Can anyone comment on their building experiences with them

Hi there, Our building experience with GJ North Shore was dreadful. Several delayed move in dates, attention to detail is poor. They are all nice as pie and promise the world when a payment is due. In between these dates communication is poor. We are very under whelmed. Be prepared to project manage your own house and I felt that costs were not that transparent. They share with you what they want to.

Hi Anne, i am about to sign with GJ North Shore – and i am keen to ask you a few questions around your comments regarding costs not being transparent and their attention to detail. Do you have an email i can contact you on directly? Thanks!

Hi Anne, We did not build with GJ Gardner because of the lack of details in their quotation and later on in their contract proposal. When asked for more details or specifications, they had refused to do so and we decided to drop them. Most of surprises and cost increases will arise as a result of poor definition of materials and services in the contract you are about to sign. To avoid surprises you should, before signing any contract, define every specification in the contract (e.g flooring manufacturer and reference number, tile manufacturer and reference number, wall paper reference, tap brand and model etc.) in addition some budget items (e.g.) foundations, driveway etc. ) should be assessed to make sure that there will not be any substantial increase (keep in mind that if the budget included in the offer as “allocation” is below real cost they will keep the surplus money for themselves but not if it is the other way around). Last, plan a good 10% of the build cost as a reserve as there will always be unexpected changes in specifications, some of them will be requested by you.

Hi Elena, If you leave a phone number I can call you. Or an email address. Cheers.

As you point out their contract proposals etc work in their favour and the detail isn’t always available. We asked on several occasions before and after signing and they say what you want to hear. We had built before (different company) and had a great experience in every way. In hindsight we should never have built with GJ North Shore/West franchise which is owned by Tony Houston however we thought that being a big company they would be professional, that there was the backing of the head office etc etc. Yes we had a 10% reserve as we knew we wanted to upgrade things – little did we know we would end up spending some of that on lawyers fees. We are in our house now, on going issues however we are thankful that we are almost at the end of the process and we know that we will never ever build with GJ Gardner again.