Building with Wisdom Homes

Hi All,

I am new to this forum and also embarking on a build for the first time. We are currently in the admin process with Wisdom and find things are moving at snails pace. We started the tender process in July, 2017, did our colours in December and not much had happened since. We were hoping to get a DA lodged this month but with one day to go it’s not looking likely. We are told that BASIX is taking longer than expected, that it’s in drafting etc etc. Has anyone experienced this as well? We are building at Macarthur Heights. Wondering if anyone has had any issues with Campbelltown Council.
Cheers

Hi there, check out this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=71662&p=1783298#p1783298

Hopefully you will see a light at the end of the tunnel! Alot of the people on the thread have had admin issues too so you are not alone.

We signed our contract last week and our CSR commented that Campbelltown Council was the slowest of all councils. They are currently 3months behind in admin. Hopefully your situation changes soon!

Goodluck!

Thanks for replying and for the thread. So hoping that Campbelltown Council lifts their game. Appalling how long Council’s take to approve builds.😄

Hi Mish,

Congrats with the new build with Wisdom Homes.

We are also building with WH and we are at the stage of Slab, after 8 months of paper processing.

So, don't feel the pain, you are not alone, the good news you did not sign yet the final contract and the building stamp plan.

Once you sign them, please, do not change anything else, do not add or delete any variations, if you do, you will end up 8 months processing from council to slab concrete, like us.

Also ask for FIXED PRICE or buy 2 years contract expiry to be safe, the price of the house increase more than 10% since we signed our tender two years ago.

Good luck!

Navy

Hi Navy,

Thanks for your reply. Are you 8 months from tender to slab or signing contract to slab? We are 7 months from tender with no DA lodgement. Had a lot of stuff ups with tender and drafting which caused delays. We signed our contract in Nov 2017 and was hoping to st least have a DA lodged by now.

Best of luck with your build!
Regards
Mish

Hi Mish,

From signing tender to lodging to DA, we were 1 year and 5 months, that's because we waited until our land get registered. During those period we did our colouring, tiles, roof, aircon and electrical selections.

As soon as our land registered we asked WH to process our Council and DA lodging, so from period of DA to SLAB, we are 8 months.

In your case, is your land already registered from the time you signed your tender?

Or did you wait for certain time to get land registered first?


Regards,


Navy

Hi Navy,

Our land was already registered by the time we started our tender process. 8months from DA to Slab sounds like a long time. We are hoping 10 months from DA to handover.

Hi Navy,

Our land was already registered by the time we started our tender process. 8months from DA to Slab sounds like a long time. We are hoping 10 months from DA to handover.

Hi Navy,

Our land was already registered by the time we started our tender process. 8months from DA to Slab sounds like a long time. We are hoping 10 months from DA to handover.

Hi Mish,

The DA approved on our experience was May 2017 to August 2017, so about 3 months, that's including all the paper works.

The back and fort of variations, the add and delete, the mistakes from Customer Service, that's the process we took long time.

We had one case, our laundry sink door cannot open because of the laundry bench, this was only notice after 6 months. And the customer service wants us to pay for the variation because of the drawing and admin (late notification fee), but we already did signed and pay when we asked for structural plan and change of laundry. So, we didn't accept that variation, it was not our fault.

That's our problem too, we did changed our structural plan after we signed the final contract.

Anyway, just make sure you don't have much changes after the final contract.

Good luck.


Navy

Thanks Navy. We definitely won’t be making any structural variations. Sounds like a nightmare if you do. Hope the rest of your build goes smoothly.
Regards
Michelle

Thanks Navy. We definitely won’t be making any structural variations. Sounds like a nightmare if you do. Hope the rest of your build goes smoothly.
Regards
Michelle

Thanks Navy. We definitely won’t be making any structural variations. Sounds like a nightmare if you do. Hope the rest of your build goes smoothly.
Regards
Michelle

Administration process is extremely bad. They chew up months for a small request.

customer service estimating & drafting co-ordinations is extremely poor.

Any minor amendments takes many weeks & they will give a new tender number for even minor change. In the end It would appear as if customer was changing the tender multiple times.

Easy to put it on clients at the end.

In reality couple of internal calls could have saved weeks.

The threat of price change (that can derail the project) is constant.

Admin appears to go one for months or years....

We discovered yesterday that they still haven’t lodged our DA. They cannot seem to get our landscape plan correct. Also looked at our contract yesterday and have a tender expiry date of 30 April. They seem to be stuffing us around so they can increase the price if we don’t start before that date. I am not very happy and considering contacting the MD directly about our concerns.

Also got our tiling upgrade quote today - $150 per sqm to lay 800 x 800 floor tiles? Whaaaat? Anyone know a good tiler? Thinking of getting our main floor tiling done after handover.

That was exactly our situation, the delay alibis. You got to pressure them, I suggest.

We went to D'Lorenso for our tilling, price seems good.

I would def consider getting the main flooring done after handover. You’ll save the 30%ish builders mark up which at those prices is a lot of money.
W will not charge you to extend your Tender if the delays are their fault. If they are taking extra time than normal to get it in to council all that extra time should be added to your date. However if you get stuffed around by council or your bank and those delays push you over contract time, over and above the extra time added from W’s delays, then you will get charged. Hope that makes sense.