Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 03, 2015 2:50 pm Hi everyone We signed a contract with SEkisui at the end of last year. We have planning consent, but are still waiting on a final price as we had some post contract variations which have taken a long time for them to process. Today, we got this email from them: "Last week it was announced by management that Sekisui House would cease building in Adelaide and Victoria at the end of the year, this is not due to any financial reasons but management decided it is best to keep their investment within Sydney and Brisbane. As you have signed a contract and are close to going to construction we would love the opportunity to build your home however if you decide that you no longer want to go through Sekisui House we will refund your deposit. Once your home is complete all warranties, guaranties and maintenance will remain the same, your enquiry will be handled by Sydney but they will still be using the contractor that we currently are? You will receive a letter advising you of this, however if you can please confirm if you are still wanting to go ahead with the construction of your home." I'm not sure what to do. Theoretically it shouldn't make any difference to the quality of the home etc, but it has made me uneasy. Will the trades not care as much as they won't be getting ongoing work from them? Will it be difficult to get warranty work done if we have to communicate with interstate? Will they not care as much as their reputation within the state doesn't matter any more? So, what would you do? We won't lose any money if we switch builders and have to wait, it is just emotionally difficult. This is a KDR and we currently live in the house we are knocking down, so financially, the longer we wait, the better off we will be in the longrun. However, we HATE living in this house. It is awful, and we need to be in our new house before we have another baby, for example, which we both want to do. So, what would you do? Keep going, or pull out and find another builder? Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 2Mar 03, 2015 3:25 pm 1. Cost You will get your deposit back, but will going to another builder cost more, or will it possibly be cheaper now (for some reason)? 2. Cost (another aspect) As you have said, the longer you stay where you are, the more you save (presumably with lower mortgage etc). But.... see 1. Cost above; will prices to build the new house increase, especially if a major builder is no longer in the competitive market? Also..... 3. Timing Not everything is about money. Changing to another builder now will undoubtedly add extra time - and you do sound like you would really like to get out of where you are. But.... 4. Warranties etc. a) It's going to be difficult to have warranties serviced from interstate. Yes, Sekisui will have subbies on board, but without ongoing work for those subbies, they will have no real incentive to do their utmost for Sekisui and will most likely prioritise their work for other builders. And yes, whilst Sekisui will have a contractual obligation to you etc etc, it will mean the difference between getting things sorted out easily or possibly with a great deal on angst. It's sort of like walking across a pedestrian crossing without looking first. Yes you are in the right if a car hits you, but being in the right still means you are hurt pretty badly. If it was me personally (and the situation I am currently in), I would probably stick with them but keep an extra close eye (daily inspections?!?) on things to make sure the quality of the work was so good that warranties shouldn't be an issue. But everyone is in different stages - so please don't do something just because I would! Seksui KDR in Sydney (2015-2016) Links --> | H1 thread | Final plans | Timing of works updated 9/3/16 | Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 3Mar 03, 2015 3:32 pm I wouldn't risk it with them for all the negatives you yourself have thought of. Our builder went belly up on us just after we signed our contract (McCracken) we lost a couple of grand (no refund). We waited a while before we had a rethink about what we'd do. Best thing we could have done. We learnt a lot with the first exercise. And we went with a completely different house. We feel the loss in time and money well worth it. I'd say the baby can wait ... Get your roots sorted first. Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 4Mar 03, 2015 5:12 pm So hard! But if in your shoes I would go with another builder. You haven't really lost anything just time... And maybe this will give you an even better outcome. Especially the kitchen. Having seen some of the Simonds builds they can be amazingly fast to build. Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 5Mar 03, 2015 6:56 pm I would cancel. You've really only lost time, which is only 8-9 weeks, plus however long it takes you to decide on your new builder. Depending on how long that takes you, it might only be 3 months all up. Much better than the potential trouble you could have with the build as others have pointed out with the builder being able to get decent trades in. The Supervisor is going to be looking for another job as well so you could end up with a poorly managed build. This could mean that time frames could also blow out, so I think a new builder is the way to go. Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 6Mar 04, 2015 9:56 am Building the Dream you could end up with a poorly managed build. This could mean that time frames could also blow out, so I think a new builder is the way to go. I hereby officially change my "what I would do". But of course, I'm still not you.... Seksui KDR in Sydney (2015-2016) Links --> | H1 thread | Final plans | Timing of works updated 9/3/16 | Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 7Mar 04, 2015 3:30 pm Thanks for the input everyone. We are leaning towards cancelling. It really sucks. We have had minor issues with Sekisui, but overall we felt confident in them and finally had reached a point where we were happy with the house we would be getting.... Starting from scratch is scary and overwhelming. I found the 'choosing a builder' stage the hardest so far. It is difficult to get an accurate feel on who is trustworthy, good quality, good value, can do what we want etc. We haven't quite decided what we are doing yet but we are going display home visiting this weekend to hopefully get some comparative quotes. Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 8Mar 10, 2015 7:29 am How did the weekend go? Any front runners? Using a phone. Please excuse typos and autocorrect issues. And brevity. Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 9Mar 11, 2015 9:06 am Thanks for checking back yvonneh! We went and looked at display homes and requested a quote from Fairmont homes. I also visited Homestead homes head office on Thursday (at the end of the road I work on) and spent an hour with their consultant. Haydn from Simonds emailed me and seems lovely, but they do not do boundary garage builds. As we have very little room for movement of the building envelope, we really need the boundary build so we won't use them. Which is a shame as they look like they are doing really well with builds in SA - quick, good service, good quality. With Sekisui we have a guaranteed 20 week build time, and the guarantee does not have any exceptions for weather, only for the christmas break. Reading threads on here, Fairmont homes are good quality, very good pricing, but SLOW. 7-9 month builds for single story seems to be standard, as well as long breaks between things happening on site. I haven't found any recent Homestead threads, but the ones I found most were happy with them overall. The sales lady at Homestead said 7 months is the build time they give customers, but lately they have been a lot quicker. Then again, I had a tradie who contracted to a few building companies, including Homestead, tell me that Homestead were not paying their tradies in late 2013.. We haven't got any quotes back yet, but so far we are leaning towards Fairmont, but we are going to try and negotiate some more freebies in if we can. Oh, and we changed the plans a bit and the house is SO MUCH NICER! The ensuite is now amazing, we have a WIP, and a 3 way bathroom. Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 10Mar 11, 2015 9:07 am Also, Sekisui have said that we need to change the house plans by 10%. Anyone know how we can measure that? Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 11Mar 11, 2015 9:32 pm Which plans did you change to be better? The Sekisui one? What's with the 10%? Why? That is really odd! Using a phone. Please excuse typos and autocorrect issues. And brevity. Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 12Mar 11, 2015 10:00 pm That's great you've found an improvement on it. FWIW an ex-work colleague built with Homestead TWICE. Both times very happy (hence building second time). They are lovely homes! Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 13Mar 12, 2015 9:30 am Bobbin I have also built with Homestead twice. First build was 5 years ago, my last one was only last year and we moved in a couple of weeks before Christmas. Both build times were around 6 months, with the last one being slightly quicker. Slab was poured mid July last year, moved in mid Dec. I highly recommend Homestead and I would definitely build with them again. The quality both times has been excellent and the service from all staff was very professional, from the Sales Consultant, to the selections consultant and an excellent site supervisor. One thing I have heard about Fairmont, is how difficult it is to get hold of your site supervisor. They manage a lot of builds at any one time, hence why it is difficult to get hold of them. My site supervisor at Homestead, always answered my phone calls, and if he couldn't, I would get a call back within 24 hours. If you want to know anything about Homestead (selections, pricing etc), feel free to ask or PM me. Also, the 10% change to plans, I think this has something to do with the Copyright on the plans that Sekisui did for you. To get past the copyright issue, you have to change the original plans by at least 10% (can be done by changing size of rooms, window sizing and location etc etc). Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 14Mar 12, 2015 11:03 pm Argh, I wrote a reply to this last night but the net dropped out and I lost it! The 10% is about copyright, as danandmel said. Even though I designed the house plan (loosely drawing from one of their plans) as soon as they draw it up as working plans, they own the copyright. It is frustrating, as it took me a looong time to come up with a plan that met all our needs and block restrictions, but that is how it is. I'm not sure how to measure the 10% though. Oh, and danandmel, how long was it from when you paid your initial deposit with Homestead to site works starting? Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 15Mar 12, 2015 11:21 pm Move the door swings back to front, window opening directions. Flip the sink, location of the drawers. Light switch locations? The 10 percent is too hard to measure, it's a stab at something which I'd ignore -- seeing they've totally left you up $h*t Creek. Would be gobsmacked if they challenged you on that! Homestead will help you I'm sure, they'd know what to do . Re: Builder pulling out of SA in December - WWYD?? 16Mar 13, 2015 8:00 am Bobbin Oh, and danandmel, how long was it from when you paid your initial deposit with Homestead to site works starting? We paid our deposit once we were happy with their quote in January last year, and then the block was cut in June last year. So approximately 6 months from paying the deposit until site works began. Most of this time it was in Council....... And then a 5 month build time. All in all, I think it was a fairly smooth and quick build process from the day we paid our deposit, until we had the keys in our hands! A person needs to be licensed to offer financial advice. Surely the accountant you use would have been chosen for his/her expertise in this field. Have you asked your… 1 6720 Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 20355 |