Simonds Homes

Hi All,
My partner and I are just about to start building a house on our land. After lookiing at a lot of different builders and house designs including kit homes, build on site, built off site and trucked in in halves etc. we have finally decided that Simonds Homes have what we want and have come in at a price that is within our budget.

My question is: Has any body had any dealings with Simonds? How were they to deal with and did you find any hidden costs?

Any information would be welcome. I will be hopefully be having the contract looked over by a Solicitor before signing.

I will be looking forward to your replies.

Thanks

Max

P.S. I might just add that we are located in South West Victoria and not in a Capital City.

Dear Newhomebuilder,
You mentioned that you had trouble with Simonds, but you don't say what sort of problems. Could you please be a bit more specific?
You also said that you had used Simonds twice and had troubles. I am perplexed as to why you would use them again if you had trouble the first time??
Cheers
Max

Hi Max,

May I ask where you are building your new home?

Hi Max,
We are also currently buildng with Simonds and I would have to say, that deciding to go with them has been one of the biggest mistakes of our lives.
For starters, our initial deposit was paid February 2005 - contracts were signed June 2005. Site start was October 2005. Completion date as specified in the contract was supposed to be early September 2006. The house still remains incomplete and it doesn't look like we will be in by Christmas. Now lets tell you about our problems along the way:
* garage and brickwork falty and did not meet building standards - we asked Simonds to correct but they refused - we involved the Building Commission - they inspected and ordered that the garage be taken down and re built and that falty brickwork be corrected - Simonds did as ordered - garage dimensions are now still off the boundary
* Site supervisors changed regularly - five times to be exact
* Tiling ordered over 12 months ago - since then we have been through three different tiling companies - the third our own supplier as the first two Simonds suppliers failed to deliver the goods.
* House dimensions are different in width to that specified in plans
*There is a bow in the staircase wall - for the past four months they have trying to patch it up making the bow more obviou than before - they have now resorted to saying that nothing more can be done.
* Taps above double laudry trough not lining so that the tap reaches one trough but when swung around cannot reach the other
* Tap in spa bath doesn't reach the spa bath
* Roof tiles sitting on top of guttering - therefore no clearance on gutters for water to flow through
* Supervisors and other Simonds staff often failed to return our calls
These are just a few of the problems we have had.
I would strongly recommend you don't go with Simonds. We also know of others who have completed homes with Simonds and problems have arisen with their home. Their home remains in the warranty period but despite this, they are having trouble getting Simonds to repair the faults.
Hope this answers your question.

Cheers
homebuilders

Did you put your complaints in writing?

Yes all problems were documented and fifty six photos of various defects were attached and sent to the Building Commission as well as Simonds. We are currently in the process of repeating the documentation in relation to the more recent problems identified.

Ni Nick.

I have had a few of the same issues as well with Simonds. Supervisors changing all the time, and how they wont fix something, but as soon as you get someone else with a higher regard than Simonds, it gets fixed.

Where abouts is your new home being built?

Try talking to Gary Simonds.

Hi newhomebuilder,
We're building in the North East suburbs of Melbourne.
And thanks for that lead. I will send a copy of my letter to Gary Simonds as well as the other individuals that I'm currently dealing with. Hopefully this will result in my problems being attended to sooner.
Regards
Nick

Unfortunately, I am no doubt way too late to help Max, as he posted his question regarding Simonds 2 years ago. What is likely though is that he is probably not in his home yet, as he is still waiting for Simonds to finish it!

It astounds me that a company, managed with the arrogance, lack of professionalism and disorganization such as SIMONDS HOMES QUEENSLAND, is still in existence! The only thing you can put it down to is lack of awareness on the part of consumers - hence my review. DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE WE DID! The second you pay your deposit, any "service" you thought you may be getting- is gone. We have lost count of the endless number of so called "supervisors" and staff this company goes through, and its no wonder when you encounter the attitude of the management. They will do ANYTHING to avoid responsibility for any mistakes they have made on your home - and let me tell you, there WILL be major mistakes! And if you think your "fixed quote" is fixed, think again. What you THINK you are saving with this project builder, you will discover in their hidden costs, in the months and months waiting to move into your home, and in the unbelievable * workmanship. I could go on forever, but I think you get the general idea... SIMONDS HOMES SUCKS! Never again.

Hi All,

I am reading a draft HIA-Simonds contract for a house construction.
They include a rate of $200/week for delayed completion of construction.
I notice in other post that some people have had $250/week.
We will be paying at least $350/week rent so $200. wk will not cover and damages we insure. Has anyone been able to negotiate a larger amount per week?
Given that the contract contains the builder has several rights to"extensions of time" (clause 34) i.e. " any other cause beyond the Builder's direct control" I think it unlikely the builder will ever have to pay.
Has anyone received a payment for delayed completion?

Regards
Barry

I cannot stress strongly enough to negotiate this to at least the $350 pw you need to cover rent. 'at least'
I am currently 4 weeks past my contracted finish date (285 days build time) and they are giving me the run around. I expect will be 8 weeks over by the time handover occurs.
$200pw does not give them any incentive to finish the house on time.

I would strongly encourage you to assess if you really do want to build with Simonds. If any doubt - don't sign.

It will be cheper in the long run to lose the $2-5k you may have deposited already than go through the stress and costs I have.

I have to say, we are currently a week from getting the keys to our new Simonds home

We have had none of the problems that have been said above,
we signed our contract in March, Color selection in April, site scrape was done June 28. we have just now done our final inspection this week, with settlement /handover next week.

They have always called back, our site super has been nothing but helpfull when we told him something was wrong, he was straight onto it and fixed it, any questions were always answered, we have a 5year old son with Autism, they were more than happy to accomadate trips to the house so he can get used to the upcoming change.

we are building in Geelong and the geelong office has been fantastic to deal with. Even when doing all our upgrades before final contract they were all very happy to help with anything we wanted extra or changed.

Miss Piggy, are you saying that the build took less than 4 months to complete? That would be a first!

that is good! so quick! we have had a similar experience, left deposit australia day, land settled May 23rd, so we had time on our hands to play with! signed contract mid April, color selection end of april, site start 30th June!

We are now in week 15 as of monday, as of sunday (my last visit) last week 99% of our inside tiles have been completed (waiting for our kitchen wall ones to be finished cause the supplier was out of stock of the ones we wanted, thats due to come in next monday). Told we arent too far away!

Our SS is great, we did have another one, wont go into detail just say one word BAD! our CSO, well, she knows her stuff, she just isnt good on communicate, we have to chase her, i find l speak more to our SS then her anyway!

Overall, it hasnt be that bad of an experience so far, l hope it continues like that! Im building in Melbournes West. So its not all bad with $imonds, i think its just luck of the draw

Our site scrape was done June 28th and it is now done, we had our finally inspection last monday and just went today to check all was done, tomorrow we get the keys We had a great SS who did everything very quickly, when needed.

Congratulations Miss Piggy, they are unbelievable quick... I am just about to start, hope i will have a similar experience

By the way, do you have any pics to share? We all love photos... hehee

I hope you have a good one to, ours has been great.

Photos .... I have HEAPS LOL.

Will make a thread and post some up tonight. I did not think it would be worth it since it was so close to being done but I will now you asked for them


Edited to add, I uploaded the photos of our build, here is the thread
https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... 442#118442

Hi Miss piggy,

i must say i am in the same boat.. we haven't had a great deal of stress with our house. we are also building with Simonds & are estimated at being in in 4 weeks.. started building on Jan 20 2009.. we just can't wait.. it's good to see that we got the "good" version of Simonds.. others haven't been so lucky..

P.S - your house looks good

That's very, very good. We started in November 2008, and are only building a single storey and have just this week hit lockup. The Site Supervisor reckons at least another 8 weeks for us.

Where abouts are you building?? I still have my fingers crossed for no hickups, anything is possible yet.. & after readin the problems other people have had, i will only be happy wheni have my keys in my hands