Seeing we got talking to Kurmond again we decided to review our plan one more time. I jumped online and noticed they updated there Strand 39 not only with our changed, but someone else made a smart change to the upstairs ensuite. So we decided to ask for that change also. Peter at Kurmond homes had no issues with that and made the change. See below a quick pic.
The plan of attack moving forward is pretty simple.
- Wednesday we head into Kurmond homes to choose our outside colours. We'll also pick up a building contract and sustainability check sheet so we can get our grant. I'll be talking to Kurmond about timings now with council etc from this point.
- On the June long weekend or there about's we should be able to settle on the land.
For those following my HAF fund issue a bit of an update. We got nowhere, tried a few banks and just decided to cop it on the chin, but with a bit of a fight. We took our complaint all the way up and almost went to the banking ombudsmen. We only stopped before there as we decided we still haven't got final approval on our construction loan and we didn't want to push our luck. We did write to the Minister for Housing and sadly they went and attacked the people at Delfin, rather then the mortgage insurers. That upset Delfin a bit but my point was that the insurers are deducting any grants from the value of the house which makes the grant useless. Good news for us is that we found out we can settle using the grant (so it doesn't even touch our hands) as long as we had a few documents completed and a building contract. This means we no longer have to try and find a shortfall of $9500 and also lose our construction deposit.
the risk now is the bank comes back and does something stupid with the construction loan, I hope not. Also it means we're going to find it tough paying two mortgages towards the en of construction as we planned to use some of the grant to live off. Oh well, they say building isn't easy.
Either way, I'm getting excited again. I live every day dreaming about moving into a home that we can much better call our own. Our current house was a stepping stone, our next is much more for us.
Just came across your blog mate, interested as I am waiting on the valuation from the bank on a lot virtually across the raod from you! Also going to see Kurmond homes this coming Saturday, so will keep a close eye on this :)
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ian
Let me know how you go, would be very interested to know what's happening to others.
ReplyDeleteHi, We are building just around the corner from you on Bonney Cres and also using Kurmond Homes... 33 sqm custom design and found them to be very accommodating... We come across your blog about a month ago... thanks for the heads up about the HAF issue... we let our broker know and its helped with the letting the CBA know what is going on with evaluations... not sure if it will make much difference but hey you never know... hope to see more updates soon =)
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, we're a unique case. The people at Delfin and St Mary's land haven't seen this issue before and haven't had another case like this. We're still investigating what we can do but we're running out of time.
ReplyDeleteHey guys - let me know how you went with the other banks. Perhaps I should see who your contact was at CBA and talk to them directly and see if we can work something out quickly.
ReplyDeleteG'day Mate,
ReplyDeleteJust to let you know, I also had an issue with my block being undervalued (by 17K). I have been told by the mortgage broker and by Delfin that this is quite unique and they haven't really had any issues before. We are appealing the value atm, otherwise will be looking to find another lender. FYI we are using CBA.
Will let you know when I know more.
Hi Luke and Peta
ReplyDeleteI hope by now your dream home is a reality. Just in case anyone who comes across your site is thinking of using Kurmond I need to say - think carefully. We were seduced by the relatively good designs and what appeared to be a good price for them.
It has not been worth it. They are good at the sweet talk until they get your deposit and then the customer service vanishes.
Continual staff changes, I suspect too much work and insufficient systems or staff to cope, lack of attention to detail, easily angered to the point of swearing when dealing with a cranky customer trying to find out why the continual delays, no added customer service dealing with things that come up when building a home like neighbour's builders dumping stuff on your site.
All in all it has been more than 6 months since we paid our deposit and the slab has not been laid.
Think carefully if you are considering using Kurmond. Make sure you have an appetite to manage any delays and disappointments and if you do I am sure that in that case all will be well.
Marina
Hi Marina - where about's are you building? No ours isn't finished yet but we haven't had to many drama's to be honest. I have heard a few people have a few drama's but my friends at Jordan Springs haven't had any issues and I'm spewing because they're now ahead of me and started after me. (I had some delays due to some engineering issues)
ReplyDeleteIn regards to stuff on your lot from your neighbours this ins't your builders responsibility. You need to ring the certifier of the neighbours and complain to them or Delfin/Stockland if you get no satisfaction. I had the same problem and rang the certifier for next door, that afternoon by land was spotless because they know they can get in serious trouble for breaking the rules.
When's your slab due? Who are you dealing with?
his is our very first build - we signed up with Kurmond in October 2010. Our first meeting with the Director went really well, even met us on a Saturday, the changes we wanted to make to the design were "No Problems", extra window "No problems", moving of walls "yeah sure, No Problems".
ReplyDeleteSo after sign up, we needed to wait until our land settled and had some delays there. We were told alot could be done before this happens so when settlement came, we could go straight to council and get approval.
Settlement happened in June 2011 - our plans, after delays from Kurmond due to people leaving, our plans finally hit council mid Sept 2011. More delays, this time, the council, but DA was finally given mid Dec 2011. We were told that things would now move along fast and we should have a slab early next year.
Come January, nothing, a lot of questions and emails asking what is happening. We were told, yes you will have a slab in 4-6 weeks dependent on the weather of course. We finally got all colours, variations completed at the of March 2012.
4 months after DA approval, I look at my land and think, nothing is happening still. We are now at a point where all my correspondence is not answered - I cannot get a response back to anything I ask and we are at a point where we really don't know what to do. We don't have the money to start again and every single week of delay by Kurmond costs me money.
The Kurmond website are to me a bunch of lies. They guarantee quite a number of things, start build 10-18 weeks after deposit, they make it their mission to provide a better building experience - this has not happened to us at all. All they are currently doing it taking money and not delivering on their one core service - to build houses. Imagine that, a house builder who can't deliver?
I work in an industry where if a customer spends $5k with me and I don't perform I get pulled over the coals. Wanting to spend over $300k with Kurmond makes no difference whatsoever.
I am going to continue to post my experiences on here if anything ever gets done - I haven't resisted the urge to post on product review for a quite a while due to the fact it may supposedly harm my chances of getting anything done - I am at a point where I want everyone to know my experiences and I don't want anyone else to make the same mistake.
This sin't a product review site, this is my blog. Nirali, I've sent your post off to the people I dealt with. Lets see if I can help. I never had any issues. Where are you building?
DeleteAlso - are you saying that you still have no slab, all the dates you listed are from 2011?
Deletewell this was the old comments, i m now moved into my new house.. however i am 100% dissatisfied with the quality of inclusions and output. they have made very errors and it looks like practically their tradies are not well experienced.
ReplyDeletekurmome homes are really pathetic.. .its was a small company since 2011 and instead of focusing on their existing clients, they focused on getting new customers and thats where they fall behind.. they are not putting attention to their old customers.. in my case, no one has taken care of the quality of house.. lot of errors made.. no track of what has been done.. i would not recommend anyone to go near kurmond home..
ReplyDeleteLuke, i really appreciate for up and running this blog..
ReplyDeleteI was going through very hard time with this builder. It was difficult for them to manage home construction project due to their internal issues. Poor record management and council follow up issues. Even after spending almost a year in sorting out the plan and few upgrades, I had hard time in getting poor quality of work. I am extremely dissatisfied with their work
ReplyDelete