Fairmont Homes - Northridge Estate SA

Hi tina v,

Nope, haven't recieved our final engineering report yet. Although we have 28K kept aside as footings allowance and soil removal as a builder bonus.
We also recieved a letter titled " Amended contour plan", although I am still not sure what is it for. Will be sending it back tomorrow. I don;t think it would affect your footings as they would have to state any cost variation upfront.
How are things progressing from your end.??

Regards,

I asked our consultant what the contour plan changes meant and he said that they had to raise the level of the land to be aligned with the road.

We are waiting for our engineering report too. Had to go back and double check our pegs are still there so we don’t get any additional charges.

We recieved our final plans and selections pack yesterday. Surprisingly it still mentions footings allowance instead if a fixed price.

Also finance for the land is just a signature away.

I will be checking the pegs today. Are the gates open?

They closed off that gap in the fences 😔 so hubby squeezed in and went and checked our pegs by himself

How exciting! Things are moving along for you 👏🏻

Recieved another "Construction update " letter from Fairland. Apparently the final plan has been deposited in the land titles office. They have asked us to contact our conveyancer to organize land settlement.

Hopefully not long to go now.

We got the same letter too! Yay!

Jut thought I would say hi. I'll be building on Dornwell place in Northridge.

Hi neighbour! Hope all has been going well for you so far!

Hi!

Just thought you'd chime in if you haven't got the final prices already - The footings price will only be finalise once you have your soil testing done. (We are mid built atm with Fairmont).

Also be aware there will be extra costs, that you may or may not have been aware off after you sign off and get the footing price sorted...

- fee to remove soil (if not included in contact) paid direct to tradie
- fee to council to dig up footpath for power
- water/power/council rates whilst build is happening (obvious I know but for a vacant block it adds up!)
- extras post electrical choices - the electrician called us to discuss extras after build started, none of which was discussed at final builders. Even though we are doing loads of lighting ourselves after hand over, we did get them to do a few things like data points and extra power points we missed (they offer things like solar too!) We are still yet to pay for these but I know they'll be paid direct to electrical company not Fairmont.

Hi there

Thanks for the information. Can I ask whether there were any additional charges for termite treatment? A friend of mine is also building with Fairmont and said she got slapped with additional fees for the termite treatment on the perimeter. Just wondering if others had the same.

Thanks!

Hi Tina,

Yep it sure was I think about $1500 extra (I think our build is just under 200sqm).

I thought I was prepared going in with a bit of experience from the design industry but I was so shocked at what was considered "extras"!

😔 I was hoping that would not be the case but I guess at least now I can mentally prepare myself for this “extra” cost. Everyone else I know that has built with other companies has their termite treatment costs included in their build cost!
And I agree.. the definition of “extras” definitely needs to be re-examined!
Hubby texted me today to say we received our soil report in the post today (finally!) so am excited to get home and read a bunch of documents that don’t make sense to me

I know it can be so hard comparing to other people builds I have had to try be so calm with out build time/lack of contact from the company compared to other builders!

Ohh oohhh did you get the soil report costings??

Hubby needs to be educated on what a soil report looks like. It was the council papers for colour selections which I have returned. Our sales consultant did email me this morning and said Fairmont have the soil report and it’s with costing team at the moment so I will update you once we get a cost! I have booked in our selections with Pickards and Supreme for end of July.

I know how you feel. I went through a phase where I just didn’t want to talk about Building cause they were quiet for 6 weeks! It just made me so depressed that there was absolutely no movement! But excited we now have a date locked in for selections and I am going to start looking at my Houzz app again for inspiration 😁

So we finally got our soil report engineering etc and booked in selections and our final builders interview! Going to pgh and austral this wk to look at colours so we are prepared for the fbi.. things are starting to move along again so very happy with that!

Hi Neighbour,

I am your new neighbor, planning to buy Lot 25 Yutika drive. Here is my recent status.

Land deposit paid: 23 of July
Land Settlement: 28 Sep 2018
Soil report received: 26 of July
Footing cost 25500 inclusive soil removal.

Please recommend anything I need to know before land settlement.

Hi Rajan!

I would recommend going down to check that your pegs are all still on the land and taking photographic evidence of it as well. We hammered ours in deeper so that vandals don’t pull them out and snap them or throw them away. If there are missing pegs you will need to pay a fee of $600-$650 per missing peg so keep an eye on that til you have signed on the dotted line! It’s good you put a fixed cost in for your footings and soil removal. Good luck! It’s a longgggg process of paperwork til they get started.. we settled and signed for the land awhile ago now. Only finally did our selections on Friday that just passed and now waiting to get our 6 star energy report back so we can book in final builders interview.

We have been visiting on a weekly basis and can see both our neighbours have had their trenches done and one has the slab poured already. I don’t think ours will start til Sep/Oct

Hello guys,

Apologies for being dormant for some time. I see lots happening at the estate, good to see footings being laid for few of the lots. We have completed our final interview so it's just a waiting game for us for construction finance approval.
We ended up spending 27K on variations, most of which went towards upgrading kitchen bench top, splash back and adding lots of storage . We also opted for acoustic insulation for internal walls, and thermal for external.

Visit your site regularly to keep a check on people dumping stuff on vacant lots. Ours has got lots of weeds grown lately at the back, so will probably have to pull them out at some stage or will have to use the spray.

As Tina already mentioned, make sure your pegs remain as you may be slugged extra if they went missing. Check your soil report thoroughly, if your footings report has to be prepared by the engineer, as was in our case.

Hi Tina!

Good to hear from you. We recently got soil report and it mentions highly reactive soil. Do you have any idea about soil report? Yes, I have gone through all the post here and I will keep in mind about those peg. Thank you so much for the information.
Why don't the builder building homes straightaway from land settlement? How long does it take to start after land settlement?

I think, I am asking so many questions.

Regards,

Hi Rajan,

Welcome to the forum.
Our soil was classified as H2 (P), and thus the footing were designed by the engineer and will be deeper than normal.
Once the land is settled, your builder will apply with the council for full developmental approval which can take between 6-12 weeks. During the time, you will need to finalize your build contract, complete your selections process and organise the final builder's interview. After the builder's interview, your file will be forwarded to the footings contractor to start the building process. Having said that. get your finance ready, and be sure to include everything you need or may need to include in the build contract so it could be part of the finance, if you do not have a lot of disposable saving.

Also, preplan your electrical layout i.e discuss and plan locations of your power points, globes, how many do you need, etc etc.