Ashford Homes

Don't do it!! – DO NOT BUILD with Ashford Homes!!! Delays Delays Delays. For reasons you will never know because no one calls you back or replies to emails. They have great inclusions but that means nothing if your house doesn't get built. Compensation if they go over the 310 build time... $1 a WEEK (I'd like to tell them what they can do with their $1!!!). … Read more

House has been sitting at frame stage for MONTHS!!!

We signed with Ashford 2 years ago when their reviews were great! But due to delays on land settlement we didn't start building until March 2016. You are better off going with another builder, even if more expensive, it will work out cheaper in the end as you will be saving on rent and interest because you will be in your new home a lot sooner.

Biggest mistake of our lives signing with them. And nothing we can do to get out of our contract but wait until some time lapses (310 build time + 155 days).

If you have money and time to waste then choose Ashford homes – I don't know why I am still wasting my time for this builder but this is for you guys who are thinking to build with Ashford homes.The only thing I want to say is I was a happy person until I started dealing with Ashford homes. Guys please don't waste your time, money with this builder. Your life become so stressful if you sign with them. 10… Read more

months gone still my house is not finished. They never have deadline to finish the job. No communication at all (except when there is an invoice ready to send). Rude site supervisor and managers. They don't know how to treat client even though they getting money from client. Stay away from this builder.

If there was an option for less than 1 star.....id give that!!!!! – Because my list of complaints will be too long.......i would advise no one to build with these fake builders. They have not "built a lasting relationship' so their slogan is so fake.....false advertising there!! As for the customer service in the office, ridiculous and gutless. Everytime you want to speak to someone, they will make up crap… Read more

that that person is in a meeting just to avoid you.

The house is not perfect........wont go there!! too much to write here.

These are the last builders you want to go with,......every positive review here is either a worker, tradie, or friend of workers or owner so dont be fooled!!!

Try to get a positive for all the negative reviews.....(laugh) not possible.

Save your time and money.

Wish we had a bulldozer, what should have been our dream home is a real life nightmare – What can I say. The sales staff seemed very pleasant and responded very quickly to our requests. We then got the hard sell saying that if we paid our deposit before the end of the week we would get our home complete before the start of the following school year. Not wanting to miss this cut off we paid our deposit and signed the contract a week… Read more

later. From here onwards the nightmare started, 8 weeks to prepare our home plans and to save time they said they would send them to us at week 7. What they sent was the same as the pre-contract ones with none of the requested variations.

They sent color selection charts but when we went to pick paint colors we were limited to a few colors as all others would cost extra (note paint used was a base that was tinted so their material costs wouldn't have been extra). At color selection the variations still weren't complete on the plans so had to wait for these to be done whilst we were there. 6 weeks later they sent plans off to developer and they got knocked back due to developer stating that Verandah height was to be 300mm above natural ground level so Ashford addressed this by writing it onto the plans verandah to be 300mm above natural ground level, but failed to change the heights on the slab plans, resulting in the concrete house slab being poured too low. Raised this with the supervisor was dismissed as not knowing what I was talking about until he saw me check the levels with a laser level at which point I received abuse from him telling me that I couldn't be onsite (note it was added into our contract that we were to have access the site at all times as long as we held building construction white/red card).

The framer marked out the where the frame was going to sit on the slab and from this he could see the frame would overhang by 67mm (note frame is only 90mm wide so only 23mm would be on the slab) but knowing this he still put it up rather than address the issue early on, some of the internal frames put in backwards so doors where in the wrong places. Roof trusses delivered and placed on top of frame only to have to be taken down and whole frame dismantled and re-erected, when the roof trusses re-erected they were put up in the wrong order resulting the all to heating having to be altered to accommodate the weight of the unit. Also during this time windows delivered and had to be moved around site so as not to be in the way, this has resulted in them being damaged scratched and chipped.

No water on site at this stage but that's ok as the site supervisor told us bricklayers didn't require water onsite. Due to plumbers not being onsite early in the build no water lead in pipes installed during the slab stage, so we now have restricted water flow to the house. During brick laying they ran out of white sand when at chest level so used gold coloured sand instead so we have two tone mortar. Electricians came and missed power points raised this with supervisor to get addressed prior to plastering but no action taken so after the plastering was completed walls had to be cut to feed wiring thru. Plumbers came to rough-in plumbing only to have plans that have been altered by unknown person(s) as a result, gas pipes undersized and waterpoint for cooling in wrong place again raised with build supervisor only to be dismissed (note it took almost 2 weeks for him to answer our calls to raised this). The pre plaster fit-off of the frame was done so poorly that over the space of 2 metres the ceiling dropped 50mm and the cornice looked more like the roller coaster ride at luna park. Despite this the plasteres still hung and stopped it up.

During this time we went to check colour of flooring at the supplier so we could get some matching furniture only to be informed it was discontinued, informed Ashford Homes of this and got abused by their colour selection lady telling us it was rubbish and they still had it on their color selection board in Ashfords selection showroom. Only after 20 minutes of being dismissed be her she agreed to contact them (I think she did so just to try and prove us wrong). When she called us back her answer was one sentence long and she hung up before we could answer her all she said was "It's been discontinued and you'll need to contact their national agent on this number "who never returned our calls. At the same time as calling them to inform them of our new flooring selection we asked from written confirmation of the remaining colors the sent to us so we could check their availability. Yet again we were disappointed the sent us a list of the correct colors yet somehow managed to paint the entire house the wrong colour resulting in it having to be repainted.

The painter managed to get paint everywhere it shouldn't have been and the finish would have been better if you'd let kindergarten kids do it, at least the know to say in between the lines and won't smoke in the house and leave ash and butts everywhere including on the benchs tops. We have had 3 driveways the first developed large cracks within a week of pouring it, the replacement one did the same but not surprised it was supposed to be 100mm thick and was at its thickest point 60mm.

The build ran 4 months past the settlement time we where promised by the salesman and what Ashfords general manager/CEO said was their sales person would have informed us that "To have the best chance of being in before the next school year" and not "be in before the start next school year" if we had known that we would have built with someone else as this was a prerequisite for getting our business.

On hand over we made a list of faults that are supposed to be completed within 2 weeks of settlement. 11 months later these still haven't been addressed. Rarely will anyone return your calls and its only now that we have prepared papers for VCAT that action is being taken. This review might seem long but it is only a fraction on the issues that we have/are experiencing with Ashford home. Sadly the people across the road built with Ashford also and their home is worse than ours.

Avoid Ashford Homes at all costs. Their sales service is great and makes you feel like the negative reviews are unfounded but once you sign that contract and they have you hooked it is a downhill ride from there.

IMPORTANT NOTE

I have read some of their "POSITIVE" reviews and noted that in some of them they mention staff names that weren't actually working for then during that time period. Makes you wonder who wrote the review as for it to be a verified purchase you just need to supply an building approval number which Ashford will have on file

Perfect home perfect builders – Wow what can I say, our building process right from the day we had Shane come see us has been amazing experience. At first we were unsure about custom building our home due to costs but it came in well under our budget and with top quality finishes. ? The best part of building with Ashford homes was the input we had right from the first day till… Read more

hand over, nothing was ever too much trouble. Our house took 17 weeks to finish, unlike other builders I was able to walk through and potentially annoy the site supervisor ha ha. Ashford homes built our dream home for us and our experience was one we will never forget. The friendship and compassion during some hard times has been amazing. We would recommend building with Ashford homes to anyone.. no strese at all.. we have been in our home a week now and absolutely love it. The money we have saved has allowed us to shop for new furniture too.. we cant wait to continue to show our house off to our friends. Thank you Ashford homes for a awesome and fun 17 weeks.. The friendly service, affordable but good quality. .

Excellent finished product – We have completed 3 months in the new house built by Ashford Homes, and we are delighted with the end result. It took me several months and a lot of research before finally deciding on Ashford Homes. They were the only builder I came across who agreed to do the many changers we require without much increase to the price. The willingness first by… Read more

their consultant and secondly by their sales manager to meet us out of office hours in the comfort of our home as we work odd hours was also another key factor for us.

Initially we selected one design which suited our budget & life style from the many wonderful designs they have and requested the changes we require. The consultant was very helpful to get new drawings and the new pricing which was a bit higher than our budget. When I mentioned that we have another quote from another builder, she said that she could do a price match after consulting the head office. Subsequently she did meet our price and also included many inclusions after consulting the sales manager. At this stage we were introduced to the dynamic sales manager whose customer service and professionalism was simply brilliant. Since we were so pleased with the high level of customer service, we decided to go with Ashford.

During the construction period the site supervisor was helpful and accommodating but lacked communication skills. He was not very prompt in responding and informing the progress. There were some anxious moment along the way, but the sales manager and the construction manager was always quick to responded positively.They were quick to identify & rectify any defects or mistakes.

The only drawback we see is the communicating skills of the office staff as they kept us guessing most of the time. Ashford will do well if this area is improved and the staff is trained to be more polite and professional.

Overall we are delighted with the experience of building with Ashford Homes and the answer to the question - Given another opportunity Will We build again with Ashford? The answer is a Big Yes and we will most certainly recommend them anyone looking for a builder capable of proving a high quality home. Very accommodating and excellent customer care

Please avoid them if you can – Not a builder as you can figure it out from number of displays houses (not many actually open 5-6 days a week in victoria). 1$/week delay fee for contract and all issues. Not at all happy with the way they progress DELAY is synonym to Ashford. Pathetic service and promises which can't be fulfilled by them in reality. Blaming owner for issues… Read more

raised. And they don't care about owner concern's. I wish just go back time and don't sign them.

e.g. As you can view here that they don't care what review their customers write on productreview.com.au. Not a single comment from them.

Pros: Sales consultant is very quick to make and draw plan as per buyer request. Contact can be made at any-time. All calls answered or returned back.

Cons:

- 5-7 Weeks to prepare contract after soil testing. After this if you have doubt please avoid signing contract. Max you will loose 2.5K but again other builders can you soil test report so loss can be less.

- 12 weeks for site start after signing contract. In my case they took 4 months to get a slab after contract sign.

- Blame buyers for having developer guidelines for their lot.

- 10 months after actual site start. So actual duration from start to end could be (1.5 months (contract prep) + 3-4 months for site start + 10 months for building (they say their build time is 7-8 months) = 12 - 14 months, first home buyer can loose 50% stamp duty if not build within 12 months of settlement.

- Customer service (Pre-site Adminstrator returns/get calls from you 3 / 5 calls. Site Supervisor returns/pick calls 1/ 5 calls made to them.

- Provisional sum mentioned in contract can be always double. In my case it is 5 times.

- To make you sign contract/variation they always say sign asap otherwise house construction will be delayed. It doesn't matter if you sign it asap or not it will be delayed from their end.

August 2nd 2016 Update: Worst build quality and customer service

The final settlement and post settlement experience is worst than initial experience. Mentioning few points if some one still going to/building with Ashford... definitely not builder.

Customer service: even two dollar shop has better customer service than Ashford. No call backs/no one takes responsibility.

Build quality not ok. 4 edge to edge cracks to garage slab. One crack at cornice, bench top, etc. Careful about washer's connection's quality and provision (need to pay some tradie for pipe and wire to get connection done). Handover cleaning not done properly.

Lost 1k as I signed variation of cancellation (evap) without verifying price (thinking they created with correct amount) in contract preparation amount and they didn't provided credit when provided contract preparation. Document. Found that sales guy added extra evap price than actual price (as per office). Not to trust their words without written document. Incorrect item installation and still waiting for them to get correct selected item.

A complete nightmare! – Luckily for us the trades used were exceptional and produced a quality home, very satisfied with the end product. The entire build process was appalling! Our Site Supervisor had no project management skills! The house has basically been ready to go for months but still has not been completed! The customer support provided from both the Site… Read more

Supervisor and some members of the office staff was also appalling. I think they need to be reminded we are the customer! The building process started in December 2014, we have only just completed our PCI last week. We engaged an independent building consultant to assist us with the PCI process and thank goodness we did, no major structural defects just a number of small issues which we probably wouldn't have picked up. Would definitely NOT recommend Ashford Homes to anyone!

Update: We were promised the defect works would be completed on Friday 23 October 2015 but once again have been let down by Ashford Homes. They didn't even bother to contact us on Friday to tell us the house wouldn't be ready or when it would be ready!!

Update: 5 months on and we are still waiting for the Maintenance Department to contact us and come and rectify the defects. Very poor form again Ashford Homes!!

Thank you !!! – Thank you to Ashford Homes mainly to Naz who from the beginning were awesome to work with. They helped me achieve one of my life goals and they were helpful and just great to work with. Their professionalism and hard work and always making sure I was kept in the loop were just some of the their great attributes. Will definitely be recommending your services to family and friends

Thanks Ashford Homes – Being able to personalise the floor plan design was an amazing advantage that Ashford Homes gave us. We were able to create a house that felt like it was our home.The Team was fantastic, helpful and really simplified the process of creating our first house. Our home was finished within a very good timeframe for a very affordable price. We are extremely happy with the finished product and the process from beginning to end

Happy Ending!! – Yes we had our ups and downs without going into specifics and not mentioning names or pointing the finger! Building a home is never a fairytale! The finished product and maintenance support was excellent! Thanks mainly to [names removed]. It was good to design our own home which we are extremely happy with.

Quality customer service and strong customization as per the client requirements – Hi there, I am in the process of signing with Ashford and so far the process being fantastic with my six week of experience with them including seven meetings and phone calls . I will keep updated through the entire process until the key handover. If any one have any suggestions and queries comment me . Thanks Quality customized designing according to the client needs. No weekend appointments for color selections

Brilliant Results with Ashford Homes. Exceptional Quality to Suit Individual Family Needs. Adore Our – Our home is just that, Our Home! we designed it alongside a sales consultant who worked with a team of engineers to ensure we were utilizing the irregular shape block we have with all our acquired requests. There is a very high quality on all the interiors used and you can spend as much or as little on upgrades as you please. I found that Ashford… Read more

homes also provide a lot of flexibility when it came to wanting different fittings unlike most of those ready kit home companies that only offer you one or two and all end up looking like one another. Our home is absolutely individual and what I love is that you wont see another like it. It was designed for us. Besides the usual hiccups that will come with building, Ashford homes built within the time frame they had set, which was very important to us, considering we were expecting twins within that year and also had two other little children we needed a company who would do their best to finish ontime.

Furthermore i found most of their staff readily available on email , phone and any problematic issues were resolved and not left lingering. when we needed to have things explained to us Ashford homes did take the time in doing this and in one instance their Executive consultant came to our home after hours to clarify things for us. I must say building is definitely no walk in the park lets face it there is a lot of decision to be made, however one of our site managers in particular really did keep us informed almost daily, was ontop of his builders and really didn't leave any stones unturned. He was truly amazing . In regards to communication this did lapse at times alongside with their accounting team getting invoices to you, in one instance we received an incorrect invoice, however they did try to rectify matters like this immediately and i must say you are always going to have some sort of issue when you are building. however for me the most important thing is the product because we have to live in it for sometime! I can get over any minor matters but not bad products!

The overall finished product truly is remarkable and we achieved what we set out to do, which was create our own family environment offering lots of open space, an amazing kitchen and a high quality finished product which would endure 4 children and 2 adults, welcome lots of visitors and utilize the odd shaped land we had, with still plenty of garden area. Ashford homes helped us achieve this with their professional guidance.

We hope to live here for a very long time and I would recommend Ashford Homes.

Thompson Family. high quality materials, lots of options, suit any budget, dealt with the same people & 1 year follow up and maintenance communication amongst each other, newer consultants that were not familiar with all their products on offer

Not a buider to build with – I would not recommend Ashford Homes despite a reasonable finished product. The contract is very much one sided in their favour, the customer service is of poor standard and in my case a house that was to be built in 16-24 weeks took almost 40 weeks to build. If however you have already signed a contract with Ashford Homes just be very vary of the… Read more

phrase " It's in our best interest" This is a sure way of knowing that the conversation is full of empty words and broken promises. The original sales consultant. Went out of his way to be helpful The broken promises and empty words

Happy with overall Service Provided by Ashford homes – The experience of building with Ashford Homes was really good. I have an odd shape land and it was not easy to design a house within limited budget. Ashford Homes sales consultant in first meeting looked promising and after quite a few meeting she delivered the design as per our expectation. The colour selection and admin process was not that bad… Read more

as well but still lacked the personalised approach. Than came the really exciting stage- construction, site manager was a humble person and used to give us an update about construction almost every fortnight. His service was above our expectation, finishing of the house was perfect and we love it. Overall really a good experience with Ashford Homes and definitely recommend it to others as well. Overall approach towards the customers In my opinion, need to review the approach to customer for color selection

OMG Why did we build with Ashford – The building experience with Ashford Homes went down very quickly from OK to absolute nightmare. In fact we have been in our house for 11 months now and are still trying to get Ashford to finish the contract. When we moved in we were greeted with a hole in the laundry roof where someone had fallen through and the house had not been cleaned at… Read more

all. Then we found 29 items that were wrong with the house and spent the next 5 months having various people back to our house to fix it, which sometimes meant they had to come back again as they damaged something else. Then after all this time we finally had only the stained brickwork, unmatched mortar, wall out by 15mm and pier out by 35mm to fix and we wouldn't have to see Ashford Homes again thank god!! Now we are at the stage where all items have been found defective by a Building Inspector and Ashford Homes are not wanting to fix the problems and honour the contract. We are now seeking legal advice to have the matter finalised. This is the second house we have built so we knew the pitfalls that can come with building, but believe me I would never have expected what we have to endure with them. We have also been told numerous lies along the way and when it all came out what had been put in writing did not want to be honoured by Ashford. You make think that this sounds a bit like sour grapes but we have written this solely so people don't fall into the same trap as us and if we can save 1 person this frustration then it is worth it. And they definitely don't deserve the business.

A good experience despite nerves from reviews – Well we are now three months living in our ashford home. I wanted to wait a few months before writing a review to see if there was going to be any major problems after they completed the house. So far all is very good. We initially went with Ashford because of the consultant he came out to meet us, myself and my husband work odd hours so we were… Read more

really happy that he made the time to fit in and come to our house when we were both home.. which is not often!! He then created a plan that was based on two homes from two different volume builders.. basically a jigsaw of what we wanted.. The initial price however was over our budget.. we asked about their price match guarantee, we then had to get another quote from porter davis.. their access range on a same size house the randwick and ashford then matched their price.. however they did reduce their specification to do so.. i notice a review down below that seems like they tried to do something similar with a metricon quote but were not happy... well it made sense to us that in order to match the porter davis price they would only include the same level of inclusiosn that porter davis had offered.. there was a few of ashford homes standard items that we still wanted included and they priced these in for us as options over and above the porter price.. again this made sense and we were happy to pay. I read a lot of reviews before depositing and was reassured by [name removed] our consultant, he also gave us three clients to call one that had finished only 2 weeks before one 3 months before and one 12 months before.. they were all happy with the result and had no issue with timing or the other things.

The girls in the office were really nice and seemed to make you excited eveyr time you rang to talk to them, which is nice.. we had some trouble with our garage wall height and they took care of everything with the council and getting sign off from our neighbours and developers.. On site we dealth with only the one superivsor.. he was very easy going.. maybe too easy going sometimes. he was meant to call us once a week but it was probably more like every fortnight... our entry door which was a large special pivot door was put in the wrong way round.. but the construction manager rang us the day it happened and it was fixed within the week.. other then that the whole build time took just over 25 weeks.. but i am not sure if that is from when we first noticed the toilet on the site ( we were renting around the corner so were able to look at the job basically daily) or from when the they first poured the concrete.. but either way we were happy with the time... we have had one issue with a wobbly tap to our kids bathroom but they replaced that a week after we told them.. we are still waiting another 6 months before we ask for a full maintenance as they give us 12 months to report anything... but so far we are happy and would recommend them to other people.. if you want to email me i can give you our address and we are happy to talk to people directly who are looking to buy from ashford. I guess there are always negatives and people generally write more when they are unhappy.. but for us we can say despite being pretty damn nervous about the reviews we are genuinely very happy. we got to design our own home using other plans.. the office girls are excited about buildign for you no weekend appointments to do colour selection

A customer focused approach sets Ashford Homes apart – After extensive research, we decided Ashford Homes were the best people to build our home. We have been living in our home for three months and loving it! There were a couple of hiccups along the way, however solutions were agreed upon and we are happy with the final result. The people at Ashford Homes are wonderful. It is one of the main reasons… Read more

we trusted them with one of the biggest decisions of our life. We received superb customer service from sales and signing, through the build process, and now into the maintenance phase of the project. We were treated like family, not just a number in the system. Our concerns and requests were always taken on board, and when we asked for expert advice, the team on site and in the office were more than happy to share their knowledge with us.

We were living in Sydney when we made the decision to build in Melbourne. Ashford Homes were very flexible, with most of our correspondence being conducted over the phone or by email. On the two trips taken to Melbourne, Ashford Homes were able to organise all our contract and selection appointments to suit our limited time frame. We were kept updated throughout the build process, with our site manager returning our calls within 24hours. This resulted in a 7 month build from site prep to handover, which we were very happy with.

There were a few minor issues along the way, as with any build. However, staff were professional and fair in their handling of each concern, rectifying the problem where needed and providing mutually acceptable solutions if otherwise required. At the time each issue seemed momentous, although in retrospect they were minor, generally aesthetic, and have not affect the structure or integrity of our home.

Ashford Homes provided us a customer centred approach which we found invaluable during the build process. Generally speaking, our site manager was willing to work appointments around our timetable, which was a blessing with two small children.

We have and will continue to recommend Ashford Homes to anyone looking for a builder who offers a quality product with generous inclusions and superior finishes, together with expert staff who provide excellent customer care. Thanks Ashford!

Appalling builder – Disgusting...Took nine months to get a contract right before signing off in Nov 2007...biggest mistake of my life. After many excuses didnt start slab until April 08 finishing Nov 08..19mths from start to finish..Had over five site managers who just didnt want to listen, let alone the mistakes that they tried to hide and got caught out with. My… Read more

list goes on and on to this day nearly three years after shifting in. Ashford just dont want to know you, they take your money and basically run with it.Phone call after phone call, no one wants to talk to you or if they do, they say they are going to do something and they dont. This has been the most stressful thing i have ever done in my life..And to have to do something like this as a single mum and not get the support you thought you would get from a so called proffessional builder..it is disgusting. i am still having building and maintenance issues, which i now look like i will have to go to VCAT...Clients beware and good luck if you choose to deal with them.

Everything...very unprofessional company..just dont care

Lock up stage – With any home builder no matter how big or small the company is. you will get issues, lucky for us we haven't had anything to complain about only thing is we haven't been given an exact date of completion. Just an average 5 - 6 months. Started slab in march now in June, we have been told the date of completion will be given once floor tiles are… Read more

completed and the rough timeline for each trade and at the moment they have been ahead of time by a week. Sales team really helpful the man that helped us design our own floor plans also gave us a call not to long ago to check on progress of the house T-- was great to deal with any questions we had he answered straight away if he didn't know the answer he got back to us very quickly. We have had just the one site manager R------, gives us our progress phone calls every 2 weeks, if I rang him and got his voice mail he would ring back the same day, if he rang the next day he appologize for the delay. So far I'm happy with ashford. Also ask the site manager about the issues with previous site managers basically the quality of there managing team were getting weeded out. R------ was very quick to point out when we added own air conditioning pipes, he was cool with it, we thought that he wouldn't notice or not show up to check on progress. We were impressed that they noticed and how quick he was to ring us about the pipes. My dad has been happy with the quality of the work as he use to be a carpenter, if the house was given dad's approval I have nothing but all smiles. We could have a custom design that didn't cost the earth unlike other builders One of the external alfresco post, my fiancé didn't like the aesthetic look of the join, not complete as yet

Good Experince – We recently built with Ashford Homes and moved in last week. We found them to be friendly and flexible. To start with, they were very flexible with the design of the house and provided ideas and concepts that would or would not work. Compared to other builders who not change any designs to suit our land, Ashford Homes was a fresh change. The… Read more

colour and accessory selection process was smooth and they were very helpful. This process could have been improved with rough prices provided at the time to gauge if we could add extras or step up items form the basic model. Upon discussion with Ashford they have included this in their process which is great for future buyers.

The building process was good. I had independent people check the work during the building phase and they always said it was built very well and they used quality products. We had a delay during the middle part of construction, upon questioning Ashford about the delay it was quickly reversed. We had two supervisor during the time, both friendly and knowledgeable. At the start the communication was all calls were returned from the office and supervisors. Our second supervisor was great, he was very actioned orientated and kept us in the loop all the time even at times calling every few days if required.

Any problems encountered on the way were quickly resolved and if they could not be solved, options presented. We dealt with various people from the business throughout the process from the Sales Manager, Supervisor, Administration Support and Construction Manager and we found everyone to be helpful and friendly. Since construction has finished, we have had a follow up phone call from the supervisor.

Overall, we would strongly recommend Ashford and if we built again we will be going back. Good service, quality built house

Terrible – More than 12 months to get home until lock up, still no roof and error after error being picked up by us. 6 Site supervisors later and still no definete date when home will be finished. Absolutely horredous experience. Nothing, Excuse after excuse regarding delays

Terrible – Iam the same called them three weeks ago to speak to a building consultant.. was told to expect a call back very shortly. Three weeks later, no closer to finding out anything. On wednesday last week 10-03-2010 at approx 2100 hours I sent them off an online emial inquiry. more than 72 hours later...still no reply. And their website states that it… Read more

is their policy to reply to any enquiry within 2 days ( well my two working days are over) Well its like Michael Jackson use to say "They dont really care about us" Well Im sure someone else does... jUST IMAGINE IF THEY SHOW LACK OF CONCERN SO EARLY... DO i HAVE TO SAY ANYMORE Good Designs Lack of Customer Service or about thier own image.

Terrible – Most disorganised company ever. Would never recommend for anyone to build with them. It took them over a year to build our house, we moved in without a gas which took over a week to be connected, not to mention the 20 other things on our list. We lived without oven racks and handles on our wardrobe doors for almost a year. We are still waiting for… Read more

Maintenance to be done. We have a roof leak which has resulted in severe mold in the entry way. I have just learned that this mold could be the cause of my 18 month olds health concerns. He has been sick for around 4 months straight now. We are still waiting on many other things to be fixed too such as getting a powerpoint for our stove, and our bench cut correctly. It is looking like we will be going to VCAT too, although I really don't have the time or the energy to with a sick baby at home, whilst trying to work a part time job too. NEVER BUILD WITH THIS COMPANY!

Terrible – The praiseworthy comments that some have written here I can only surmise have been written by employees of this company. Our experience began even before we signed the contract and we were dills for going ahead with it with communication being very poor. Be warned, once you sign the contract you have lost all (and I mean all) control. Once… Read more

Ashford "arrived on the block" (which is when your contract overtime begins) they do not want to know you. Enquiries as to progress of the job are almost impossible as the telephone filtering system at the office means you will not get through. On one occasion when I managed to get through to ask when the roof tiles would go on (after the frame had been standing in the weather for a couple of months getting plenty of twists and bends in it) I was curtly informed "look here. We are building the house, its got nothing to do with you" Really great Customer Contact skills. And that was just the start. Do not get me started on the worry and sleepless nights I have endured. I will skip all the bits in the middle. At the end we got done for about $2000 on the overrun payments. Admittedly I should have in backsight challenged it but the owner of this company fast talked me out of it. Of course when it looks like you will never get possession you become an easy target. I was interested to read some of the other comments regarding prospective clients re the non return of calls. Nothing has changed. Engage this company at your peril. Carray

The lies we got from start to finish????

The time to fix defects. Still a pageful and we have been in occupancy for 8 months

The difficulty in communication from start to now.(and ongoing)

Terrible – never engage Ashford homes as they can't deliver quality home. unless you just want to build and then sell it without living in. otherwise, it will be your biggest mistakes in your life. their websites shows fantastic homes that they can build, and they all look attractive. their building quality is absolutely poor, absolutely no quality control.… Read more

roof has no sealing, nails on staircase and carpet that cut my foot a couple of times; painting is poor, window frame is not aligned, they're not straight.

Care factor? Zero! – Sales consultant was very good. Once the construction process commenced, it seemed like all systems go. After six hopeless site supervisors - none of which turned up to the site or actually did what they are paid to do 'supervise', the sleepless nights started. They really didn't care about me or my house. Many issues, poor quality and… Read more

workmanship, no customer service support, will take your phone call but will NEVER return it. Not sure how the building inspectors passed each phase of construction - certainly not to standard. Once the final payment has been processed, say good bye to any communications, follow up or customer service assistance - their care factor is ZERO! Avoid this builder like the plague............... The ability to design your own home What you see and what you're told is NOT what you get. Be very careful of this builder - unfortunately!

Terrible – Construction time was nearly a year over contract time. We had 9 supervisors come and go and who were rarely on site; bumbling incompetant trades who simply lacked interest or lacked ability - much of the work had to be ripped out and done again. Head office rarely returned calls or emails. The new management promised things would changed, but… Read more

nothing did. Still waiting for maintanance work. We will pursue through VCAT.

the most disorganised and incapable builder I have ever come across.

Terrible – My house took 17 months to build on a 12 month contract. Months at a time with no one showing up to work. House finally finished with water leaking into rooms, spouting leaking,Toilets not flushing properly,Creaking floors,Rooms not painted properly, Ceilings plastered by a blindfolded tradesman. Still waiting for the " 3 Month inspection " nine… Read more

months later. Hard to get any one to call back. Got shafted on late completion penalty.Overall a very disappointing experience Good Design Poor Build Quality, Non Existent Communication. No backup service

Satisfied in the end (so far anyway) – I have just finished building with Ashford Homes… I was promised a 20 week build time by the consultant and they finished it on 22 weeks.. Apparently in theory it was 20 weeks but I wasn’t able to view it then as was overseas and they had a weeks worth of minor fix ups that myself and their supervisor found. The sales process and office staff are… Read more

very easy to deal with.. the consultant came to my home and designed the house based on three other homes we liked with me and my partner and made my kids feel welcome to be around and join in also. The communication on site was ok.. they promise a weekly phone call but it is closer to fortnightly or only call when you leave a message; they do get back to you but I would have preferred them calling me..But they are good at what they do, my father who was in the building trade said the majority of the work was above average in his opinion. So to be fair the supervisor was easy enough to deal with if a little unpolished.

I don’t have anything too negative to say we are in the home and will wait to three month maintenance period is done but at this point in time I am happy to recommend them. sales consultant very good. office staff helpful. supervisor satisfactory. end result better than expected Supervisor contact could be better

Terrible – Had some designs drawn and quoted. They lost all the paperwork for the initial designs and our only legal document of when we had purchased the block. Had to get another copy from our solicitor at our expense. They obviously do not need the sales. Would never build with them. If they can't get it right at paperwork stage then the building… Read more

stage would be horrendous. Had some nice designs on paper The sales consultants in no hurry to reply to phonecalls or anyone for that matter.

Happy Customers – I don't think you can ever have a perfect experience building but this is as good as it gets. We have built before with a major builder (Metricon) and the experience and finished workmanship was terrible. It took a lot for me to convince my wife to build another house and risk going through that again. Thankfully what we got was a well constructed… Read more

house finished in good time. We spent a fair bit of time early sorting out what we wanted in the house and in the contract and Ashford were very patient with us through this process. I recommend this to all home builders as proper planning can save you headaches down the track. It certainly helped us in the longer run as we did not seek any variations or changes through the actual construction period.

Construction went really well. We visited the site every week-end and saw steady progress through-out. The site supervisor always returned my calls if I was unable to get hold of him up front. The overall finish of the home was a good standard and we have had no issues since the house was finished. Overall we have had a great experience this time around in building our house and would do it again. I would happily recommend Ashford based on our experience with them. Good designs, freindly staff and most importantly house was constructed exactly as we expected it. Slight delays towards the end in fixing minor defects.

Happy Customer – We are extremely happy with the house that Ashford Homes have built for us. We loved the fact we could design our home and were able to utilise the expertise of Ashford's design team. The house turned out beautifully. We had a few hiccups along the way mainly caused by weather delays, however Ashford worked tirelessly to have us in our home by… Read more

the required date as we had sold our previous home.

Outstanding issues at handover were addressed without issue and we are very grateful for the support provided to us.

My wife and I are sincerely happy with the service provided and I would definitely build with this builder again and recommend this builder to everybody. Great design process, progress updates provided regularly and quality of finish

Excellent – We had been to see many of the volume builders like Metricon, Burbank, Henley, Simonds etc and they don’t really care about you or your home as they have many customers coming through their doors. A friend recommended Ashford Homes to us and right from the start we felt we could trust them, after all it’s a 30 year debt that we getting into!! … Read more

We are extremely happy with the house that we built with them and had no hassles at all.

Our slab was laid on the 18/Dec/2009 and our house was completed on the 1/Jun/2010, considering Christmas break in between the pace was awesome.

We loved the fact we could custom design our home at no extra cost. The house turned out beautifully. We had a lot of hiccups with our lender Commonwealth Bank, but Ashford Homes was really patient with us and went out of their way to help us out.

We had our house independently inspected by Home Buyers Protection Services, and the inspector stated that he has been inspecting houses for 15 years and our house was built way above the standard and our building supervisor loves his job.

My husband and I are sincerely happy with the service provided and I would definitely build with this builder again and recommend this builder to everybody.

If anyone is interested, I can even email some pictures of our house. :) The sales consultant is extremely helpful and friendly ,Great designs and customer service. Nothing, building with Ashford Homes was a breeze.

15 weeks later and all is well – Signed our final variations in the middle of February and they were on site 2 weeks later. Now 3 weeks later, we have a slab, and all frames are on site and ready to go - at this rate they'll be at lock up in 8 weeks - there has been someone on site doing something everyday. I couldn't be happier with the progress and our site supervisor and… Read more

their admin team are keeping the lines of communication open.

It's now been 10 weeks since they started (see previous review) and they are nearly at lock up, bricks started today, insulation tomorrow, plaster on Friday - I cannot complain!! Our site supervisor is great. I'm sorry others have had a bad experience but all is good for us so far.

It's now been 15 weeks since they started. We got to lock up at 13 weeks and we now have architraves, doors, skirting boards etc. Apparently next week the kitchen and bathroom cabinets will go in (which have been delayed by 2 weeks) and then the painting will start. I guess that only leaves the tiling, carpets, electrics and plumbing to go!! It's getting very close now..... 15 weeks and all is well Things have slowed down a little.....