DesignBuild Homes
Verified5 reviews
Worst experience ever – We engaged Designbuild to design and build us a new home. We spent months and months with them working and reworking the plans they created because their designs were constantly full of errors and did not represent the instructions we had given them. When they finally put the plans out to tender, the cheapest tender came back $250,000 over the budget we had given them, despite them assuring us at every stage in the process that we were on target to meet our budget. Many more months were wasted trying to rectify this by simplifying the plans but still the cheapest tender was almost $100,000 over budget.
Despite failing to achieve what we had contracted them to do, Designbuild refused to refund the thousands of dollars we had paid them in design fees and we ended up having to recover some of the money we had paid them through the legal system.
All in all, it was the worst experience and the most stressful time of our lives. We wasted more than a year and thousands of dollars. Please do yourself a favour and steer clear of Designbuild. Absolutely nothing
Hi [name removed] Its unfortunate that you feel this way. Whilst I understand that your experience is now close to 6 years ago, I'd like to think that our business has come along way since then (in terms of perfecting the management of client design wishes with client budgets.
I am the first to admit that your particular project was significantly over budget as you mention in your review, however we did completely redesign your home at our cost (and with your input) and we did in the end achieve the design you worked on with us and the costings required to build the home. I can however underdstand that at that point you probably wished for a fresh take on the design etc.
In any event, whilst the hearing member agreed we had performed our duties under our agreement and were therefore only requested to refund you some of the engineering fees (rather than our design fees) I am truly sorry that we ended up in this situation.
I guess all I can say is that now, 6 years later, under new ownership (myself) I am able to take a far more sympathetic view to our clients end goals than the previous owner wished. After all, its not all about the design but more so about the experience. One in which I hope all of our clients enjoy and ultimately don't experience the feelings that you did on this occasion.
If anyone would like to directly discuss these or other concerns with me, please feel free to email me at guy.kits@designbuild.com.au or call our office on (07) 3252 2147.
Regards
Guy
Excellent – We would like to thank everyone at DesignBuild for their attention to detail, for listening to our needs and for their design team's efforts to get the look and feel right. Our whole family and friends love our new house and the build quality. First rate job!!! Brilliant service, cost effective designs, great quality builds. None. I would thoroughly recommend DesignBuild if you're looking to design / construct in SEQ.
Excellent – Fantastic, I have referred friends to DesignBuild and I believe they will renovate with them. If you are looking for a professional company that truly deliver a fantastic quality result. Go for It! Finally! A company that listened and understood what I wanted! A great team of staff that helped me through each stage of design and building. I felt that the team understood that I am not a builder and therefore they explained things in easy to understand language. The plans took a little longer than I would have liked but the results speak for themselves.
Excellent – If only we'd found DesignBuild Homes months ago, we could have saved thousands of dollars, plenty of time and lot's of heartache. DesignBuild's team listened to our needs and wants from the outset and guided us down the design path we needed and wanted giving us an amazing experience in terms of professional service. I just wish all builders were this easy to deal with and this transparent in terms of their process and associated costs. Everything. I think anyone building should chose the DesignBuild path.
So Simple we love our Deignbuild home – My husband and I are working parents and had no time to project manage our new home. After seing the problems people get into on TV shows without the correct planning we were very happy to work with Tony and Jason and the rest of the team to make sure we designed a beautiful house without too much fuss.We are now living in the home we designed and our home has even been entered for a design award... how exciting! Simple and we know what we needed to do at every step
ProductReview.com.au has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence our content moderation policies in any way, though ProductReview.com.au may earn commissions for products/services purchased via affiliate links.
I wish to point out the following further facts in reply to DesignBuild's comment above so as to avoid any misinterpretation: 1. DesignBuild produced a tender on the redesigned house that was within our budget only after we commenced legal proceedings against them. They handed it to us at the hearing; 2. The tender was from a builder we had never heard of and knew nothing about; 3. The redesigned house had undergone such substantial modifications to bring it within budget that it was no longer consistent with our wishes or with what we had contracted DesignBuild to design and build for us; and 4. After a year of delays and broken promises, we had understandably lost all confidence in DesignBuild and their ability to design and build us a house so we no longer wished to work with them. I stand by my original review.