Hello, We are looking to build for the first time rurally in Tauranga and just...

Hi Ashley, I’m sorry I don’t know any builders in Tauranga, but one thing I would just recommend if you are building rurally is to make sure that any contract includes all the costs for putting in your services. When we built rurally the builder only included a PC sum that was woefully inadequate (was the one they used for normal urban sections!!) and we ended up with an extra bill for about $5,000 for the trenching and cable laying to the site from the boundary. It can be a lot more than this depending on how far you have to go, so just make sure they have allowed for this. Same with any water connection. Make sure you check that all PC sums are realistic as this is where hidden costs lie. Some companies look like a good price but its because they have unrealistic PC sums in the contract. Good luck with your build.

Hi Ashley, I totally agree with Sarah’s comments. But I would add that you should also push the builder to keep the number of PC items to a minimum. For example in the case of the service connections mentioned, a PC sum in a general spec you see when you first visit the builder is not unreasonable. But should not be necessary once they know the actual site details. At that stage they should include the actual price in the final contract that you sign. If they don’t want to do that they are being lazy, and hoping you’ll cover them for their mistakes. The actual meaning of PC is Prime Cost, and is intended for use only for things that you the client have some choice about. For example kitchen fittings and appliances, or tiles and carpets. Not for essential engineering parts of the house that don’t involve any choice on your part. There are also what are called Provisional Sums, Rates or Quantities for things like the amount of excavation in the foundations. You may have no control over these, but also the builder may be unable to calculate the exact amount until the engineer sees what the soil condition is like. I suggest that if possible you always go for fixed rates on provisional quantities, rather than just a provisional sum of money.

Hi, Ring Zach at ZJ builders. He is a excellent builder and a really honest trustworthy down to earth guy.

Hi Ashley I would recommend going to Generation Homes as they have fixed price guarantees which are usually very helpful. I would NOT recommend Stonewood Homes as their client relationship is very poor. I have heard of some people who have built homes with them and never once met with their project manager. They are also very poor at fixing maintenance issues after handover as well. There ‘must be a reason why Classic Builders have the majority share in Taurnaga, I guess they do a good job too? I don’t know much about them sorry.

Hi Ashley, I have personal experience with Stonewood Tauranga and I can’t stress enough to stay well away from them. They have beautiful show homes and excellent sales staff but when it came to the actual build EVERYTHING took longer and cost more than it should have. Kevin (the Director) restructured the company and we lost our project manager (Who we actually only met once anyway) and from there we pretty much had to project manage it ourselves because he wasn’t doing it. From word of mouth we found out that a lot of reputable contractors won’t do work for them, and the end result was a house which was not finished to the high quality it should have been as he employed monkeys. We were shafted time and time again and so ended up paying and moving into our home which wasn’t completed as we would have liked but we had a toddler and baby on the way so after 14 months since our initial deposit was paid, we weren’t willing to wait any longer for him to get more monkey contractors in to fix the stuff ups. There have been a number of small things they should have fixed post move but they haven’t done that either and communication basically ended as soon as we moved in despite trying to get them back. There is paint on the outside facade of our house, overspray for Africa and things that were just not done properly. PLEASE take my advice and write them off as a company to build with unless you would like to age prematurely!

Hi Ashley, Can I ask who you built with in the end? How were Calley Homes to deal with?

Hi Sarah, Thank you very much for that.

Funnily enough, now they have a 20 year old being the Project Manager. Hired to be a “Junior” but Kevin has thrown him under the bus and given him all the jobs to look after. I agree with you and write them off completely.