Hotondo Homes VIC, Hallam

Our franchise went broke (Hallam VIC) January 2020, so do your research – Be aware Hotondo Homes is a franchise. We approached head office seeking help to finish the build, we were told that they’re under no moral or legal obligation to help us, despite being the same company. That was 5 months ago, still waiting on insurance to authorise a new builder.

WARNING: Still awaiting repairs to defaults and outstanding maintenance 13 months later – We completed our build in November 2018 with Hotondo Homes and where extremely happy throughout the construction process. Communication and customer service was fantastic. However, after we took possession of the property we have been actively chasing outstanding maintenance and repairs to defects with the build, as per our contract of sale. 13 months later, we still have issues which remain unaddressed with no action or follow up from Hotondo Homes, which has tarnished the entire build process.

We have contacted Hotondo Homes repeatedly and all throughout 2019 but failed to see a resolution.

Unfortunately our contract of sale; which stipulates a requirement for defects to be repaired within 21 days or a reasonable timeframe isnt worth the paper its written on, and it appears we have no choice but toto pursue in the external forums to have the builder meet their obligations.

Additionally; contact to the Hotondo Head Office to attempt resolve the issue has also gained no traction and despite lodging complaints through the Customer Care Team the experience has mirrored the customer service from the builder directly.

Communication issues – We recently built with Hotondo Hallam as we liked the display home we saw. The process was mostly smooth, however, a few issues marred the experience. We are very happy with the quality of the house built. Tim & Marg were really flexible and helpful with bringing our dream home to life. However, communication was poor especially at the beginning but this improved towards the later part of the build.

A few things to highlight. As we were first timers in home building, we would have appreciated more information and consultation. As it is, we ended up with a retaining wall that we do not like - had we been given visuals and options, this issue would not have arisen.

Another major issue was the size of the alfresco. We had specified that the house was to be as per the display home apart from some changes we specified. We assumed that the alfresco would therefore be the same. However, when we saw it being built, there were 3 pillars rather than 2. Turns out this was on the plan but we missed it. At no point were we expressly informed that the alfresco would be different from the display home. Hence it had three brick columns instead of two, and the columns themselves were larger than the display home ones, which significantly cut off the view of the backyard. Ultimately we were able to compromise and turn the third column into just a wooden post, but this variation should have been highlighted to us at the very beginning.

Our heating zones were also not done to our specification.

Apart from these issues, there were a few other things but Hotondo Hallam fixed them up which we appreciate. The build itself went smoothly and quickly. We were notified of any changes that needed to be made, and the site supervisor was great in providing suggestions for a better result.

We moved in a couple of months ago, and have a few small issues to sort out. Things tend to happen slowly at this stage and several times, we had to chase up to get things fixed. Lots of emails going back and forth before things are resolved. Getting a quote on a required fix takes far longer than expected - this should be done within days, not weeks.

Overall however, we are happy with our new home, and would build with Hotondo Hallam again. Would have given them five stars apart from the issues mentioned above.

Hotondo Hallam - update on earlier review – We did a review in 2013 before our Hotondo Hallam home was completed and nearly 2000 people have read the review. We rated it at 3.00 mostly because of delays. We eventually took possession of the house in March 2014. It seems like a good time for an update. We have now been in the house for more than 12 months and we feel more positively now about the experience of building with Hotondo Hallam. The design of the house, the general finish and the quality of the build is all that we expected. Pretty much everyone who has visited us has commented on what a beautiful house we have. The follow up by the site supervisor and Hotondo staff has been pretty good. In fact one occasion Darren the site supervisor did some Friday night repairs to the roof in the dark and the rain so that it would be fixed before the weekend.

Despite the comments in our earlier review we would certainly consider building with Hotondo Hallam again if we were to build another house.

Chris and Joan

Very Happy with Hotondo Hallam – The team from van Dam Builders made every step of our building experience seamless! From working with the sales team, to selecting colours & tiles was great. Although we were nervous to begin with they guided us through each step & left us feeling confident with every decision (& were very patient when we changed our minds.......) We highly recommend van Dam if you want a builder that genuinely cares!

We are now on site & can't wait to move in to our new home. Their expertise & patience