Better Building Price’s clients are not alone when under construction. However the following home buyers assumed they would be OK to engage a builder on their own.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Following consumer comments copied off the internet have not been modified “in any way” except the name of “THAT”  builder “THAT” consumer dealt with being changed to “X”.

Good: Strong branding and marketing, helpful sales staff and pre-start consultants make the initial part of the building process enjoyable.

The Bad: Construction experience is simply very average. Trades not adequately supervised and the motto ‘build every home as if it were your own’ goes out the window once construction starts. Construction issues shortly become your issues once the process begins.

Overall: Don’t be wowed by the strong advertising and marketing budget, my experience with Builder X is of a very average home builder that is not committed to quality workmanship or customer service. Builder X has a strong brand that it hides behind though charges a premium price for a very average product. I have had numerous issues during the construction process, including; crooked walls, shoddy tiling, window frames hanging out, leaking plumbing, many damaged fixtures and fittings, plans not followed and the list goes on and on. When I asked for it all to be rectified the arguments started and the relationship went sour. What happened to ‘building every home as if it were your own’??? Do yourself a favour and shop around. Don’t be fooled by their strong marketing budget.  A hard lesson to lean.

The Good: We are still thinking about what is good about Builder X!

The Bad: Where does one start? We signed up in January 2010. Plans approved August 2010. Waited another six weeks for “scheduling” to commence. We don’t expect to be in before May 2011. Nearly 18 months since we first signed up. In the meantime we are paying thousands of dollars each month in interest on a bridging loan. No communication. Don’t believe anything the sales reps say. Get it in writing. Our sales person and the Sales Manager left so there was nothing from their end in writing to what we were promised, let alone copies of our changes to room layout and contents within the kitchen and ensuite. Took us seven weeks to get a response from [name censored] himself regarding major issues we had with his company. We wish that we built with someone else but as we signed up we are at the mercy of this company.

Overall: Would not recommend them to anyone. At least we understand the principles and some of the issues with building a new home. (ASSUMED) We pity first home buyers and those who don’t understand what is involved in building a home. We expect at least another six months of sleepless nights wondering what Builder X will do to OUR home during the actual building phase. It appears the company can win a X award for its homes. Maybe Builder X should include an award for SERVICE to its customers!

The Good: There are no Pro’s in dealing with Builder X Homes

The Bad: the constant delays, the paperwork they say submitted but not, the way they attempt to charge extra after contracts already signed. Lack of communication

Overall: Know one knows. They continually blame the council for delays then I find out they have not submitted paperwork, Initial salesman was great but since he left has totally become a nightmare. Only experience worse is the Death of my son. Will NEVER recommend to anyone. EVER. Now trying to back out of agreements made with previous salesperson, saying they don’t have those agreements in writing, funny how they have lost that particular paperwork. Seems they have lost any of the paperwork that means a no charge extra that was included in my contract, can’t make opinion on the actual build as they have still not started. Disgusting customer service, no communication unless customer forces the issue.

The Good: The sales consultant was very helpful and knowledgeable and tried to help as much as he could.

The Bad: Given incorrect info/ prices, having to argue/question every variation cost and provisional costs went so high. I contested every variation costing they gave me and told if I kept delaying or changing my mind I would be charged an extra fee. I had 3 different new home administrators as they left or moved all telling me different prices, variations etc. Two of them showed a lack of experience and knowledge and could never get hold of them when I tried and didn’t return my calls. They leave as many options as possible out of the initial costing so that they can charge ridiculous amounts for the variations. They made mistakes on variations and changed the plans and when I questioned it was told it had to be done that way, if I wanted it any other way it will cost me, this was 3 different plans into the process, I was never consulted or given options, it was just done and I had to sign the variation or be charged again. It was their sales consultant that drew it this way in the beginning, which we agreed upon. They bully you into signing the variations and then you end up with something not quite how you want it and costing a ridiculous amount. My house has gone so far over budget and I still have to do things on completion that they didn’t include.

Overall: The sales staff are great, but once you’ve signed you get hit with extra costings which should be basic inclusions and no-one informs you until there’s no turning back. The lack of communication/options is disgraceful and I was told I was a difficult client because I questioned every charge and told them to justify it. My house has only just started being built so hopefully it will get better. If I could do it again I would go with another builder.

The Good:?

The Bad:?

Overall: We have been waiting for our home for three years we still have a whole in the alfresco area, a verandah coming away from the house wall, and so mush more. They told us we could move in three months ago and they would fix the problems. We told them that the hot water system is not hooked up. Three months we have been telling them about the hot water and it was only fixed one week ago. So they say we can move in now ………..its a 700,000 dollar home and we are moving in with a half painted house , a hole in the roof, ect……..now we have to take legal acts….all those ads about how good

The Good: Nil

The Bad: Builder X owner should stand behind his product like his adverts say!

Overall: Looks like we are heading the same way as the other reviews! Waited 3 months for a slab and now 4 weeks for brickies to turn up! Trying to talk to a manager is like looking for a needle in a haystack! Worst decision we have ever made!

The Good:?

The Bad:?

Overall: I have recently built with Builder X and found them to be completely unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. The most problematic aspect of Builder X is they consistently failed to honour the terms of the contract, and are now overdue in time. They appear to have taken on too many new projects. Issues for example included: they literally had to do almost everything twice: retaining wall trench put in wrong place (and tried to charge me for it), roof alignment incorrect, screwed up site works, a sewer pipe now runs in main bedroom roof space, brickwork on my workshop was first 28 c then 25 c then 28 c, installed plastic pipe instead of copper, kitchen was installed as antique white vinyl using Polytech, was supposed to be new antique white using Laminex – 8 week delay while they redid it, laundry room shower was to be frameless, put in semi-frameless, now replacing with frameless, Installed the wrong range hood, ordered the wrong oven; initially installed the wrong gutters; they allowed concrete to spill on to the lower floor face brick; all the windows are loose in the walls – frame heads were never fixed (presently being fixed); most of the X company windows have leaked over winter due to rain (trying to fix this as well); recommended Classical Stone for granite bench top – they cut it wrong, redid it three times.

The Managing Director of Builder X told me to get in my car an f**k off (yes this was direct copy off text off the internet from the consumer) when I visited their offices to complain about contract breaches and the mendacity of the site supervisor (also a company director).

In all, perhaps the most unpleasant two years of my life, all compliments of Builder X.

The Good: Absolutely NOTHING!

The Bad: Builder X is USELESS! The staff are rude and arrogant, and believe that the customer is always WRONG. God help you when you need to get a problem rectified (and trust me, if you build with this company you will need to get many, many problems fixed, as you obviously don’t know anything about what your house should look like, or the quality of the fittings. After finally getting our house (not without being threatened first by the Construction Manager) we have had to have cupboard doors replaced as the vinyl wrap peeled off, sinks replaced that were installed chipped and broken, and we still have several thousand dollars worth of outstanding maintenance not completed, and I don’t like our chances of it being fixed after 2 years… We have simply given up.

Overall: STAY AWAY FROM Builder X – they take your money and don’t deliver. If you want to spend a lot of money and be treated like a fool, then go right ahead and build with them.

The Good: ?

The Bad: Liars!!! Workers onsite that “pretend” they are qualified in their trade and quite clearly could not organise or build a simple cubby house let alone a house….that’s if they ever show up!! The supervisors have no control over anyone or anything…why….because they also never show up!!

Overall: Do yourself a favour and avoid having your life turned upside down for the next few years. The stress of dealing with this company is simply not worth it at all….dealing with them is equivalent to slamming your head against the wall every day of the week.

The Good: None. Worst builder in the country.

The Bad: A sad experience from start to finish. A gloss new ad campaign will do little to fix a company culture which is based on complete contempt for the client. Don’t even expect that the company owners are interested in fixing issues because they couldn’t care less and as a result neither does the rest of the organisation.

Overall: POOR VALUE, SHOCKING SERVICE, SLOW, DISORGANISED, BAD QUALITY. You don’t always get what you pay for. Don’t say you haven’t been warned! STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!

The Good: Building Supervisor is good – thank god!

The Bad: They will rip you off. Terrible to deal with.  Would pull out now if I could.

Overall: Have had the worst experience with this company. Will not go into specifics of our case but we are having to go to arbitrator to resolve a dispute. Would not reccommend to my enemies.

The Good: Absolutely NOTHING to like about this company.

The Bad: Absolutely EVERTHING, they are dishonest, have absolutely no right to claim they build exclusive luxury homes as the majority of the quality of work is a disgrace. The cheapest builders in town would beat the quality easily of this overpriced company. Never received returned phone calls, emails or letters. The supervisor was an absolute arrogant, sexist pig and that was after only meeting with him about 3 or 4 times over the entire build of 3 years. I don’t think he realised what the word “supervisor” actually meant as he was never at my site, never answered his phone and when I did manage to get a message to him about problems he always responded through to the office that any issues had been fixed when quite obviously he had not even been on site to check.

Overall: I am a pretty calm, easy going person however this company has put me through the most stressful period of my entire life!!!  but if you are thinking about building through any of these Builder X companies do yourself a favour before signing anything, ask them to give you the names of at least 5 people they have built houses for in the past 1-2 years (especially under the Builder X name) and I will think you will find they will make some excuse not to supply you with any names at all. Make your own mind up from that. I researched them on the internet before signing and found nothing years ago, now I wish I had got references first!!

The Good: Good specifications and some good plans

The Bad: Communication is zero – you’ll never get through to your liaison and don’t hold your breath for a call-back either. Lack of information on what to expect and the fact that one hand doesn’t seem to know what the other is doing.

Overall: Sales experience was fantastic – after sale not so much. The house looks like a factory second filled with numerous imperfections which although minor has killed the buzz of a new home within a week. Driveway is an embarrassing mess and grouting looks like a child has done it

The Good: Absolutely nothing, maybe the little cupcakes they have in reception!

The Bad: Like many others, they are very approachable, nice and helpful before you sign up but that all changes once they’ve got your signature on paper! Their charges for variations are exuberant. The home administrators are pedantic and very unhelpful. Mistakes and errors from their part end up costing the client. They lie and try to cover up for their mistakes and errors. They take forever to submit plans to shires. Unless you’re on the ball and keep checking up on your house during construction then things don’t get done properly. You have to keep prodding their behinds, like cattle, for them to hurry and to attempt to get things corrected and done. First bits of construction get done quickly (walls, roof), expect major delays after the lock up stage. From lock up it is at least 3 months before you get your house. And once you are in, expect to find structural errors pretty much everywhere!

Overall: Expect mistakes and errors internally in the office and with construction. Expect to be treated like a cash machine (they think clients poop money). Expect your house to have unfix-able errors. Expect your dream house to be a nightmare in the making. If you can, run, run away! Avoid them like the plague!!!!

The Good: Design and specifications.

The Bad: Supervisor, lack of customer relations during building process.

Overall: I believe Builder X have their designs right and match these with a high level of specifications. Where the whole process is let down is during construction. There was a lack of supervision during the building which is highlighted by lots of mistakes and poor finishes. Friends who also built with Builder X have recently been moved into a hotel and had their furniture put in storage while the company sort out the mess with their ceilings and plastering. I guess this says that Builder X are aware of issues the company has with workmanship and quality standards. We had a number of workmanship issues; things installed incorrectly or wrong fittings used and the lack of customer relations by the supervisor and client liaison meant that the onus was on us to have all these issues rectified. All in all we are reasonably satisfied with our home now. Next time we will not be contracting Builder X. I feel that we really did not receive what we paid for and what was sold to us as a quality home.

The Good: I like my plan

The Bad: Overprices, lots of construction issues, badly supervised traded, didn’t live up to its claims

Overall: overall we were very disappointed with Builder X and their standard of quality and workmanship. The process started out well with helpful design and sales staff but the process fell apart once construction started. Like all project builders, its more about volume than quality and reading the reviews on this website it sound like pot luck if you manage to come out of it with a decent home. We had a number of issues, some major, some minor, overall I found Builder X would only come to the party once you’re turned up the pressure and threatened taking matters further. Maybe one reason why they claim to have minimal disputes in the Commission. Personally I’d save the money and go with a smaller company that was more committed to quality and delivered value for money.

The Good: Design, display homes.

The Bad: Impersonal service, slack supervisor

Overall: Overall I wasn’t that impressed with Builder X. Pretty typical of a project builder I guess though disappointing as they are not cheap. We had a number of issues, a lot have been sorted out after perseverance, and I’m still trying to get others fixed

The Good: Floor plan

The Bad: Poorly supervised trades, poor finishing, lack of customer service

Overall: I believe Builder X are having internal issues and are not the quality company they used to be. Friends built with Builder X and are finding it impossible to have cracked walls and ceilings repaired. My experience is of a builder with a near enough is good enough attitude, nothing like I was led to believe would be the case. Crooked walls, crooked ceilings, paving, leaking taps, damaged door and window frames, crooked tiling, and are sure their painter tries to save money by only doing a single coat where he can get away with it. Overall very disappointed, a lot of wasted energy and stress trying to sort things out and when it all got too hard they just left me to deal with the trades direct. One of my worst experiences.

The Good: Display homes

The Bad: Poor workmanship, unsupervised trades, difficult to deal with over difficult issues, lack of communication.

Overall: I am very disappointed with my Builder X experience. We have had a number of workmanship issues that has taken all my time and effort to remedy. Staff and Builder X seem to want to just churn houses out. Mine was presented to me without being cleaned, with holes in walls, holes in the ceiling, unfinished work, missing fittings, shoddy tiling, lights hanging out of the roof and the list goes on. I was led to believe that I was signing with a premium builder but have been left with nothing but stress and heartache. If you are building your new home, please please look around before settling on a builder. That’s the best advice I can give.

The Good: They have a good reputation if you are looking to sell, if you want a home to live in though either go somewhere that is committed to quality or employ your own supervisor to oversee the project.

The Bad: Read the fine print. Look around at other project builders there is better value for money out there.

Overall: They’re not the worst but I certainly wouldn’t recommend them. My brother is building at the moment and I told him to look around as I didn’t really think Builder X was very good value for money. The specs look great on paper but the quality of workmanship and attention to details is of the standard you would expect of a much cheaper project builder.

The Good: I now have a great looking house after spending thousands of dollars fixing all the things wrong with it that I was left with!

The Bad: This website! I just wish I had have read all your reviews before I built with them.

Overall: Wow with such a difference between reviews it would seem that Builder X really does have some serious internal problems. I just wish I found this site before I signed up to build with them. Friends tell me that they used to be a good company and build quality homes, but I’d never touch them again or recommend their services. I had a house plagued with issues, some structural some just a total lack of attention to detail due to poor supervision. My home was delayed over six months in an attempt to try and fix everything. I found them unhelpful, uncommunicative and I was left to contract further trades to fix all the stuff ups!! Never again Builder X. I could see how people without a good attention to detail could be happy with the end result; they are masters at covering up their shoddy workmanship.

The Good: Nice designs and helpful sales staff aid in the design stages and promise a design and building second to none.

The Bad: uninformed and unhelpful construction liaison staff. A lot of issues could have been avoided if staff were committed to building a quality home like Builder X promises.

Overall: I too would agree that Builder X provides an inferior product for one of X so called premium builders. Overall the finish was simply shocking. Too many issues to list and unacceptable for a ‘premium builder’ that advertises to pride themselves on craftsmanship and quality. I strongly advise an independent inspection prior to completion to arm you for the fight ahead to just get what you paid for.

The Good: Office staff, such as Pre start and customer liaison were helpful & knew their job.

The Bad: The supervision of their trades let them down; a lot of faults could be avoided if this was carried out, as was the case in our home.

Overall: Overall, finish was quite poor, would suggest to have a building inspector accompany yourself (if Building) on practical completion to ensure it is finished to Australian standards and to the meet the high standards that Builder X promise in their advertising.

The Good: They are very quick to get back to you on questions and sending out information.

The Bad: Looked at their display home, had leaks in the roof, cracked tiles in the shower, the finish was not up to scratch and this is a 4 year old house on DISPLAY.

Overall: Nice homes but the quality is not there to finish it off. You would think they would have their display homes finished off properly as this is what people go by. When you are going to spend 400 thousand upwards you want the job done properly.

The Good: Nothing good to say.

The Bad: Problems started with the slab, they made it to small so the internal bricks are sitting on the slab and a brick cut in half around the entire house. They had to cut a section 3.5mx1m and repin it to the slab. The footings for the verandah posts are 3 coarse down instead of 2 so the posts are too short, they welded extra bits of metal to make them fit. They under ordered for the roof so another delay waiting for materials and the tradesmen to finish. The electrician missed the light switch for the kitchen so more delays waiting for him to come back so the plastering can start. The entrance is still a mess with brickwork not finished and no bricks after the site was cleaned up, more delays. We are on our third supervisor so i have to explain to him what’s going on because he won’t have a clue, supervisor number two was going to get the house back on track but that didn’t happen. Builder X rang about 6 weeks ago saying the house would be finished early X, will be lucky if it’s finished by X. This is the 5th builder i have used and they are the worst.

Overall: Terrible builder, all talk and very little action. Every trade’s person they have used so far has had to come back fix problems. I was close to going to another builder after they got the house plans wrong and took so long getting them corrected.  They have so much to finish I hate to think how much worse it’s going to be.

The Good: The house design

The Bad: The service if that’s what its called

Overall: They say stick with your gut instinct. Unfortunately I didn’t and have been regretting it ever since. Our sales rep was useless. If he didn’t know the answer for something it just went into his too hard basket and he didn’t bother to follow up or get back to us. Just basic stuff. It took almost 5 months from our initial signing with him to get to prestart. Only because we threatened to pull out were we passed onto someone else. Who I might add was really helpful and started to give us a little short lived confidence. Our first client officer was also great, but these two people have since left and we have a new client officer who is unreliable, has no idea what she is talking about and seems to make things up as she goes. Extremely frustrating as there seems to be no one else that you can talk to except her. On the plus side, the work that has been done seems good apart from a few little things which hopefully will get sorted. Never would I build with them again nor would I recommend them.

The Bad: Supervisor never picked up on any problems through the build unless we informed them… Lucky we only lived around the corner to check the work at each stage. Felt like the supervisor was unexperienced in the building industry and isn’t interested in the job either.

Overall: We were happy with the house design. Very happy with the salesman, and very happy with the pre-start. From then on it has gone to moosh. We are doing the supervisors job with checking the work at each stage. The chippies made a wrong cut in the face brick and it took them 3+ weeks and 2 phone calls to fix the cut in which they boggied it up. They didn’t even use the original bricklayer to fix the brickwork.. We have told them that we are not accepting the patch up and are now waiting on the results of that. The supervisor crossed out the peer rods at the front of the house (which was not allowed because that is what hold the roof down) and they had to patch that up… We only found out cause we spoke to the brick layer and he informed us NOT content and they still have not informed us about it either. They had to make a change to out original plans to fix the problem but if we were to make a change it would cost us 350 dollars. And this is a change we aren’t suppose to know about either. I have spoken to a couple of the contractors who are working at the house and they tell me that when they do see the supervisor he is driving past in his car..(What they call a drive by check).

The Good: Still thinking!

The Bad: Can’t complain about the service – ‘There is none’

Overall: We waited nearly 10 weeks for our plans after they had been put aside, couldn’t get prices to even find out if we could afford this house. Only once they wanted us at pre-start did they by miracle pull some figures from somewhere. We haven’t yet gone to pre-start, and we are not getting much help out of our sales rep so I decided to call the Sales Manager. After being bounced around the office by the office staff I finally managed to leave a message for the Sales Manager to call me regarding my disapproval of our sales rep and the service we were receiving. Waited a week, and he didn’t even bother to ring me. We won’t be building with this builder.

The Good: Big homes. Value for money.

The Bad: Bad control over trades. Had to really push to get house completed to a standard we wanted. Excessive time to complete house from lock up.

Overall: We have finished up with a good quality house and value for money; however it was very stressful to get there. In the end I felt like we had to supervise the build. At practical completion we discovered wrong toilets had been installed, mitred tiling not done, external painting was very poor, roof not tied down properly plus numerous other items that should have been picked up before practical completion. Two weeks after practical completion very little had been done by builder to remedy these faults so we had to have a tantrum to get one of the bosses at Builder X to take some action. Still even then it took another week to fix everything. The final thing that left a real sour taste in our mouth was after we paid the final payment we were advised that the coffee machine that was part of the upgrade package we had would not be available until the end of June. To me this sums up our experience with Builder X. Overall we are giving them 2 out of 5, this could easily have been higher if they were better organised and had better quality controls.

The Good: The way they suck u in

The Bad: they may build beautiful houses but their service is S***… and for us it started from the salesman, then getting to pre start it gets worst because of the lack of communication between the salesman and the pre start people, then you get the the building supervisor who says that he is just a sales man what does he know, then u get all the hidden costs…. finally suming it out as a jerry built house…. and for one house how many liaison officers do u really have to go through?… we have been through 4 in 5 months

Overall: Check with the suppliers with whom you see to make sure the products you have ordered are in stock and delivered on time….as we have had to change the tiles because they were not is stock when we ordered them 6 months earlier…same as the pavers 4 weeks before key hand over we received a letter saying they were discontinued we then found out by a person that it was discontinued 6 months ago and we were on informed 4 weeks ago… none of the pavers matched our house colours and wanted to talk to the boss of Builder X…it took him over a week to contact us back, then he said he will call us back 2 – 3 days later, he got the liaison officer to call back instead, after we told him that we only wanted to talk to him only. because we are sick of hearing so many stories from the salesman to the building supervisor to the liaison officers…to sum it up the comment that was made we have your money now it is to late you have to go through with… the lack of knowledge and communication from the salesman to prestart to the building supervisor…the most offensive and humiliating comment that was said to us was when we asked for a capped off electricity supply to the back yard. (Future shed), at prestart they did not understand what a capped off power supply was until they spoke to someone in a different department, they came back to us asking if it was for a drug lab. What do they know about building? be careful make sure you read every thing before going through with them if u decide to go through with them after reading all these bad reviews… it will be built eventually make sure u push them to get it done properly not botched jobs and seeing the house once a week every week helps you find all the things wrong with the house and write down every thing you see so you can tell the building supervisor… make sure you get legal advise before signing any contracts…. GOOD LUCK

The Good: Nothing

The Bad: Everything

Overall: Builder X has sent me a letter stating that they do not wish to enter into a contract with me and have refunded my deposit. On the upside, my blood pressure has returned to normal and my hair is growing back. Good luck to all people wanting to build houses in X state. I sincerely hope your experiences are better than mine!

The Good: Nothing!

The Bad: It took 2 months for the salesman to get an idea of what I wanted and 5 months to draw up a plan. The price has also mysteriously risen by about 12 thousand dollars and the salesman won’t return any calls. The only number and email address advertised for Builder X is the one that gets you to the sales office. Go figure!

Overall: I would seriously rather lose a limb than have to deal with Builder X!

The Good: None.

The Bad: Possibly the worst experience of our lives. I have been in the building industry all my life, commercial and residential, I found Builder X to be totally shoddy in some of their work practices and supervision. The construction manager was totally arrogant and did not know how to deal with people’s problems. I would not recommend Builder X to build a toilet and pass with flying colours.

Overall: One star for some good workmanship. Minus 4 stars for totally shoddy workmanship. My overall opinion of Builder X is depressive in thought as to deal with people who are supposed to have a five star rating. I asked their construction manager on many occasions who gives the five star rating and quality assurance. He could not tell me and to this day still can’t tell me.

The Good: Have some really good designs.

The Bad: Too slow when drawing up the plan took us 8 months and we still haven’t got a final plan yet. Too much hiding cost, the plan we originally sign up was only $148k, then 8 months later the price is already 210k and that’s not even the final price.

Overall: They do have some good design and the people are very nice when you talk to them. But the thing is it too them forever to get anything done. The people who draw up the plan for us are not responsible at all. They will show us the plan they draw and tell us this plan the council won’t approve and not even give any suggestion. I mean what kind of customer service is this? If you know the plan wont work, then why don’t you tell us before you spend 4 weeks to draw it? Then when we say we want to change the plan, the guy told us we need to it at pre-start. We called them 3 times to ensure if we can do changes at prestart and they said Yes. So we waited 2 weeks for the pre start, but at the prestart the lady told us we can’t do any changes!! My friend brought a block 1 month after me and now their house is already lock up. But with Builder X we haven’t even get our final plan yet. The price went up from 148k to 210k already.

The Good: Value for money per SQ metre, nice designs, economical on before contract changes to design.

The Bad: The contract is completely biased to them and in my opinion is outside of the building act and legislation. You will have absolutely no “contractual claim” against them for delays, hidden costs, extending the time to build, and costs associated with the extension of time. After sales service is disgraceful and forget about a “defects liability period” you may as well fix it yourself.

Overall: Workmanship is poor, communication is poor, salesman won’t want to know you after the deal is done! Rectification work is poor; you cannot get through to any one of authority to resolve matters.

The Good: good price for the size of the house

The Bad: poor workmanship, they need to inspect their work closer. Low quality fittings such as bathroom drainers, basin drainers all plastic. Even a very slight change that was over looked prior to signing they won’t change unless you pay $350 dollars. Will try to avoid fixing a problem that was clearly a mistake on their part by trying to convince you it had to be done that way for whatever reason, ect ect, don’t fall for this, their mistake they must correct it, all builders must follow the building code standard and are held accountable for faulty work for up to 6 years after construction. Check the Items you change or add prior to final plan signing, as they forgot to change my shelfing on the kitchen even though it was stated on the variation documents.

Overall: Worse than I thought, this is my second home I have built, but my first with Builder X. Problems I had were, bow and cracks in the front door frame, bubble in the main door. Various cracks in cornices in bedrooms and living rooms, cracks in the house slab in 2 bedrooms and living area, front of the house fascia is not straight, pillars in the carport had to be re-done as 4 of them were not straight, wall knocked down in bathroom, almost 2 inches out, front entry collum’s not centred inch out had to be knocked down and re done, various scratches on all window frames, no protective plastic left on them, payed extra for 2 full height cupboards above bench in the kitchen however, they are 40mm shorter than they should be and also not straight with each other. Outside brick on the patio wall was sticking out quite a lot more than the rest, had to be re-moved. Various small gaps/cracks on some of the outside wall bricks which should of been filled in more.

The Good: Cheap and that’s about it

The Bad: They use the cheapest trades around so with it comes cheap workman ship. The building supervisor does not notice when walls do not measure correct, (50mm out) and when ceilings are not level. And when something is brought to there attention they try and think of ways around the problem instead of fixing it. You have to go around and check every thing your self. I’m at the stage now where i may as well done owner build because it’s up to me to find all the mistakes. There are bricks that are not level walls not square ceiling not level mortar missing between bricks, and i have to go around and point these out to the supervisor!

Overall: Do not build with this builder! There has to be better building companies out there who take more pride in there workmanship.

The Good: The house is big and spacious. We get pretty much what we want after we modified the plan here and there. Some of the staff we dealt with are nice and friendly.

The Bad: The workmanship is pretty bad. We have to change lots of thing to upgrade the quality of the stuff. And everything are added with extra cost of course (don’t expect freebies). The sales agent can be nasty to you (raising voice, etc) once you have discrepancies with them. He promised something but not really delivered, so when you ask for it, he started to get nasty (since you have signed the contract with them). Be careful of what you are signing for!!

Overall: The house plan looks good, and the price is affordable for the size. We went to the sales agent who first was very friendly to us. We go through things with him verbally and he wrote something in builder’s terms, so we assume he wrote the one we have discussed about. However, some of the stuff turns up to be different. Since we have signed the contract, we try to change as per discussed with the sales agent, so the prestart lady (which is nice by the way) query it to the sales agent. The sales agent ended up calling us with unhappy tone, try to say that we were wrong, etc. Anyway, we finalized the contract. Once our house ready, we did some inspection, and found the workmanship are pretty bad. Lots of crack here and there. We even have the crack on our concrete floor (concrete slab for our house foundation). We have some independent inspector to check our property and gave the report to supervisor to fix. Our supervisor act really nice at first, tried to persuade us to sign the final handover paper before he fix things, and promised to fix it after we sign the paper. Luckily we rejected to sign it and his tone changed to unhappy tone (no longer friendly). I guess if we have signed the paper before he fix stuff, it will never get done.  We only sign the paper once most of the things fixed (not all fix, as he gives soo many excuses why things can’t be fixed). So be careful to build with this builder. Our house is almost 2 years by now, and it still shown lots of crack here and there with some uneven plaster wall (somehow the cracks re-appear again on the same spot before it get fix, so obviously they didn’t fix it right the firsts time). Well, at least the house is still standing Luckily they are not too expensive.

The Good: They were the cheapest in a bad bunch

The Bad: Took a long time to deliver the plans which now need amending

Overall: Make sure you read what the offer is over and over before signing the contract because they will hold you to it. I missed the fact that they had included a roller door which I specifically asked to be a sectional door at the negotiating stage, so now I have to pay extra to get the door changed, and don’t ask them to do any extra work as that’s where they will stack the price to recover money against the contract. I have found them impossible to budge from their position now that the contract is signed even though the errors in the contract are obvious. Not a good start for a customer/builder relationship.

The Good: Nice designs, practical

The Bad: Unreliable. Sub-contractors unreliable. Things are not completed when promised. Other buildings in the same estate are being completed much faster.

Overall: Wishing we had chosen another builder. Can’t recommended them. Given current progress compared to other builders in the same are, I do not expect this house to be completed on time

The Good:

The Bad:

Overall: Had a very bad experience with Builder X. Bad service from site manager and pre-start manager. Would not want to resolve issues which are clearly their fault, such as they had ordered the wrong cornices and installed them. We complained but they did not want to remove them, asked for credit but they refused. Asked site Manager to be onsite to comment about problems such as damaged walls, spa bath, we made an appointment on site in the morning. He did not turn up and when we called him he did not answer. We called the office and they say he is with another client.

Recently, house had leaks in the roof, turned out to be bad workmanship where they did not cement areas on the roof as they should. We had our insurance company and independent building inspectors evaluate the situation and found that Builder X is at fault with poor workmanship. We complained and ask them to fix the fault, they agreed but until now they had not done anything. The staffs too were not answering/returning calls. They are avoiding us completely.

BAD SERVICE and WORKMANSHIP… be WARNED!!!

The Good:

The Bad:

Overall: We have been extremely disappointed with Builder X and I recommend that you don’t consider building with them. Their Customer Services manager will not even take my calls now and we have to deal with their lawyer. They take forever to response to our letters…. I could go on for hours… Anyways we are waiting for an arbitrator to be appointed by the X so we can get it sorted. Thank God we have a good building supervisor who we trust and who is doing a good job ahead of schedule.

The Good: nothing

The Bad: everything

Overall: my house is a nightmare and has cost thousands of dollars more to get it fixed. Do not deal with these people unless you are desperate.

The Good: That they promised to build in the time they said.

The Bad: Under delivered on there homes/time/cost etc

Overall: Wished I looked elsewhere. The company had only contempt for any of my questions and concerns during construction. Not happy Jan.

The Good: NONE

The Bad: Sub-standard, shoddy workmanship – which they refused to fix. Got the X involved and even with an order to fix over 40 items they still did not fix everything.

Overall: Absolutely hopeless staff in the office and even worse supervisor and “tradesmen”. Avoid this company like the plague! Do not consider using them, you WILL regret it! Cheap and Nasty!

The Good: Nil

The Bad: The Administrator is ok depends on which jobs that you ask her to deal with.

Overall: The house built quite fast at the moment, but the end result lack of supervision of the house, few mistakes while building…the supervisor should be checks and measure all the positions properly before concrete fall and even the brick wall up, the position of the drain not position, end up doing the quick fix job, although kitchen cupboard will be covers it, but the customer already have bad impression already. Missed out prepaid conduit during concrete fall, and asking us to delete it and told us we will not needs the conduit at all…, the bottom point at the prestart meeting, told us we required conduit and will costs $300 to do it, guess what if we delete the conduit, we only get the credit of $30, as the conduit only cost $30 in their book. Why they charged $300 at the first place. Don’t build with

The Good: Absolutely nothing, maybe the little cupcakes they have in reception!

The Bad: Like many others, they are very approachable, nice and helpful before you sign up but that all changes once they’ve got your signature on paper! Their charges for variations are exuberant. The home administrators are pedantic and very unhelpful. Mistakes and errors from their part end up costing the client. They lie and try to cover up for their mistakes and errors. They take forever to submit plans to shires. Unless you’re on the ball and keep checking up on your house during construction then things don’t get done properly. You have to keep prodding their behinds, like cattle, for them to hurry and to attempt to get things corrected and done. First bits of construction get done quickly (walls, roof), expect major delays after the lock up stage. From lock up it is at least 3 months before you get your house. And once you are in, expect to find structural errors pretty much everywhere!

Overall: Expect mistakes and errors internally in the office and with construction. Expect to be treated like a cash machine (they think clients poop money). Expect your house to have unfix-able errors. Expect your dream house to be a nightmare in the making. If you can, run, run away! Avoid them like the plague!!!!

The Good: They made it seem so easy to design and build a house…. what a mistake! Don’t be fooled and don’t get sucked into their ever increasing costs – it is impossible to escape unscathed

The Bad: Take all the reviews so far and we have experienced the same multiplied by 10!

Overall: If I knew then what I know now I would have turned and run in the opposite direction and never got involved with these people

The Good: we have a beautiful home that is our own design

The Bad: where do I begin? This company was a disgrace to deal with from beginning to end. We still have things that are totally unacceptable that they will not fix. They make excuses constantly and then change staff contacts so that you have to start all over again. Very poor customer service. Overall some very shoddy work has been done to our home. Things that cannot be fixed, like the overhead cupboards in the kitchen are not level with the ceiling but because all the tiling and granite is done underneath, cannot be redone so we have sloping cupboards. Or a wall in the entry is totally out by 6 cms so tiling and everything looks wrong. We have a window where the glass is too small for the frame and if you open the window, the glass slips out of the frame, apparently this is not their fault, and not covered under guarantee just like the power point that comes out of the wall when you pull the plug out- the whole square with the plug holes in it. When we asked them to fix it as it is dangerous they just squirted silicon in it in front of me and shoved it back on. Which of course lasted two minutes!

Overall: I would not recommend these people to anyone at all. In fact I would prefer they rebuild our dream home to get it right, but of course that would never happen. The amount of stupid careless mistakes on our house that cannot be repaired is ridiculous and i do not understand how a company can still exist when it produces such inferior product and disgraceful customer service.

The Good: They didn’t charge an individual design fee to come up with a one off concept

The Bad: Where do I start…? They freaked out and threatened not to build the house when we told them our lawyer was reviewing the contract. Cost estimate ran 200k over budget (and the house was not overly large and still had very poor inclusions). They submitted plans to council that we had not approved.

Overall: We terminated the preparation of plans agreement and lost a few thousand dollars. Do not deal with this company. They leave as many options as possible out of the initial costing so that they can charge ridiculous amounts for the variations. We asked to increase the heights of 3 windows to 28 courses and the variation price was 9k!!! My friend did the same with Builder X and was charged $300 per window.

The Good: Nothing

The Bad: Given incorrect info, having to argue every variation cost. Signed up as they were offering a free upgrade offer and after signing up was told they had made a mistake in the offer.

Overall: The most frustrating builder to deal with!! We had included everything in our contract prior to signing up, then once we signed up our provisional costs went sky high in some costs they doubled. We contested every variation costing they gave us. And to top it off on the day that the final plans had to be signed off to start construction we were hit with a variation under their contract clause stating price review. We were told that if we didn’t sign the variation that they will not begin construction on our home. In their contract they only give you 45days from the date that you sign your contract to get all your planning, building, water licence approved. If you exceed 45days (which is not a realistic time frame) they will charge you a “price review”. Apparently this is common with most builders. I would not deal with this builder again. If you’re after personalised service you won’t get it here. Once you sign up you are given a number and this is how you’re treated throughout the whole process!!

The Good: None

The Bad: Will do anything to get you sign, then will issue variation for anything they’ve forgotten along the way.

Overall: Avoid this company at all costs. They will make mistake and try to make you pay. Dispute all variations that arise from their errors, they will even threaten to terminate your contract, stop building to bluff you into signing variations. If you are in this situation seek legal advice and do not let this company bully you.

The Good: Nice house plans

The Bad: No communication.

Overall: I am sure they are not the worst but they are right up there. Building work slow and stop, slab was down for 11 weeks before the bricklayers finally finished. Lost count of how many staff have come and gone. Had an on site meeting and they failed show up. A new building site supervisor has taken over the job and things have picked up a bit, will it continue? Time will tell…My advice!!!! If you have thick skin and can take a laugh build with Builder X.

The Good: Great Sales Rep and product

The Bad: Once sales rep left the company things went wrong. Nobody contacted us and plans were submitted to Shire without us seeing the changes we made. There were structural changes that had not been made which resulted in us having to re-submit at OUR expense! Paid deposit in October 2009 and signed final contract in February 2010 – still waiting for work to start! Were promised a time frame but that passed without any one contacting us to explain the situation. When finally got a call back it was from the Admin Manager who described the building process as “going to get your groceries and when you get home you have forgotten the peas and have to go back to the shop” “this is what happens, things get forgotten and have to be changed”. He then admitted that the delays were not our fault but theirs.

Overall: Poor customer service once they have your deposit. Promise and don’t deliver. Fail to tell you the true situation. Treat you like you know nothing about building even if it is your 5th time!!!! Any attempt to send correspondence or contact Builder X owner is intercepted by managers. They are obviously keeping the negatives from him to cover themselves.

The Good: building time is quite reasonable.

The Bad: the service and how they treat clients, after you signed the contract they treat you very differently, even more after all the money are handed to them, my experience, the double theatre door i got without seeing the image or the real object cost $800 and it’s standard is shocking, i complained about it but they just didn’t want do anything, the excuse i got is that it is standard.

Overall: price per sqm is not too bad at the first glace, but when you go down to the details of what they provide basically, they are just rubbish with good looking wrapping paper.

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The Good: Nothing

The Bad: Builder X is

Overall: The amount of time taken to get to site is an absolute joke!!! Really handy if you want additional interest payments to pile up and to actually move into your home 5 years later. keep up the good work!!!!

The Good: the design

The Bad: the supervisors, trades, warranty work done by people with little experience.

Overall: would never build with Builder X again let me tell you why… after the slab went down and the bricks started to go up so did the problems I came to check because I didn’t hear any progress reports and quite frankly if your handing over $300.000 dollars you want to make sure that your getting exactly what you wanted. #1 on completion of the kitchen we had 400×400 windows to go either side of our oven first time they were put in at 630 mm that’s fine accept our oven was 900mm which was a shock to the supervisor that had the plans, anyway three attempts later they still didn’t match the plan but it was deemed wide enough. Gyprock was to be used for alfresco and garage roof lining but for some reason they rocked up with hardyflex. “PLUMBERS” now the fun begins took them 5 weeks to put the pipe work in and when they did they had already floated the walls, but on the plan we put shower roses to be at 2.0mtrs in height so on inspection they were put in at 1.8mtrs so that had to be changed then the ensuite had a spa so the motor was on the exterior wall down the side of the house where the side access door was from the garage only problem was that when you opened the door you could only open it 80% of the way because they put the motor directly behind it. and all un be known to the supervisor!!! And the list goes on 2yrs later still battling it out trying to get tiles fixed grout replaced cracks in walls checked.

The Good: Stuck to the contract, paid me for contractual breaches

The Bad: Failed to execute the contract correctly; slow front office – took 9 months to get the plans and a building permit; poor workmanship (use the cheapest tradesmen available), supervisors lack appropriate skills management appears to be inherently dishonest

Overall: 1Pros: Stuck to the price and actually paid me for some contractual breaches Overall: I have recently built with Builder X and found them to be completely unsatisfactory for a number of reasons.

The Bad: From the time of signing over 100 working days have passed and they still have not obtained building licences or permits. Enquired that once licences are obtained will they honour contract requirement to start construction within 30 working days and was told no. Due to delays and being stuffed around (i.e. Over charges on variations, missing and late submission of paper work) and not honouring contract time lines have formally advised Builder X of cancellation of contract. Response was less about fixing and recognising that they stuffed up and more about threats that we and any new builder we select cant use the floor plan design (that we gave them the basic outline for) as its copyrighted by them.

Overall: Great plans and then it all went pear shaped rapidly from there to the point of us having to seek legal advice and advising Builder X that we are cancelling the contract. This resulted in us wasting $2000- and even more annoying 6 months trying to get them to stick to the schedules outlined in the contract. We have now started the design and planning phase with a new and smaller company and are being treated as a customer and not just a number. Our second story addition was not a small one as it was valued at well over $300,000-. Will not be recommending them to anyone.

The Good: Home design

The Bad: Had three pre starts due to paperwork being lost! Waited two years to finally get our keys, they tried to put the price up because the contract had expired even though it was from there delays. Disgusting finishes but was told they are acceptable. Unsure if the tradesmen were even qualified! Three supervisors, we had to point out faults because they didn’t even see them (I’m talking about walls in wrong places!) We were told we are too ‘fussy’ when we wanted problems fixed. They accept no responsibility for there faults. Now 4 yrs on we are still having to fix faults ourselves.

Overall: Terrible! Stay away from this building company. Worst decision we made was to choose them to build our home. They are happy to sign you up and take your money but do not deliver on their promises Definitely not quality builders

The Good: Nice design and good floor plan, that is about it

The Bad: Hard to contact, calls never returned, shoddy workmanship, bad tradesmen ship (that is even if they were actually tradesmen!).

Overall: Would NEVER recommend Builder X or any of their associated companies to ANYONE! Still have ongoing problems with our home after three years. We had to go to Building Tribunal to get major faults rectified and this took over 18 months of going backwards and forwards with emails, telephone calls and letters never being answered. Through the whole process had three site supervisors and were fed a complete load of bull……. by each of them. Spent a lot of money on the home but received a very below standard building in return. NEVER build with this company…. NEVER!!!!

The Good: Nothing I can think of. Apart from being very quick with plans.

The Bad: Poor quality of workmanship. General finish, to being able to make things square. Bad structural designs. Slow to repair, and repairs sub standard. Delay tactics to draw repairs past the period for building tribunal action.

Overall: This Company is nothing but trouble, from our experience. They are very quick to make the sale, but as soon as the final handover documents are signed, they don’t want to accept liability or do the minimum work required to repair it. They will do cosmetic repairs instead of fixing the structural problems. If you do sign with them, communicate in writing only, even if they use a phone to return your call, make them respond in writing. Send everything registered post. At the first sign they look like doing something not quite right, contact the builder’s registration board. My recommendation is to find another building company. If I knew who the owners of the company were, I would love to have a face to face chat.

The Good: Nil

The Bad: No customer service, sub-standard workmanship, took over a year for repairs to be fixed and still have on going problems.

Overall: Would not recommend. Builder X is the most incompetent company I have ever dealt with. Was treated like a nothing customer, more so once they received my final payment.

If you are still not convinced after reading the above “small snap shot of complaints on the internet” and having us protect you when building until the day of key hand over – Then we can only wish you the very best of LUCK with you biggest financial investment.

As consumers most of us can handle paying $1000 more for a bad motor vehicle price decision or find we could have bought the flat screen TV for $500 less from another retailer. However when building a home could have you working the next 10 years of your life for “ABSOLUTELY NOTHING” paying off a $50,000 bigger mortgage mistake (plus bank interest) when you could have built the identical same size home and identical inclusions with another top quality builder but you did not shop and use Better Building Prices – The Building Price Negotiators.

The “Home Buyers Knowledge Test” on our “Home Page” will show you your level of building industry knowledge and should convince you if you need to have a professional like BBP on board to protect you while your new home is under construction.