Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 25, 2017 5:47 pm Just wondering ,is everybody happy with SBG homes,any slow builds/bad workmanship and communications,would much appreciate the feedback,i cannot find many good reviews about them and concerned if they are finacial ,don't want to loose my deposit. Re: sbg homes 3Dec 11, 2017 3:36 pm Hi not sure Peter, Sorry in delay in responding to your question. We are building with SBG Homes and we are experiencing a lot of problems, it is a nightmare that we would not wish on our worst enemy. Their trades seem to make a lot of mistakes and most of their work is of poor quality mostly because of lack of supervision/communication, and to make matters worse we do not have a site supervisor that we can contact and raise issues with. We have been given a receptionist or some office person as a contact person. Because she does not have building experience and appears not to understand issues that are being raised, she is defensive in her approach and tends to talk over people and promises to look into issue and get back to us but she does not bother to do so. We are not sure what is happening with the company, we were referred by friends who build with them but did not have as much problems since they had a site supervisor that could resolve issues. We would not recommend them to anyone, the few inclusions they offer are similar to volume builders like Henley and Carlisle Homes but their overall price is more expensive than volume builders, the building process is very slow, and the building experience from a customer's point of view is horrendous but I don't think they care. Re: sbg homes 4Dec 11, 2017 4:51 pm Hi New Build,be very cautious,make sure all work is completed to the contracts specs and passed by the inspectors before paying any progress payments,if builders are going bad they will try to get payments early to pay other debts ,it sounds very strange you can't contact a supervisor,i decided to go with SJDhomes and i must say that i was a chippy for 47 years and this is the first house i have got built by a builder and i could not be happier with SJD homes,i would recommend them to anybody,also if you think they are going bad the best way to find out is to talk to any of the tradesmen on site,or other sites they will tell you if they are owed money,goodluck Re: sbg homes 5Dec 11, 2017 5:05 pm also if you know the suppliers that is another good avenue to look at and talk to them,when builders are going bad they do tend to go to new suppliers because they can't pay ,also where i live now sbg are building a block of townhouses and i must say they are very very slow ,that is not a good sign,i would advise to do some homework. Re: sbg homes 6Dec 11, 2017 6:42 pm Thanks not sure peter. You are very lucky to have escaped the SBG Homes nightmare. SDJ Homes have mostly good reviews. You are so right, SBG Homes sends out invoices before they complete the building stages as stipulated in the contract and they chase payments as if their life depend on it. We have an independent inspector but they do not always respect the report, they try and explain away their mistakes. Hoping more people building with them will speak out through a forum like this so that others can be warned. Thanks again for your advise. Re: sbg homes 8Dec 12, 2017 6:12 am Good luck ,from what you just said about sending out early invoices this can be the start of it,as i said do not pay any payments unless that stage has been fully completed as to the contracts. Re: sbg homes 11Dec 12, 2017 4:15 pm what is your completion date on the contract,if they are still building after completing you should be able to get some late fees,if they play hardball and won't, go to the hosing guarentee fund or the housing industry association for advice or where to go for help,i would find out more, before you pay the last payment,also in contracts you do a walk through to see faults etc,if there are many tell them they have to fix the items before the last payment,just tell them you don't trust them to get the items fixed before occupancy,bad builders will say anything to get you onside. Re: sbg homes 12Apr 24, 2018 9:57 pm newbuild2 We started in May, they have refused give us a completion date, I think it will be sometime next year. Hey... Just wondering how your build went in the end? Is it finished? If so, when did it complete? Re: sbg homes 13Apr 25, 2018 7:50 am it will finish in about 3-4 weeks ,everything went smooth,even when little things needed attention the supervisor was on to it straight away,very good builders,i would rcommend to anyone.How did your build end up going,in the end i hope it turn out for you Re: sbg homes 14Apr 25, 2018 10:51 am Not sure Peter, glad your build has gone smoothly. You made the right decision to go with SJD and not SBG. Things are worse with SBG, our house has been at completion stage for nearly 6 months and there is zero communication, there is no site supervisor so no contact person to communicate to about the build, neighbours are starting to complain about our house being a security risk as it has been vacant for a very long time and people have been parking at the house at night. Building with SBG has been the worst mistake of my life and not knowing when the house will be completed is stressful and also expensive as we have been paying 90% of the mortgage since December 2017. Re: sbg homes 15Apr 25, 2018 1:28 pm newbuild2, that's no good at all. Have they gone over their contract period? We are building with them too, but it's evident they don't really care about communicating well with their customer's. Hoping things start to move along soon Re: sbg homes 16Apr 25, 2018 6:29 pm No progress, I like your forum username, so appropriate for Slow Building Group (SBG). Glad to hear from you. The contract completion date was supposed to be end of January. There must be underlying problems at SBG Homes that we are not being told. It is not normal for a builder to behave in such a way and not care about customers. Do you have a site supervisor? Apparently they only have one site supervisor for the whole company (the other supervisors left) and we are unlucky that he is not supervising our build. If we were told they do not have site supervisors I don't think we would have even considered building with them, it is so frustrating that all communication have to be done through a receptionist at their office who is easily annoyed, has her defences up, has no idea what is going on and does not even bother to reply to emails or return telephone calls. Re: sbg homes 17Apr 26, 2018 9:47 am newbuild2 No progress, I like your forum username, so appropriate for Slow Building Group (SBG). Glad to hear from you. The contract completion date was supposed to be end of January. There must be underlying problems at SBG Homes that we are not being told. It is not normal for a builder to behave in such a way and not care about customers. Do you have a site supervisor? Apparently they only have one site supervisor for the whole company (the other supervisors left) and we are unlucky that he is not supervising our build. If we were told they do not have site supervisors I don't think we would have even considered building with them, it is so frustrating that all communication have to be done through a receptionist at their office who is easily annoyed, has her defences up, has no idea what is going on and does not even bother to reply to emails or return telephone calls newbuild2, sorry for the delayed reply. I can't reply using my phone for some reason. We are currently building with them. Started off great we were the first in our land release to get started all was going well. There were defects picked up during one of the stages and since then no progress has happened, we are told they are getting a second opinion. 5 weeks on and our house like yours looks and feels like a ghost house. We were told at the sales office that there are 2 seperate site supervisors one for the outside or 1st part of the build and one for the internal or 2nd stage. We have asked for SS details and not been provided any coz clearly there isn't a site supervisor. We send emails which are generally ignored for a while. So your house is at completion stage? What hasn't been done yet? According to the contract don't they have to pay you if they over the contract period? I don't understand how they get away with this stuff. Their online reviews seem to be getting worse and worse, If it were my company I would do my best to keep my customer's happy. You can always take an issue a customer has and turn it around into a good experience where the customer is pleased and happy with how things have been handled and they will sing your praises... if that makes sense Re: sbg homes 18Apr 26, 2018 10:37 am newbuild2 No progress, I like your forum username, so appropriate for Slow Building Group (SBG). Glad to hear from you. The contract completion date was supposed to be end of January. There must be underlying problems at SBG Homes that we are not being told. It is not normal for a builder to behave in such a way and not care about customers. Do you have a site supervisor? Apparently they only have one site supervisor for the whole company (the other supervisors left) and we are unlucky that he is not supervising our build. If we were told they do not have site supervisors I don't think we would have even considered building with them, it is so frustrating that all communication have to be done through a receptionist at their office who is easily annoyed, has her defences up, has no idea what is going on and does not even bother to reply to emails or return telephone calls. As i have said ,read the contract date of completion which in that date should have allowed for wet days and other unforseen time delays,in my contract everything is in writing so i know everything,i think you should contact hba or hia or the housing commission to find out who you talk too about your writes,as i have said this builder is a bad problem ,i sure other people have complained to the right authority which you will have to find so they will have major complaints about them,i also suggest not to pay the final payment even though it is a small and make sure on your final inspection you make them fix EVERY item big and SMALL, by law they have to do a walk through,stick it to them. Re: sbg homes 19Apr 26, 2018 10:56 am also if you don't make them repair all the errors,when the 3 month maitenance period comes , you have no hope of getting them back,i know this does not help you to get into your house any sooner but don't let then get away with it, Re: sbg homes 20Apr 26, 2018 1:15 pm not sure peter, thanks for your advice, we will look into the options you have suggested. We will definitely be wiser with the final payments, we will ensure every single item is fixed before we authorise release of payment. No progess, your experience dealing with SBG is exactly like ours. They have not done much for completion stage for the last 5 months, still left to be done include; painting (sanding not completed), cabinetry in kitchen not completed, stairs not completed, electrical and plumbing not completed, tiling in bathrooms, flooring (carpet), driveway and paths, and so many other jobs that were either initially not completed or that were supposed to be fixed after mistakes were made. Tradies seem not to finish jobs completely or they just do the wrong thing, I don't know whether this is because of lack of supervision. There are a number of reviews on google that are very concerning, just make us wonder what is going on that we are not being told. Ask for references and speak to them. If they are defensive or try to avoid the request, walk. 1 76139 I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 106793 Hi there! 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