Building a Modified Longreach with Coral Homes

Hi All,

I have been reading this forum for a while now as we are in the process (or should I say trying to be in the process) of building with Coral Homes. So thought I would finally make a post.
We are building a modified Coral Homes Longreach.
So far our time line with Coral is now about to tick over to ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!! since we started down this road with them. And still we are no closer to a build date.
Very disappointing Coral Homes.
Though reading this forum makes me understand that we are not alone in that department.
Our time line so far

Feb 2015 arranged to get a Tender from Coral Homes
7.3.2015 What we got was not too bad so we decided to go ahead
11.3.2015 paid the $1600.00 to Coral to have soil test and fixed price quote
26.5.2015 got our first New Home Tender Letter
Had a few things wrong so had to be changed, so we also changed a couple of things
18.6.2015 Second Tender - wrong again and prices that should not have been changed had a different price on them. Strange.
Told we would require a Bush Fire Assessment report done. They could have told us earlier as this changes
the cost of the build depending on what you require. So we paid to have it done.
4.8.2015 Additional tender letter with fire requirements added. Cost's just keep blowing out.
Told we need to have a saturation soil test done due to us putting in the septic system and not Coral. Again
Would have been nice to know earlier.
27.9.2015 We signed a set of contracts ! At last - still a tiny error, but we decided just to sign the contracts to move ahead.
10.10.2015 - tile appointment
23.10.2015 - Coral emailed bank to get deposit. Bank refused as there was errors on the house plan and it was a contract
with a variation sheet. Bank would only lend money on contract not contract and variation. Coral would not redo
contract, so we ended up taking out personal loan for the variation part, so the bank could pay. But the bank
still wanted a correct set of plans, not ones incorrect with notes on them. (Fair enough, they are paying).
16.12.2015 - Bank finally got a correct set of plans and done what they needed to and paid 1st installment , yes we are on our way. UM But - Coral are now closing for XMAS.
19.1.2016 - Happy New Year and we have a Electrical appointment

AND SO FAR THATS WHERE WE ARE - HENCE THE NAME STILL WAITING.

29.1.2016 - Tomorrow we have our colour appointment and Im so over Coral Im not looking forward to it. How sad is that.
I keep telling myself things with them will get better, but have been saying that for 6 months.

I am suprised at all after we went through with Masterton. We might only have to weeks to go. The whole build is 14 months

Hi Arielbj,

sorry to hear you have been at it for 14 months. Im sure you have had a very stressful time, I know we have. Hope you will be in soon.

Heads up, its a long process for everyone.
We first went into coral Feb15 and signed the tender in April.
Our site was cut on December 17th and we have some pipes but nothing has happened for a few weeks. I'm waiting desperately on a slab!
I try not to be disappointed even though it has taken so long to get to this stage. I'm trying to have a positive attitude and be appreciative that I'm lucky enough to be getting a new house.
You will get there

Hang in there! !!! We all feel like that in the beginning. ..... once slab goes down it should fly along,
goodluck with everything

I hope your right pidge.72

We had our colour app on Friday and Hayley at Newcastle was wonderful and very helpful.
Still not lodged with council as yet.
Almost 2 weeks ago we rang head office for an update and were told they didnt have all the paperwork to lodge with council. They didnt have stamped plans from our local water supplier. Dont know why as we are on a rural property and not connected to water, we are on tank only. But anyway they asked my husband to go and get plans stamped which he did and scanned and emailed them back. So we thought we were on our way again.
Rang for an update today to be told they still didnt have all paperwork, waiting on us to sign a form for the certifier and also have to sign an owner consent form.
I dont know why they dont ask for everything all at once, just drags it out.
We paid deposit on 16/12/15, now in Feb and still not submitted to council.
I hope it all starts to happen soon.

It sends you crazy hey! Ours went to their certifier on the first of December and we still arnt in council!! Apparently they were waiting for a bushfire report which they only order mid Jan.. Really annoys me though as we have always known we would need one (its even costed in with the house price!) so why wasn't that one of the first things ordered??

Im going to call headoffice again and give them the hurry up... Im sick of waiting

On a more positive note.. We are also building with Coral in Newcastle so am excited to follow along with your build.. sounds like we might be on similar timelines

Hi There,
Does anyone know how long it takes for a private certifier to get paperwork together to lodge with council?
Asked for an update from Coral H/O yesterday and was got the response-

Your plans are with the private certifier being processed and this does take some time as previously discussed, if there are any issues the private certifier will advise me and In turn I will contact you otherwise I will contact you on a fortnightly basis with updates.

So far Coral have been back from their Xmas beak for 5 weeks. We were told in the second week that paperwork would be lodged on the Fri or Mon. Only to ring a week later and be told you haven't signed all the paperwork to submit it.
Have been told by a friend who is building that a private certifier takes about 8 working days to have all the paperwork he needs.
Does anyone know how long it should take or is it like the piece of string?
The date Coral should have given us a start by date has come and gone? Does anyone know what happens with that?

Thanks guys, any advice would be appreciated.

Corals new certifier is hopeless.
They now use Professional Certification Group.
Ours took about 3 weeks with the certifier. Once it was in council it sat there for two weeks as the certifier hadn't given all the information needed to submit to council so it took 8 or 9weeks before it was out of council. I ended up calling the council every few days to make sure coral and the certifier had done their part.
If you find it takes a while call the certifier (07 3069 5755) and the council. Good luck

Just an update to our situation. Plans were finally lodged with council on 16th Feb. So we have moved ahead. Finally got our colour variations back today, just over 4 weeks since appointment and a bit of chasing them up for them. UM - it was a shock to say the least. Amazing how things just blow out. Will have to cull some things. But we are moving forward so that is a positive.

We are out of council on 23rd March, 1 month ago. Now just waiting on our start date. Coral keep finding paperwork that has not been signed, so until they have all signed paperwork back they don't apply for a start date. So yes, still waiting. Hopefully not for much longer.

Hi Can I ask how your build has gone and if you finally in your new home? We have just paid our soil testing money and building at Millfield NSW on an acre. Love to hear your feedback. Kaz