Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 165Jul 02, 2012 12:18 pm namweng Thanks Guys, Just spoken to admin and she said it might come tonight or tomorrow. I'm hoping for today. Do you know what should be included in the contract? Do they include all the layout diagrams like where the feature wall tiles should be? Colour selection and etc... Cheers it will NOT come with those internal and external colour selection elevations.... I did not accept that, and kicked up a stink. They finally included them in the contract document. I couldn't understand why or how they couldn't insert them into the contract. I mean it's just minor points on ...HOW YOU WHOLE HOUSE IS GOING TO LOOK?? LOL, their explanation was that "we have copies of that", I'm like but what if there is a discrepancy during the build, you will most likely play the whole "well it's not in the contract" card.... I'd suggest you get them to insert those colour elevations into the contract for piece of mind... Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 166Jul 02, 2012 4:06 pm Thanks tengals. Will definitely push them for it. ............. Just got informed our contracts wont be ready until tomrorow. They mentioned they won't have enough time to update the colour selection and we need to sigh the contract before hand. Is this crazy or is it me? How can I sign a contract before getting the document right? They also mentioned changes to the tender document (most likely a price rise) fooken hell *exscuse me* Cheers Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 167Jul 02, 2012 4:14 pm namweng Thanks tengals. Will definitely push them for it. ............. Just got informed our contracts wont be ready until tomrorow. They mentioned they won't have enough time to update the colour selection and we need to sigh the contract before hand. Is this crazy or is it me? How can I sign a contract before getting the document right? They also mentioned changes to the tender document (most likely a price rise) fooken hell *exscuse me* Cheers oh dear, how this brings back so so so many memories...... we were in exactly the same position as you are in now.... and the response was the same. I informed them I refuse to sign the contracts until they are complete. simple as that. I wasted 3 weeks going back and forward with 2 sets of documents, until they finally fixed the stuff and included what was needed. even then there had been 3 post contract variations..... it still amazes me how volume builders seem to think - we think it's all ok and the norm, we do it everyday. Well, reality check, WE DONT DO IT EVERYDAY, so how about embracing your customer that is about to spend 400K with you, and holding our hands, providing a level of customer service, understanding and patience, to ultimately make us comfortable and relaxed that we have made the right decision to go with you. Then guess what, when we are happy in our finished home, how about we tell all of our friends how amazing you were to deal with, how understanding you were, how accommodating you had been and how you made us building our first ever home just the greatest experience ever. How about we tell all the family and friends that are looking to build to go with you and these are the reasons you are miles ahead of your other competitors.... for some reason, they just dont seem to get that. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 168Jul 03, 2012 12:38 am tengals namweng Thanks tengals. Will definitely push them for it. ............. Just got informed our contracts wont be ready until tomrorow. They mentioned they won't have enough time to update the colour selection and we need to sigh the contract before hand. Is this crazy or is it me? How can I sign a contract before getting the document right? They also mentioned changes to the tender document (most likely a price rise) fooken hell *exscuse me* Cheers oh dear, how this brings back so so so many memories...... we were in exactly the same position as you are in now.... and the response was the same. I informed them I refuse to sign the contracts until they are complete. simple as that. I wasted 3 weeks going back and forward with 2 sets of documents, until they finally fixed the stuff and included what was needed. even then there had been 3 post contract variations..... it still amazes me how volume builders seem to think - we think it's all ok and the norm, we do it everyday. Well, reality check, WE DONT DO IT EVERYDAY, so how about embracing your customer that is about to spend 400K with you, and holding our hands, providing a level of customer service, understanding and patience, to ultimately make us comfortable and relaxed that we have made the right decision to go with you. Then guess what, when we are happy in our finished home, how about we tell all of our friends how amazing you were to deal with, how understanding you were, how accommodating you had been and how you made us building our first ever home just the greatest experience ever. How about we tell all the family and friends that are looking to build to go with you and these are the reasons you are miles ahead of your other competitors.... for some reason, they just dont seem to get that. I couldn't have put that better! Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 169Jul 03, 2012 9:36 am We just emailed our admin and specifically stated we are NOT going to sign the contract if there is incorrect/missing information. Our contract signing is tomorrow though... we have taken annual leave for it. Do you think it's a wise idea to just sign it as long as there is a written clause in there stating things like? Not stated in contract 'Door to be this colour' 'There is to be feature wall tile along shower' 'Bench needs to change from white to black' etc There is also a few mistakes in the drawing. I believe this does not get recitified on the drawing date. Can we just illustrate it on the diagram and sign the damn thing? Honestly we are so over this ............ Its been a 4 month process so far. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 170Jul 03, 2012 10:10 am namweng ::angry:: We just emailed our admin and specifically stated we are NOT going to sign the contract if there is incorrect/missing information. Our contract signing is tomorrow though... we have taken annual leave for it. Do you think it's a wise idea to just sign it as long as there is a written clause in there stating things like? Not stated in contract 'Door to be this colour' 'There is to be feature wall tile along shower' 'Bench needs to change from white to black' etc There is also a few mistakes in the drawing. I believe this does not get recitified on the drawing date. Can we just illustrate it on the diagram and sign the damn thing? Honestly we are so over this ............ Its been a 4 month process so far. as said before, IDENTICAL situation we were in. and yep ours is going on 5 months now and no action onour block yet. signing it is really upto you, im sure things will get rectified, but honestly once they have your deposit, if there are any indiscretions down the track to finalise the paperwork, you could end up in a s%^tfight about who is right or wrong and most likely you will get stung with further costs. Maybe im just over cautious (so my admin tells me) , but seriously from all the stories you have read and heard, rarely do you ever hear of "windfalls" in our favour. Its always geared towards the builders side. Bottom line is, they have had so long to prepare and make sure drawings, inclusions, colour selections etc are within the final contracts, but yet they still try and make you sign something that is incomplete or not up to scratch. I took 3 days off work over 3 weeks for exactly the same reason. So i feel your pain. I would do this. Email your admin back and get her to prepare TODAY the fixes in variations. They will not have time to re-order contracts, but they can prepare variations that fix the missing/wrong parts of the contract. They should be able to alter the colour document at the contract appointment (they did with us) regarding a colour correction etc. raising a variation takes like 5 mins. so there is really no excuse that they cannot do it today and email you the variations in preparation for tomorrows contract signing. Look, again it's up to you, but for me, it's a very important stage and I was not willing to "trust" word of mouth or take any risks. Im sorry that this has happened to you, because I know exactly how frustrated and dis-heartened you feel right now. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 171Jul 03, 2012 11:36 am You are right tengals. It is better to be late than sorry. I think I will be happy to sign the contract as long as it clearly states what's missing and what is to be added. We just got our contract delivered as of 10 minutes ago to my fiance's workplace. It will be a long night tongiht for us to go through all the paperwork/contract. Do you have any other advice/tips before tomorrow's signing? That would be great if they can update the colour doco during tomorrow's meeting. This is very much appreciated. =) Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 174Jul 04, 2012 6:07 pm we dont have building permits yet, nor can we even get a straight answer from Henley as to when we can expect them. I have asked clearly 3 emails to them just asking for an expected wait time/date and you think I can get a reply to my question?.....not a chance...., all i get in reply after hounding daily emails is "the permits have not been received yet." Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 175Jul 04, 2012 7:25 pm Hey tengals our contracts went ok. It took about two hours as we had to reselect a few items. We were told our basin couldn't go with wall mounted taps and we had to upgrade which cost us around 1k. We made a few changes to the lighting plan. They promised to update everything before the final contract. We have the list signed so we feel a little safer. It's all about loan approval and demolishing now. Let's hope the council will approve it without too much modifications. We were also promised odd number of steps it's a feng shui thing. Do you know the display at sela dra rise is the standard 2.57 ceiling height? At the display there were 15 steps but our drawings show 16. Cheers Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 177Jul 05, 2012 10:22 am well admin just called, and gave me the run-around regarding permits etc.... cant give me times, details nothing, just a load of jargon babble, energy this, engineering that, drafting this blah blah, they still continue to blame the developer for all this. LOL This is turing into a nightmare....and we havnt even started yet. I will say this, given my time again there is no way I would have committed to them. We have friends of ours who signed in the same estate about 2 months prior to us with another volume builder, who are nearly at handover!!!! It is just shocking in my book and I'm far from impressed. Apparently the job hasn't been ordered yet, the energy hasn't been completed blah blah, So where we stand at the moment - Is we have absolutely no idea when our build will begin, start or even be close to that stage. Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 178Jul 06, 2012 6:38 am In fairness though, if the developer hadn't of insisted that you change your facade, twice, you would probably be on your way already. As for the building permits, I think that's something that's handled by the council? We were fortunate in that our council were extremely quick with ours (Was done in a couple of days), but I know of some people who had to wait 3 odd weeks to get theirs. It really annoys me the developer being able to dictate your facade thing. Who gives a crap if a couple of houses look similar? Are they going to cover the costs to change a facade? Not cheap doing that! Anyway, look forward to following your tale. Hopefully it gets started soon. We built with Henley, and honestly, we found them fantastic. Chin up Land Deposit - 18/12/2009 Became a land Baron - 21/12/2010 Site Start - 27/1/2011 All moved in!! Re: Building the Sahara Q1 by Henley - Our Blog 180Jul 09, 2012 10:09 am destiny No one knows the pain like the bearer. I eagerly await your happy moments when the slab and frames go up me too..... Im hoping this week is a better one and we can see some light at the end of the tunnel..... Hi, If you give a set of criteria as to what means 'good' to you, it'll give others prompts to respond. We considered Henley early on but there were two factors that… 1 10509 You have mandatory building inspections and privately engaged building inspections. The difference between the two comes down to inspecting the building so it's safe and… 3 18065 Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39719 |