Is this what you found? I just want to be able to justify the extra expense... Re: Orbit Homes 17Nov 26, 2011 7:33 am We had a site inspection by our independent engineer, who found severy faults with 2 being quite moderately serious in later stages in regards to miosture and rot damage ...in which Orbit initially declined to repair even though the those two instances were not built to code. But... after another request Orbit has come to the party and agreed to repair the 2 + others that were on the list. ...which is good by Orbit! Re: Orbit Homes 18Feb 21, 2012 5:24 pm Just an update in regards to the power generator hire that we stated earlier in this thread ..just received invoice in for generator hire Generator hire for 4 days @$110.71 per day $442.84 Charge to deliver generator to site $143.00 Charge to pick up generator from site $143.00 Charge for fuel $228.00 SUB TOTAL $956.84 PLUS 20% BUILDERS MARGIN $191.36 <---------------------- ??? Plus GST $114.82 GRAND TOTAL $1263.02 We dont feel the builder margin is fair ...making money from us out of this ..considering this whole bill wasnt factored into our budget, the cost of this could and would have gone into fencing ,dining table ,concreting etc ....but to be slugged a Builders Margin on top of this just feels like a boot while we are down. Re: Orbit Homes 19Apr 06, 2012 6:04 pm I'm just wondering - we're about to sign with Orbit, and we have fixed site costs. Will this save us from things like the generator problem cropping up? Re: Orbit Homes 20Apr 10, 2012 3:57 pm affectiion I'm just wondering - we're about to sign with Orbit, and we have fixed site costs. Will this save us from things like the generator problem cropping up? We had fixed site costs ,with orbit and we were still hit with a generator charge. I seems like orbit doesnt like to wait for the power to be connected, all be it that Origin were majorly slack about hooking it up and took weeks but i got the feeling if the power wasn't connected for 3 days Orbit still would have not hesitated about getting the generator. in the end we were hit with a $1200 bill for the generator and the rest was sorted out between orbit and origin but I believe if this mistake didn't happen we would have no bill at all! Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 74701 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 105553 Hi there! Putting the feelers out there for those who have (or almost) built with Arli homes! Interested in your experiences who've built from their stock home designs… 0 23483 |