Browse Forums General Discussion Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 48Jun 13, 2006 11:35 am builda, lots of useful info from you. We are about to choose our builder, as we don't know anybody who previously built with them, what do you recommend is the best way to go to make sure they deliver quality? Who do we call? We plan to ask the builders themselves but I suppose they would only give us details of home owners who were happy with their work? Is quality of their display homes a good indicator, would that alone suffice? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 49Jun 13, 2006 11:53 am True, it is difficult to get unbiased information from the source.
The best option is, I beleive references and they need to be able to supply references going back a few years. That is, how happy are the long term customers - as well as the short term ones. Lets not be naive, we all have projects and clients that we would prefer not to parade in public but generally if a builder struggles to come up with a decent list of up to 10 references over a longer time period then it does raise issues. In the end, the best reference for a builder is one of your own friends that you can trust. Also, call the Building Commission, Call CAV and see if there are any complaints and if worse comes to worse pump the builders name into Findlaw and see if they have any judgements against them at VCAT or if they are a regular visitor there. It is certainly buyer beware and size is no guarantee of quality. Display homes can be misleading as well. Most important that before you sign contracts that ALL the variables are removed eg: Prime Cost and Provisional sums and make sure that there are no special conditions that will allow the builder to add stuff later. MAKE SURE that the specification corroborates with the drawings so that there is no confusion. You need to eliminate as many areas as possible where you can get stitched up so make sure that everything eg: fixtures, lights, door knobs, cornice, architraves etc are selected before you sign - don't be lazy and leave it for later as you will be forced to make a decision (usually a bad one) under pressure later. Many people try and save money by supplying there own taps, door knobs, lights etc but it ends up usually causing more problems than you save. Get the builder to supply and fit everything - that way it is all his (or her!) responsibility to fix it if it fails. Otherwise the arguments will start and are not easily resolved. Yeah OK, you may pay an extra 10% for it but it is a small price to pay in order to pin the tail on the donkey! Don't worry, over 20 years experience in renovations and extensions and we have learnt from bitter experience ourselves! Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 51Jun 13, 2006 11:20 pm Mek,
Has it occurred to you that the builder you choose, has to be a licensed builder, and as such must have pre approval for attaining the HWI insurance from the insurer and the Victorian building commission/Dept Fair Trading... .before he can legally contract to the public. Here we have a situation whereby a new member of the public is getting his first house built, and even before his builder has a chance to perform, you are reaching for the complaints, and you don't even know the person.. How ridiculous. He might turn out to be the number one builder for the public... fair go... You are like a bunch of kids, will he hurt me, how can I get back at him... etc... Who the hell would want to deal with this lot.. Honesty is the best approach, if you have any reservations or doubts, then speak to him for Christ's sake. If you cannot communicate freely with each other then the **** will hit the fan.. Be open, be honest, and good luck.. But wait until something does go wrong before yelling for help.. Best regards Ken Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 52Jun 14, 2006 2:24 pm Hi Ken, it might sound ridiculous to you, but all I really want to do is to the best of my abilities make sure that we are getting a competent person to to the job. From the stories so far (even just on this forum) I can see that even builders who are properly registered sometimes do not do a good job - would you agree on this one?
Do you think getting details of builder's past work is a waste of time? Do you think educating myself about what to do if things do go wrong is also a waste of time? I might sound like a whingeing kid to you but I would like to get what I pay for. Is that unreasonable? I'm assuming you're a builder (and a bit sick of whingeing customers like me) so if you have any good advice for me I'm willing to listen. Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 53Jun 14, 2006 4:20 pm I think its better to be safe than sorry.
stuff the builder's feelings becuase i learnt too late that there is no use being polite and trusting of these guys. trust me you dont want to regret not being a hard ***. although like i mentioned before my issues are not major, but i get the feeling that they took advantage of my trust, and i hate being wrong in my judgement. Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 54Jun 14, 2006 8:26 pm mek Hi Ken, it might sound ridiculous to you, but all I really want to do is to the best of my abilities make sure that we are getting a competent person to to the job. From the stories so far (even just on this forum) I can see that even builders who are properly registered sometimes do not do a good job - would you agree on this one? Do you think getting details of builder's past work is a waste of time? Do you think educating myself about what to do if things do go wrong is also a waste of time? I might sound like a whingeing kid to you but I would like to get what I pay for. Is that unreasonable? I'm assuming you're a builder (and a bit sick of whingeing customers like me) so if you have any good advice for me I'm willing to listen. HI Mek, put it this way. When I buy a TV, I find out about it, its details, benefits and flaws, and ask people, and then make a decision. I did the same thing when buying a house. $500 or 205000, it was of no difference. I did a lot of homework, asked a lot of questions, and the builder I dealt with did not seem ** off with that. I asked over a dozen people about thei experiences with this builder, and even went to some of their homes. I even asjked people as they came out of their head office. Yes, make sure you get a competent person to do the job, and you can protect yourself in several ways, including writing into the contract that you want to get independant inspections at certain parts of contruction, and that you will not pay invoice on stages until such inspections are satisfactorily complete. If a builder has a problem with that, then dont use them. Remeber you are the customer, its your house and you will be paying a lot of money for it. When it comes to spening six figures, and putting yourself in debt for many a decade, there is no such thing as a dumb answer mate.If you dont understand it, ask again, or take someone with you. That helped me a lot. Get someone to rerad your contracts as well. Good luck. Adrian B Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 55Jun 14, 2006 9:46 pm Mek.
I am probably just as sceptical about a lot of people in all industries, and as you I will always try to ensure that I am on the right track, and would like to be 110% sure that I have chosen wisely, but on the same token. no one can be absolutely sure of too much these days, make your enquiries , you would be foolish not to. But what worries me is not the honest attempts by yourself to secure the best reasonable result, the truth of your efforts will only be realized when the project is being performed and or completed. The biggest problem being usually a person downgrading everyone in a very bitter attitude, and subsequently misleading all that are not aware. There are a lot of builders and clients out there that are problematic, they deserve each other, but there are a lot out there that are not, and do not deserve the ratings being bestowed upon them. The biggest culprit in the industry being the administration of the authorities, how can they possibly reasonably explain the illegal actions by some of their own staff in the processes of issuing ******* licenses, over one hundred and ten of em, that they purport to know of, how many more are still operating??. Like that famous statement from one of it's senior work cover chiefs, issuing ******* tickets, quote" I am like a prostitute, you can buy anything off me". That was on national TV.. They then try to put the blame elsewhere. If they performed their jobs properly, there would be no repeat offenders operating for years on end.. So if a contractor gets a ******* customer, he cannot get a fair go from the so called "Fair Trading... Because they maintain that they are there for the benefit and protection of the consumer ,not the builders... What the hell are we.. Non consumers. So, like I said, decide 100% what you want in the construction of your house, finishes etc.. before you commit to a contract. Avoid the interruption or additional cost of variations... And go for it with the builder of your choice... Regards Ken.. Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 56Jun 16, 2006 12:33 pm windowexpert Hi Dobly, If you build again, try to find a building company with some European background ( there are many Europeans with building background in Australia) Ideally you want an architect with European qualification or at least some experience there. When it comes to building standards in Oz and NZ they are amongst the lowest in the developed world. But many builders and architect are too narrow minded to think in a different direction and they rather carry on with the same old rubbish. Sad but thats the reality HI, can you tell me where to find Eupean builders in Australia? I live at Sydney. Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 57Jun 17, 2006 11:50 pm With constant bashings going on in this forum, any chance of naming names ?
What about those satisfied customers, can you name the builders or at least the companies ? I just want to avoid being ripped-off by some ******* builders out there. Hear from both sides soon. Seriously looking at Kit Home Suppliers, most offer attractive designs but unless the right questions asked; then most perceive you as nothing but nuissance. Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 58Jun 19, 2006 9:59 am 99% of builders are fine, but we can all have a bad day just the same.
The problem is that the 1% of bad ones take up 99% of the media attention, hence the problem can seem bigger than it actually is and scare potential consumers such as yourself. Entirely understandable just the same. As per my earlier post on this topic, your best defence is to take an active role in managing the project and ensuring that all your documentation and selections are up to scratch - BEFORE you sign. Don't be lazy and just leave it to the builder because you trust him - it is your money and if things aren't exactly as you want then there will be problems. My experience is that this can occur regardless of how good, trustworthy or how impeccable a record the builder has. The problems occur when there is deficient communication both written and oral. We all on both sides like to take the easy option but the building process is hard work in the communication stakes. Don't take the easy option if you want to avoid disappointment. A successful final outcome means that you as the owner need to spend a lot of time actually deciding what you want on every issue. That is, you need to know before you sign, exactly what it is you are paying for. If you don't then you are leaving yourself open to a dispute. Building disputes can be far too easy to get into, but it is just as easy to work to avoid the obvious problems. That is, fix the obvious difficulties before you start, then the big issues will be genuine 'unforeseens' and you will not be so preoccupied with all the minor stuff ('cos you already fixed it pre-contract) to focus on solving the really important big issues that will crop up. Good luck! Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 59Jun 19, 2006 11:21 pm We have been building for over 2 years and have no end of trouble with our builder, I live in perth and would like to hear from others in the same situation and the name of the builders. Please feel free to send me an email. Then i won't feel soooo bad!........
Thxs tinaack Re: New Home Owner Experience - not good 60Jun 20, 2006 8:51 am Very sorry to hear that your experience has been difficult. The WA Government prides themselves on operating a 'state of the art' consumer protection regime to avoid such incidents but I have always been skeptical of their claims and tend to associate them with the sort of spin doctoring that all Governments participate in these days.
Have you contacted the Dept of Consumer and Employment Protection (DOCEP)? If not, call them on 1300 304 054 and get them involved to sort out the builder if they are being recalcitrant. Very interested to know how you go and whether or not they simply push you into a private litigation. When you think about it, if the Government is licensing builders then they have to take some responsibility for making the bad ones finish the job for the agreed price. If the builder cannot operate under those simple contractual obligations then they should be pushed out of the industry by the regulator. Unfortunately the attitude of Government is that you (the user) has to pay via private litigation, to do what is essentially their responsibility in the first place. Please give it the DOCEP option a go, but if you already have and failed then please let us know. Sorry but you have a crap builder. Probably too late now. For our last build I only spoke to builders who would allow me easy access (at no cost). I used my own sparky… 10 7309 I apologise for any confusion, but your understanding is correct. We approached our situation differently based on advice from… 11 37461 Hi All, I have been dealing with icare for insurance in completing our house after our original builder went bust. We have gotten to tender stage and one of the companies… 0 15925 |