Simonds Homes problems

Hi Claego!

No News = mixed news really! haha
Sorry for the delay guys - didn't get back last night till well after midnight - but will fill you guys in on what happened on site.

Arrived at the house and was greeted by SS, Superior to SS and also Construction Manager that we've been dealing with - predominately over the phone. Obviously got the small talk out of the way and both parties agreed that we try and settle this amicably etc. They just want to make us happy....... (yea didn't seem that way the past 2-3 weeks...).

Went into the house with my partner (no objections this time) and walked through the items on the First PCI. Most were fixed or at least attempted to be fixed. The major issue that was still apparent was the fact the paint work in the corners of the skirting boards as well as the cornice finish throughout the entire house was sub standard. Construction Manager said this is what you get.. its standard Simonds finish. He even referred to the display homes and apparently this is what all display homes would look like. I begged to differ but for the sake of progression i let it slide. We came to a compromise that we do another walk through the house and pick up any dints/scratches/cracks in the paint work and corners and he will sign it off, have them fixed before settlement. We accepted this as we had our own list of defective areas, so it was pretty easy to spot where the issues were. Bear in mind we had 150 items on our list, the Construction Manager took it pretty well. I think in the end he understood why we were pushing back so hard on them, once he saw the quality of the workmanship in the house. There were a few glares shared between himself and the supervisors! We made a point of the cornices and asked for them to be cleaned up. They wouldn't agree to it, but said they'd go through the entry, and parts of the kitchen where it was most apparent that it was poor. So for all intents and purposes, we went through a third PCI (first, kevin's report, and this one) and picked up as much as we could paint work or otherwise. He didn't expect to have so many things still to do, and was getting a bit narky towards the end... but if its defective, its defective....!

He then went through Kevin's report and justified why he fixed some items and not others. In the end we were happy that the major issues picked up by Kevin were dealt with adequately as far as we could see... bar a couple which we will need to sort out a direction on what to do (ball is in our court to decide).

So conclusion: Defects from first PCI have been rectified. Major items on Kevin's report have been rectified. Third List of defects has been signed off and will be completed before settlement. There are still a lot of things that needs replacement or installation. For starters, no central heating had been installed, this is standard apparently but only noticed it was missing yesterday. Completely slipped my mind. The bricks had another clean just before the PCI and had blown away some of the paint on the window sills and downpipes. The mortar inbetween the bricks in parts had been blown away leaving it uneven in places. Glass windows had cracks which were raised in the initial PCI (via sticky tape/ dots) but had not been addressed.

So yes - still some issues to rectify but happy that we are moving forward with the situation. We haven't signed off to say works have been complete.. and will return to site once they have completed all the items that were signed off by Construction Manager. Obviously we aren't going to be happy about everything in the house, probably never will - but if we can get as much rectified before handover, that will make life after handover much more bearable!!

So there you go - there was a softening of the hard shell known as Simonds... i'm not sure whether it was the official dispute we raised, the fact we had raised a dispute through CA or whether it was simply a 'do what makes them happy so we can all move on' mentality. But both parties came to a compromise.

Will see how they go in fixing the issues we raised ( we actually were given the list this time) and will get back to everyone on the progress. Thanks again for everyone's support! We really appreciate hearing from people who have been in the same situation and on how to deal with it. We probably would have caved in if it not been for u guys telling us to stick up for what we rightfully were entitled to!

Will keep you guys informed!

No not yet!
So no date of settlement and no date set for handover! I guess for us the main thing is that the items we picked up get fixed and fixed well. We are moving forward and hoping within the next two weeks that it will happen! fingers crossed!

How many items did you have on your 3 month maintenance? We are trying to avoid having mountains of touchups, and having them patched up now hopefully will save us some trouble later on!

Same here, i have tried very hard to get everything fixed before handover... so I don’t have a long list, only 15 items

Paint touch up just for cornices (but for nearly the whole house), and the pantry

I thought it would be hard to ask them fixing it, especially the pantry, I did sign the PCI showing that it is fixed, but in fact, SS forgot it and i didn’t check, so when they said they are going to fix it, it is a relieve for me …

Simonds is hiring an external company to do the maintenance, so my file will be transferred to them and i will be contacted and arrange time for fixing those items.. approx 4-6weeks wait though

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