The court found Metricøn's brochures misrepresented the regular and sale prices of homes, and gave false impressions of build times and upgrade packages.
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My first impression here is that this will have an effect on all building companies to tighten their adherence to advertising regulations. It will be interesting to see if and how brochures and other publications are changed by builders to avoid the ACCC wrath.
We certainly picked our original house design from another company based on the 'base price' which is not even close to factoring in the build costs that simply must be there for even the simplest build. Whilst it was a very attractive base price, the value for money goes out the window once you add the practical costs.
Although, usually nobody actually signs anything until they see a much more realistic price, so this might be considered a heavy handed decision? Then again by that point a lot of people are pot-committed because of the initial deposit to initiate the contract and site surveys.