Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 20, 2014 11:44 pm Hi all. It's my first post here I put a deposit yesterday to reserve a land in Westminster St, Schofields, as part of Locosi Hill Estate. It's a home and land package and the builder is Bell River Homes. There is not many information regarding them for a development in Sydney (I understand that Bell River has quite a reputation in Orange NSW) and apparently I found very little info on this forum and the threads were created back in 2005. Based on the information form their website, they are also currently building homes in Kellyville, Ropes Crossing and Middleton Grange (http://www.bellriverhomes.com.au/house-and-land). Could anyone building with Bell River Homes post some information whether they're still good? If anyone currently buying in the same location in Schofields, please don't hesitate to drop a reply. Thanks Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 3May 02, 2014 10:03 pm Hi again. I thought I'll post some updates while waiting for fellow home builders to respond. Finally I signed the tender from Bell River Homes last weekend. The good thing about building with them is they will refund the deposit I paid to reserve the block (minus $500 administration fee) should I have any problems getting a finance from my lender. Compared to some other bigger builders who will not issue any refunds at all, that's a big plus for me. Now it's the time to get a valuation and a pre-approval from the bank and hopefully it turns out well before I sign the land and building contracts. I have been given 15 working days before signing the contracts. Now I have some questions about the tender. Hopefully some of you could help me with some good answers: 1. It says "It will be the client's responsibility to pay for the usage of power and water during construction". Is it standard clause for every building tender? How would I know how much power and water consumption the builder will use? 2. Another note is: "Client is responsible for the removal of spoil/sand stockpiles and/or excessive long grass prior to site start. if not removed, additional costs incurred to the builder will be passed on to the client". Currently the land is still a residential area with some big trees nearby. Does that mean I have to pay for the removal of those trees??? 3. The builder mentioned that there will not be any BAL requirements from the council. Is that possible? Thanks for helping guys! Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 4May 05, 2014 7:16 pm Hi yaditya, I am currently waiting for construction to commence on our home with Eden Brae. 1. I understand that it is a standard clause in most builders' contracts (if not all) that the client is responsible for water and power use by the builder and their trades. I don't believe the bills are ever very high. I have heard a number of people quote a couple of hundred dollars. 2. If your land hasn't yet been cleared by the developers, then you won't be responsible for removing any trees or debris. The developers will begin clearing the land before putting in the amenities ready for registration. If there happens to be anything on the land after it has been developed, then you would be responsible for anything left/dumped on site. 3. There would only be BAL requirements if you are in a bushfire prone area. However, I don't believe you would have to worry about this. We are building nearby and there were no BAL requirements for us. I hope this helps. Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 5May 06, 2014 11:18 pm Thanks kimmid for the explanation. It really helps to know that those additional notes in the tender are actually make sense from buyer's point of view. The thing is, every time I ask the developer about the additional (read: hidden) fees that I may have to pay during the construction, he never mentioned about those water and power bills! I am keen to hear from fellow owner builders from Stage 1 (mine is part of Stage 2) about those fees with Bell River Homes. Please post your experience with them, don't be shy guys Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 6May 16, 2014 8:16 pm Hi guys. It's been 10 days since my last post regarding building with Bell River Homes. I am still in the process of preparing all documents for a pre-approval from the bank. It's been quite a slow process I know, it's not easy selecting a well reputable lender who offers a good rate as well as provides good services. Fingers crossed next week the application can be submitted. Meanwhile, I have been communicating with the builder requesting some additional inclusions to the tender, which they refused straight away! They won't budge at all, saying that they've sold out all the packages hence nothing they would do to please their customers... Sigh, not a good moment currently to be able to negotiate anything in this seller market ... Been also exchanging emails with the other sales person who deals with colour and product selections for Bell River, asking a few questions about upgrades, received a couple of quick replies and I thought, oh good customer service. However, she stopped replying my emails since early this week. Another bad sign from this developer huh... I haven't even handed over any deposits and the experience starts to going south.. can't imagine what happens after the money changes hands... Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 7May 26, 2014 10:37 am Hi Yaditya, I signed on with Bellriver/ McGraths on Stage 2 of the Greenvale Estate. I'm on Liam St. I signed with them in February, and I expect land reg to happen around Sept, and building to start Nov. I drove down to Schofields yesterday to see if there was any progress. I have seen a couple of new homes with their frame up near the display office, but no activity yet where we are on Chester St/ St Albans Rd. The woolworths was finished, which was good to see. I found the customer service person to be quite friendly and prompt in her responses, but this was a few months ago when things weren't as busy. She told me she's got over a hundred DA's to coordinate, so that might be why she's a bit tardy with responses. I also had a lot of questions, so I booked in an hour to see her to resolve the questions. Anyway, I can understand how you feel, a bit panicky and unsure. No doubt it is a risky process buying off the plan, but for me, I am hopeful that the risk pays off. I think the area has good potential. Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 8May 26, 2014 4:14 pm I am from Bellriver Homes, and we are the builders of the homes in Locosi Hill and Greenvale Estates, Schofields. Our company takes customer satisfaction and service more seriously than any other part of our business. In relation to the posts on these estates, I have discussed these with our Schofields team and ask that you please contact us as we dont have your details. We are very flexible with inclusions, upgrade items and colour selections and are willing to make changes and upgrades if a client wishes. Upgrades and addtions will be quoted as extra to the original package price. We have 3 sales people and customer service consultants dedicated to this project who are assisting our clients throughout the entire process of purchase, exchange, finance, colour selections etc. As part of this process, we do not engage in the colour selections and upgrades (if required) until a deposit has been paid and finance secured. This is an exciting project and we look forward to making it an enjoyable journey for all those who have been fortunate enough to be part of it. Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 9Jun 03, 2014 5:27 pm Sorry for leaving this thread for so long. Apparently I had to pull out and cancel my purchase. If anyone is currently building with Bell River, feel free to continue this thread. Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 10Jun 21, 2014 11:17 pm We to are also building with Bell river homes and are now at the point of wishing we hadn't! Our customer service representative never responds to our emails or phone calls and that pretty much started as soon as we signed any contracts! We had issues with bank valuations and had to go with another lender which we were not happy with just to get our home to pass valuation! To encourage us to go with another lender we were promised that they would look at compensating us for variations for all the stress and problems, as the new bank would only let us borrow the value of the property based on the valuation, whereas our original bank were happy to lend us whatever we needed until they wouldn't pass the valuation. So now it's time to be compensated on variations and all bets are off and amnesia has set in, which has been extremely disappointing and stressful as we would have pulled out in the first place had we known this was a false promise. We fully intend on taking the matter further and are happy for Bell river to see this post and our names and put two and two together as maybe we will get a response. Get everything in writing is my advice! Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 11Jul 09, 2014 5:29 am Bellriver asked me to sign a clause in the tender to the effect that:- If Bellriver don't start building by end of 2014, the price may go up. Does anyone else have this clause? There are no details as to any cap for increase in cost etc. Is this normal in a building contract? It seems that it would not be a fixed price contract, if the above is the case. M Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 12Jul 12, 2014 7:34 pm Hi Matthew1, The advice we have been given this week is that the land won't register until April 2015, we have also been advised that a price increase of $5K will be added to our contract and this will cover us until June 2015, if they don't start the build by then we are subject to an increase of $1K every month after until the build starts. The initial advice to us was that land registration would be October to December 2014. Very hard to get answers or response when there is only one customer service person looking after Sydney customers! I wonder if there is ever such a thing as fixed price!! bitsnpieces Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 13Jul 24, 2014 7:29 pm bitsnpieces, When were you told of this change in registration date?! I exchanged contracts with Bell River Homes October 2013 and was told land would be registered between Feb-March 2014. Obviously this didn't happen and I was devastated to hear that registration would happen in October 2014. To see this news is heart breaking... Surely they can't push registration date to April 2015? I feel as if I have been waiting forever. Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 14Jul 27, 2014 12:59 am Hi mcosta2, We only just signed our HIA contract in the last 2 weeks, so yes they are now advising the registration will be early next year. Our sales consultant told us that this new timeframe is the most solid they have had from the developer, before that they were just really guessing it to be Oct-Dec 2014. October 2013, wow you have been waiting a long time, are you in Lacosi Hill Estate or Greenvale? bitsnpieces Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 15Jul 27, 2014 10:23 am Wow, that's extremely depressing. Starting to think Bell River Homes aren't the most trustworthy of builders. I wonder if I'll be notified of this change soon or be kept in the dark. My contract states a Lot on Whistler Street, there's been no specified estate, I just assumed the latter stages have been allocated estate names. Who knows though. They've been great at the start, now it just seems after you sign your contract and complete your colour selections and variations that they don't really relay any further correspondence. I guess there isn't really anything I can do though. But its very depressing thinking I'll be waiting until late 2015 to move in (if I'm lucky) when I exchanged contracts in 2013. Anyway, I'm glad I found this thread and there are others to exchange information with! Gotta look on the bright side! Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 16Jul 31, 2014 1:48 pm yaditya Sorry for leaving this thread for so long. Apparently I had to pull out and cancel my purchase. If anyone is currently building with Bell River, feel free to continue this thread. Hi Yaditya, how come you had to pull out? I'm building with bellriver. Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 17Jul 31, 2014 10:07 pm Hi mcosta2, We are also building with Bell River on Whistler Street and I was advised just today that clearing of the land is to commence in August however registration isnt expected to take place until April 2015. Construction would then be expected to commence in June with completion end of 2015 or early 2016. Oh and of course the price of the house will increase but we dont know by how much as yet! Everything is all so uncertain. As far as the expected completion date goes, I'll believe it when I see it....sigh. Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 18Aug 01, 2014 7:04 am Really ndep58?! That's worse news than what I thought. Once again, I have found out information here on this forum before they have relayed correspondence to myself. Terrible customer service Bell River Homes. How can they possibly increase the price of the house? We've signed contracts for the purchase price...? I agree with you there though, believe it when I see it. Argh. Re: Who is building with Bell River Homes in Schofields NSW? 19Aug 04, 2014 7:56 am I too have purchased with bellriver, mygreenvale estate for stage 2. I was initially told it would be ready April next year. I then had to contact Bellriver who eventually told me its been pushed back to mid next year. Now that I have read these threads I am not happy to find out its been pushed back a further 6 months! This probably isnt the last one too, they haven't even started anything yet and already all these delays! We were also told the price may go up during the consultation but we were told this would not be a big increase. Hmmm! I am thinking to contact our solicitors now to get an update and re-evaluation on the situation. 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