Integrity New Homes Questions & Answers

Rohit Liquidation can happen in any business and any industry. Fortunately if you choose to build with an Integrity New Homes franchisee the rate of liquidations of our builders is far lower than the industry average so you are making a very safe choice. Further still you are covered by compulsory home owners warranty insurance (excluding Tas) so that in the unlikely event of a business failing you can rely on the insurance to cover you. INH

Hi Ben, In the first instance, please jump onto external link  and add details of your address and Job Number if you have it. We can then put the right builder in contact with you.

Done. I’ll await a reply. Thanks

Ok that didn’t work, they said INH wouldn't help as the franchisee liquidated. I see that INH is still trading so should still warant faulty workmanship. Please give me a alternate contact for to get this rectified. Thanks

Be

I don't know, but I think the team I ended up with are based there now. During my planning phase the franchise where I am split with the northern end being based around Coffs Harbour, but I was taken up by the southern team wherever that was based. The person who oversaw the actual build was Glen Leet.

I believe so. It has been done for both the houses I've built with project home builders.

Dear Curious, It varies from builder-to-builder. Our standard inclusions have no provision for supply and installation of a telecommunications service (we have most of our clients actually don’t want a landline). Therefore it is standard practice, for those of our owners who want a landline, to be responsible to contact the telecommunications provider of their choice. These owners make arrangements with the service provider of their choice for connection including any trenching and so on. With some contracts the owner decides to have the telecommunications provided by Integrity New Homes in which case the specific details would be stated in the contract but would vary on contract-by-contract basis. Integrity New Homes.

Dear Courtney, Thank you for your post and seeking some clarity with the reasons why your initial pricing of $400-$415k became an estimate of $488k. Firstly, we apologise for the difficulty you have had with your sales consultant not returning your phone calls.

In response to the specific reasons for the change from the initial ballpark estimate and the final estimate provided are numerous and are listed below. You payment of a preliminary services fee was for the cost of a contour survey, soil investigation report and design service. Once these reports were completed it was then possible to provide an estimate which reflects the actual costs to build on your block at North Rothbury. It is also noted that you have upgraded a range of items for inclusion in your home and given a ducted air conditioning package free-of-charge. You also received steel frames and trusses at no additional cost. The items listed below are some of the factors that resulted in a higher price after the aforementioned testing was carried and are reflected in the final estimate.

1. Your block of land has no sewer and hence a waste water treatment plant is required along with a percolation test and was included in the final estimate;

2. There is no power to your block so there are additional costs to provide a power pole, overhead electrical wires, underground site wiring and metering;

3. In order to comply with BASIX requirements (the NSW government require all new homes to meet requirements to reduce water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions) it was necessary to include a solar power system in your home;

4. Your block has rock at a shallow depth. We have tried to reduce costs by excavating to rock depth and then doing a drop edge beam to 1/3 perimeter instead of piering and rock breaking. While this has reduced the price, your proposed home is a large one and the block is very poor;

5. A provisional sum allowance has been provided to excavate the weathered rock on your site;

6. It is likely that the area your block is located will be in a high bushfire area so we have included a provisional sum allowance to achieve compliance;

7. There is a swale/culvert at the front of your block that has added to the complexity and cost of providing a concrete driveway;

8. There are additional concrete supply and delivery costs to North Rothbury; and

We have done what is possible to reduce costs but in order to stay in business and ensure we can actually be around to build you home we must charge appropriate and viable margins. There are many builders going broke because they build homes at unsustainable rates.

For clarity, and as you identify, the design is based on Integrity’s Cascade 399 design and in accordance with Australian copyright laws, the intellectual property in the design remains with Integrity. It is possible for a third party builder to have a one-off copyright release to build this home upon payment of a copyright release fee, which is available upon request and will include provision of a drawing file.

Integrity New Homes

Dear Sally, In considering Integrity New Homes to build you a home at Newcastle, you may be interested in some of the processes and systems we have in place to control and deliver positive construction outcomes on site. Some years ago we realised that a documented quality assurance framework was vital. The Integrity Edge quality assurance scheme was created and continues to be implemented, updated and improved to this day. It combines a series of on-site meetings with clients during the construction of a home along with a series of specified minimum standards for trade contractors (covering every discipline). Contractors receive financial penalties if the relevant trade specific Integrity Edge paperwork is not completed, signed and attached to their invoices. It is worth remembering our homes are built by people, not robots and as a result mistakes can occur from time-to-time – indeed mistakes can occur no matter who builds your home. The Integrity Edge provides a framework and system from which these errors can be documented, addressed and (hopefully) not repeated.

Yours faithfully,

Integrity New Homes Pty Ltd

Dear DJJ, Thank you for your enquiry. Prices for new home construction vary dramatically around Australia due to labour and material costs varying from area-to-area. The starting price for a two storey home in Griffith in country New South Wales will vary significantly compared with building the same home in, say, south western Sydney. Where are you planning to build?

Plus the design of the home will greatly impact on the cost. A basic two storey box will be much cheaper to build than a two storey home with a skillion roof in a "u" shape. Do you want face brick or rendered brick? Further your block of land will also impact on the build cost (ie how flat is the block and what is the soil type?). To provide information to you that will actually be of value, we really need to speak with you to determine what you are trying to achieve with your new home, as just handing out a price with some inclusions is not really going to help you much.

Dear Fee, We appreciate you are seeking feedback from past clients who have built with Integrity New Homes in Tamworth. However, it may be of interest to you that Integrity New Homes has built around 30 homes in Tamworth in the past 4 years and continue to do so with several new home building contracts signed in the past few weeks. One of the cornerstones of our approach is the Integrity Edge quality assurance scheme which includes a series of site meetings with the client and the Project Manager.

There are also more than 20 trade specific Integrity Edge forms covering every discipline. Contractors receive financial penalties if the relevant trade specific Integrity Edge paperwork is not completed, signed and attached to their invoices. The program is further developed and refined and changes and improvements made to existing checklists. The reality is that with handmade products such as a home (and there are not many handmade products anymore) mistakes will be made due to human error – these can occur no matter who builds your home. The Integrity Edge provides a framework and system from which these errors can be documented, addressed and (hopefully) not repeated.

Yours faithfully,

Integrity New Homes Pty Ltd

I built with Integrity in Newcastle. Good in design and sales support. On site construction was a bit up and down, changing supervision etc. Many errors were made which they did attend to. The finishes were good in the end but clean up and handover was ordinary. Overall OK but could have been a lot better (like many of the views I have heard from other builders).

Hi Loz, we have built in Maclean area. They have been good! Somewhat a bit slow at times, but would definitely go integrity or Gardiner homes over coral or perry homes. If we did it again we would go with a private builder. hope this may help a little

Yes we did ,good designs.BUT don't expect to get everything right.It depends on the contractors they can get at the time.Private builders general get the better ones.Our experience was a nightmare.Interigty Homes did what they wanted to.Hey they will tell you anything to get your new home started.Youve been warned.Ive got a list as long as my arm,and a lower bank account as well,We had timber boards falling off 24 mth after we moved in. Best of Luck......

Hi, our build was completed in 2014 and we found the whole process with integrity appalling. I would not recommend them to anyone. Our roof started to sink on the entry way and it took us going to fair trading to get it resolved. They talk big, unless the Coffs Harbour office has had a new owner/ manager I would not go with them. We still don't have an occupation certificate and it looks like a review we placed on here has been removed. Good luck

Thank you for your response, it certainly has helped in our decision making process

They are the biggest shonky in the building industry ,..they don,t give you Occupational certificat ( it is not in their contract ) without OC you can,t move in to your house, so they take the last payment of you, and you are don ...it will take you months ,befor they even reply to your emails, forget about rectification they promis you everything ,never never trust them .

They have so many hidden cost... And they hit you with the Variation cost in the middle of the construction......big big costs ..if you don,t agree to pay. They put stop to your construction . This mob is snack in the grass ,,this is the best name for them.

Build with some one else .....build with someone else .plz don,t trust them.

Yes. We have had similar poor experience with this builder. They hide behind their contracts and have no integrity which is ironic!

I have recently built with INH and wouldn't recommend them. My experience has been terrible. They do not communicate and do not follow up. They do not meet deadline, breach contract and will not correct mistakes made by them and their contractors.

Hi v.fry, thanks for that we have decided to go with Rivergum Homes who have had some good reports.

Cheers

Sorry, I do not know builders in Canberra except that they tend to be expensive. My experience is with Integrity New Homes in Newcastle. I am not sure if they have franchise in the ACT region.

Currently building with them, Murray is great at show home 10/10, very helpful and has a building back ground to help with plans etc, once he steps aside and goes onto the next step in tweed it has been a joke. From driving up to tweed to pick colours, tiles, never had a kitchen plan, and weeks finally receiving one without any bench space. We were hoping for the build to start early 2015, still not started, I have had to step in and try to manage the whole thing between the excavator, pool builder, rock wall builder and Integrity who has a estimator, construction manager and I don't know who is running the show.. Bad communication through out this stage and STILL haven't started. Then a 1% late build fee is slapped on our bill for it not being started yet without notice???? when it is their bad communication and process as to why it has taken so long. I have emailed Richard Brennan who monitors this site, got his email from one of his answers here about my concerns before placing any feed back on here , but guess what - NO response. The land has been excavated through me and has been sitting there for 1 month. If INH reads this my number is 0413667432. I am hoping the build is very quick and easy and hope the NEW construction manager has better customer service and communication skills like Murray. To be continued......

P.S My work colleague was selling her home and was looking at building since my signing with INH, has sold her house a couple months ago, not going to build after my experience and is moving into her recently purchased house next week.

Thank you Mrnice. Your comments were very interesting. Perhaps we may reconsider our options. Good luck with your build.

We built in the Ballina area. Agree Murray was good and helpful, but once moved out of his hands the communication was less than joyful. We had a custom design and several of the first attempt plans were not what we had asked for, but eventually we did achieve our design desires. We had several issues throughout but most eventually were resolved. We did find that INH were accommodating for allowing talking freely with tradies and site visits.

We had to contend with at the time of our build a less than satisfied INH project manager with his employment at INH and this reflected on our experience of the build also, not unexpected and likely not unique to INH. Just had the result of escalating our own displeasure at minor issues, also not to be unexpected.

We have been in our INH built home for just under 2 years now and can say that our home is lovely and we are happy with the end result. Minor things that we have handled ourselves but nothing that can be a maintenance on any build. Would we build again with INH? Probably not, but only because the communication or lack there of, was quite stressful and the extra paid does not really reflect anymore prestige than other local project home builders.

I am just in the last stage of building a house with INH in Ewingsdale. The whole process has been a disaster. I dealt with the Tweed Heads office and they were all dysfunctional. The building started before xmas last year and is still not finished.It sat for a month with nothing being done.

From the beginning I had to basically do my own plan and I may as well have gone with a local builder.I looked at a Metricon Home I really liked and I told them I wanted the same living area as the Metricon Home. Someone from the office went and measured up the Metricon Home and I had already taken photos to show I wanted exactly the same thing. They couldnt even get that right.

I spent hours going through selections and there were so many things done wrong. I have had to watch everything they did and was overcharged numerous times. I questioned a costing two weeks ago, I have sent four emails and still no response. I asked for some colour for my concrete drive all he had to do was make a phone call and I was charged $1150. I asked a guy from the concrete company how much it should cost and he said between $400 and $500.

A couple of times I have checked prices and they wanted to charge me $10 more than retail price for the downlights. I am so sorry I went with INH I have never been so stressed and there has not been one bit of support from anyone at the Tweed Heads office. Five staff members have left in the last six months and there has been no communication. I wouldnt touch them again with a ten foot pole. THEY ARE JUST A BIG RIP OFF.

Thank you Oak1965 and lizzieonline1 for your comments. We have definitely decided to build with another builder.

Hi, I think its Coffs Harbour but they have changed their website so its VERY difficult to contact them. We recently got them to do some work on the house by contacting the local sales office and requested the new site manager contact us. After a couple of calls and emails my husband finally got contacted. Just keep trying!!

Dear Tamika,

The Coffs Harbour office can be contacted by phoning (02) 6652 9600.

The Kingscliff office can be contacted by phoning (02) 6674 8555.

You may also wish to make contact by calling 1300 886 793.

Regards,

Integrity New Homes

Yes their Head Office is in Coffs Harbour.

We only had a couple of very minor problems when building which were quickly fixed , we have been in our house for a few months now and are very happy, if we were to build again we woild definately use inh.

Thank you R & J, this information was helpful. We are planning to build in Casuarina and have not been able to decide on a builder as yet.

Hi Shine, If your looking at Integrity New Homes, stay clear... I could not say it enough, we had issues prior to handover and are still dealing with them 4 years on! I have built with Coral Homes since and would recommend them (I'm in the Lismore/Ballina Area), issues and concerns I have had with them were rectified or clarified quickly and normally above what was required.

I'd recommend reading as many reviews about Integrity New Homes, and most of positive reviews are because they have not been in their homes very long.

Most of the negative reviews would be correct as they are from people who have been in a little while.

Do not go near this company. we have watched them build a home near our Street.It has taken nearly a year and the external finish is appalling. Feel very sorry for the home owners of this house.

No. Don't do it. My review is pending approval.

No no no don,t do it with them look for another builder. Any price they give you you be surprised ....how much more they will hit u with Variation ,,,,,poor workman ship. No communication , they Change staff like their shirts .no one stays long enough in that office.