16 Months After Moving In

Hi Everyone! I've been receiving quite a few emails asking for updates and such. Below is an Email I've sent recently to someone asking for an update. Just so I don't have to keep re-typing the same thing, I've pasted in below:

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Hi K**,

The Liberty is indeed a beautiful home, however we are absolutely not happy with Metricon and how they run their business. During the building stage, we encountered numerous problems and the building quality was nowhere near what you see in their display homes. There were a lot of things they did not even finish. We moved in 8th December 2009 into a sub par quality home and until today these problems have not been rectified as Metricon do not seem to be give a damn.

The timber floors were put in way too early so they're badly scratched, the external capping was never done, the patch work done on the brickwork was never cleaned, broken seals on our shower tiles, very poor paint job, crooked corners, and the list goes on. To top it off, we found out that our house never passed Quality & Assurance! Some important paperwork are missing or were never filed from what I've been told. So at the moment we're back in 'Construction' phase because technically the house is not complete.

We are extremely disappointed with Metricon for not giving 2 hoots about us. It has been a year and we've had about 3 inspections from different teams come to 'fix' the house but never received any follow up. They subcontract to a company and that company subcontracts to another company then when we call them for an update, they have no idea what is going on. We've just had the 3rd inspection last month (we were on holidays then and we were going to file a case with VCAT when we got back) and so far we're getting calls from tradies to get the job done. The company seems to be big mess with the way they run things. When we call them, nobody really knows who's in charge of our house. Our Site Supervisor changed about 4 or 5 times (most left the company saying they're not happy with Metricon and another was fired) and I can't even count how many times our Customer Service Consultant changed.

If I could do it all again, I would not go with another Volume Builder. Metricon are building way too many houses for them to manage at a high standard. It's quantity and not quality with them. Perhaps we ran into a bit of bad luck and you might not have any problems at all, but I do think that the location you're building in plays an important part. We built in an already established area so there were no other Metricom homes being built in the same area. We were the only ones on our street. However if you build in a new estate where there are other Metricon homes going up, they will pay more attention to your home as it's easier to manage say 10 houses in the same area (plus they will be competing with other volume builders in the area).

I would definitely go with a smaller but well established builder who does not subcontract any of their jobs so all their staff and tradies are permanent employees. They might be more expensive, but it will be well worth it. You also get to take your time in choosing your colours and fixtures wheres Metricon (and most other volume builders) only give you a few hours to choose what you want there and then at your Colour Selection appointment. I don't know about now, but at that time they don't allow you to just drop by at the studio whenever you like to have a look at your options. It might not bother you, but I just don't like that whole process at all.

I wish you the best of luck in whoever you choose to go with because you will definitely need it. It's a tiring and time consuming process but well worth it in the end (if everything goes according to plan!) :)

Regards,

G&A

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So that's my update after 1 year and 4 months of moving in. The landscaping is a mess at the moment, but I'll post some photos nonetheless just for you!