Rawson Homes - General Thread

We just got carpeted stairs and had voids deleted and glass removed (my wife was concerned with our young daughter). Think we got $2k ish (id have to check) back for no glass, voids removed and we got $8k staircase allowance refunded!

So in my scenario Rawson have been quite fair, but yes there are still a kot of cash grabs by Rawson on some of the extras.

IMO this isn't just Rawson, all other builders do it also. This occurs in lots of industries like if you buy a new car all the optional extras are money makers for the car manufacturers

Is there any strict guideline, after PCI how soon the handover should happen? I heard it should be max 10 working days.
In my case PCI was done on 10 Dec, still handover not done, SS is saying may be Feb 1st week.
These guys are making me more and more frustrated day by day.

Hi Nirban
As far as I know, there is no hardline for the time between PCI & H/O. Here are some words in regards to this from "aussielivinghomes" --- "The builder has a contractual obligation to repair these minor defects by organising trades and suppliers to return to the site and complete the listed items generally within 10-14 working days so handover can occur as efficiently as possible. This may be extended if there are a lot of practical completion items still to be addressed."

Does RAWSON has a long list of defects to fix which could be the reason of delay? Also I guess another contribute factor is XMAS. And from my experience, till today no work has been done on my site since mid of Dec last year due to public holiday. Hopefully H/O will come to you soon! BTW, have you appointed any inspector for your PCI? I'm considering to buy a PCI guide checklist from internet and do the final inspection by myself given I'm not satisfied with my previous inspector.


Cheers.

Hi Andy,

I have used same inspector from Macro. He has listed a long list of issues, most are small, 2 requires bit of work. Rawson is saying, the inspection I had with my inspector is not considered as PCI date as Rawson will have their own independent inspection for PCI, then they will handover. They will be fixing the issues in the meantime.

Cheers,

Hi Nirban,

Just wondering how you have found Macro as I don't think Andy wasn't too happy with their service and it's always helpful to get a few different opinions.

After a delay due to the Christmas shutdown we're hopefully about to hand over our site to Rawson and start construction and I want to make sure I have an inspector I can trust arranged for inspections at each stage so would love to hear how you have found Macro or if there were any other inspection companies you considered.

Did you get inspections before each payment stage (eg. slab, frame, brickwork, internal, fix out, PCI) or just at PCI ?

Cheers,

James.

Hi James,
Macro only does 2 inspections - Pre-lining (frame, brick), and PCI. I was not too happy with pre-lining as he completed the whole $600 inspection in one hour or less, however he found some important ones, and I am happy with the PCI inspection.
Overall, I am OK with Stephen (Macro), some of his findings has led me to find similar issues.

I am more unhappy with Rawson than Macro to be honest. After my pre-lining inspection, what they did was pretty cheap, they hurried up and put the Lining within a day, without even confirming me that they worked on those issues. So, basically, I could not verify some of the frame issues as they were covered and I am sure they did not fix those. The seemingly smart SS got caught when I asked him "when did you fix the issues?", as I sent him Inspection report at 7 am on Saturday and he replied on around 12 noon on the same day, saying the issues were fixed and there was no tradies on site on that day.

So, what you need to do, is stop them from putting the Lining before they fix all Frame issues and you validate them.

Cheers,

ND

I'd definitely inspect the frame! I didn't and they've forgotten a Niche above the bath tub, I doubt they'll be able to put one in there after PCI next month as they'd have to cut the studs or something to have a recess in there. I think I will have to look into installing floating shelves.

Hi,

Who is building with Rawson home in bardia ,Edmondson park and what stage they are in ? Who is your site supervisor?

1)Building in Bardia -Brick roof,solar Penal done, Nathan is site supervisor

20kW Daikin system, I thought I read somewhere that it has to have a minimum of 2 zones working whenever I turn it on.

I normally only have 1 zone switched on....

It's a 3 zone system btw.

The standard tender says 2 zones and one on at a time, which is normally one floor.

1 zone in 3 sounds fine. I think they get concerned if its one outlet, but wouldn't install it that way, presumably.

cool! thank you!

Hi ND
May I know who is your SS . If it is OK for you.

Finally it’s approaching PCA. However just noticed there is no cover for balcony which is made of timber bars. Wondering if wood could last long with exposure to both sunshine and rain! Does anybody has same concern as me? Thx.
Best regards
Andy

picture attached

Hey I did KDR as well! Congrats! I got a similar balcony decking. You will have to reseal it every two years or so. Very easy to do. PS I hate it how Rawson gives tiny as porch steps.

Thank you for your advice. I understand painting could help it a little bit but may not resolve the problem. Yep, the step is really too narrow. Also tiny washing basin in bathroom may disappoint you!

Just a question have any of you guys managed to negotiate tender expiry fees?

Ours expired at the end of Nov 2018 (we signed in May 2018 ) back then when we asked they mentioned as long as you don't hold anything up and keep it rolling management generally let it slide.

Our land was registered late nov early dec by memory (took longer then expected as alway!) then it took until Feb to get plans to council, which after almost two months finally got approval last week.

We received a tender variation today for $7500, as it had lapsed in Nov 2018, and the fee will ensure its covered until the end of May 2019...

I'm a tad dissapointed TBH its a huge chunk of $ even though I know there's probably nothing we can do.. Rawson had a few issues along the way with plans not being quite right, waiting for them to draft plans etc for council so I dont feel as though we've been 100% the reason behind any delays caused thus inconveniencing rawsons?

Does anyone have any experience, or words of wisdom finding themselves in a similar scenario?

We had the same thing, we got our contract the week after our tender expired along with a 6k increase and we hadn’t even got through council at that stage. We did question it and even had emails from them during the tender process apologising for delays caused by them but it was tough it’s part of the process. We didn’t end building with them. Good luck

Hmm yeah it's certainly a tad disappointing I must admit, it puts a dampener on things and I can totally understand why someone like yourself would walk away.

We'd been advised when signing the contract by our sales adviser as long as you keep the ball rolling so to speak, and be punctual with signing variations etc management will look favorably on you and you wont incur tender expiry fees.

The thing that's disappointing is that they waited until the last minute then slapped down a tender expiry bill, rather then being upfront from the start that it had expired from here on out you'll incur a $1250 fee for every month its late. I would have pushed them a lot harder to get their plans revisions done in a more prompt manner (a few drafting mistakes from their end)

From previous experiences Rawson have been approachable and negotiable on prior issues, hopefully we can negotiate this fee..

[quote="Melos":7aad1wx2][quote="ourrawsonbalmoral38":7aad1wx2]Just a question have any of you guys managed to negotiate tender expiry fees?

Ours expired at the end of Nov 2018 (we signed in May 2018 ) back then when we asked they mentioned as long as you don't hold anything up and keep it rolling management generally let it slide.

Our land was registered late nov early dec by memory (took longer then expected as alway!) then it took until Feb to get plans to council, which after almost two months finally got approval last week.

We received a tender variation today for $7500, as it had lapsed in Nov 2018, and the fee will ensure its covered until the end of May 2019...

I'm a tad dissapointed TBH its a huge chunk of $ even though I know there's probably nothing we can do.. Rawson had a few issues along the way with plans not being quite right, waiting for them to draft plans etc for council so I dont feel as though we've been 100% the reason behind any delays caused thus inconveniencing rawsons?

Does anyone have any experience, or words of wisdom finding themselves in a similar scenario?[/quote:7aad1wx2][/quote:7aad1wx2]
We had the same thing, we got our contract the week after our tender expired along with a 6k increase and we hadn’t even got through council at that stage. We did question it and even had emails from them during the tender process apologising for delays caused by them but it was tough it’s part of the process. We didn’t end building with them. Good