Be very very very cautious when getting Rivergum Homes to build your new home.
Apparently they win lots of awards, no idea how the way we were treated was disgusting.
We have finally finished dealing with this company and what an absolutely horrible experience it has been.
You hear about how building a house is stressful, but to be handed a house at handover that is 73 items short on being completed was extremely disappointing at best.
The “customer service” is an absolute joke and is poor at best, no one at the company seems to know what’s going on, especially in the customer service team.
There were constant embarrassing mistakes and guarantees that just didn’t come to fruition.
For example I was sent pictures of someone else’s house, not one but twice, (even after me pointing out their error they did it again at the next stage), during the build when they were asking for the completion stage money.
The entire list is just to long to list here, it’s an embarrassment for a company of this size to make such large errors, but here are a few...
Rivergum sent my bank was sent someone else’s house plans as part of our loan.
They didn’t order my kitchen.
The site manger had advised me to use an extension cord to plug in the rainwater tank that was 2 metres away from the power point. WHAT?
24 fence sheets that had to be replaced and the down pipes repainted and three storm water pipes snapped off (and not replaced), this was due to their trades that had to use my property to access the build next door due to bad time management.
The driveway wasn’t completed before handover
There were errors picked up on in pre hand-over that were marked, some of the markers were simply removed and not fixed.
The garage floor was disgusting with many things being split on it.
Hallways up and downstairs needed to be fixed as the joins were obvious
No control joint was installed as required by law
Scratched the rainwater tank
Downpipes and gutters that weren’t straight
Front porch tiles covered in paint and other spills
And many many more.
During handover the aircon ducts were being cut and the dishwasher being installed, then they removed the kitchen tap without advising me why.
I was advised and guaranteed everything would be done prior to handover but 73 things, some big issues, had not been done.
It has taken 6 months and 100s hours of my time and days off for their trades to come and many phone calls and emails to arrange their trades to get the issues fixed.
Handing over on the day given by Rivergum was are only option as they guaranteed it would all be done so we gave notice to our previous house. But unfortunately as soon as they got the money from us, no one cared and they hoped I would give up.
My building inspector came around at the 3 month mark and was shocked in the errors and unfinished work that was handed over. With his report being sent in, Rivergum ended up giving him a job to check over houses before handover, avoiding others having to go through what I went through, but it didn’t help me.
They sent their maintenance man around to fix the items and he was shocked and said “most of these things should have been done before handover” so when their staff admit to it, you know it’s bad....
The garage floor was a disgusting mess and the site mangers boss said “mate it’s a garage floor” meaning it’s fine, when I said it wasn’t acceptable to have this in this condition, this is the mentality of the staff at Rivergum homes, no one cared from start to finish but especially after the money was handed over.
It was one of the worst experiences of our lives and won’t be recommending Rivergum homes to anyone.
I highly recommend that you use someone else to build your house.