Long Island Homes Questions & Answers

the detail experience definitely I can't write. but overall the harassment is the client officer who never get back to you with your enquiries and problems unless you called her many times may be 20-30 times goes to voice msg bank and when you drop emails at last then she will reply may be in 2-3 days or never. its upto her. I never see anythis is really frustrating and she will come back with her defined lines apologise and plumber is there and we are not sure .....like, never tries to solve the issues and just do patch work. I can understand of they did some internal faults because of low quality and if the faults visible and created problems then also she is not organising in fixing the problem.

I have the same experience as well its quite unfortunate I Build with long island

Hi, I think the actual handover date has to contact with builder, for our experience, it depends on your final inspection review.

Hi Jess, I'm currently building with long Island homes. When we were choosing colours we were unable to get accurate prices or a total price at our colour appointment. I'm not sure if that'll be the same for you - as we picked our colours last year. However we did take 7 hours to pick, as first home buyers we thought we knew what we wanted haha. Not knowing the accurate price made it hard as we upgraded a lot of things. However we were happy with the end price. They send out the colour selection & total price via email to sign. We've been fortunate with our build, we changed the heights of our windows, added an extra window and wanted taller doors for our wardrobes and sliding doors. Which was our fault for not realising when we signed the contract. This added an extra cost and extended our contract end date. We're very great full it could be changed. My advice is to make sure you go over your drawings, so you don't do what we did only realise once they've started building. I would highly recommend getting a private building inspector. Our inspector is called Darbecca. Well worth the money. We didn't get a conveyancer to go over our contract, so I can't help you with that question. All the best with your build

Hi Jass - we found LIH to be the most negotiable, we tried a few other mainstream builders and they just said no. Before you go in for the big day figure out your own colour schemes so you have a good idea on what you want - also choices of flooring, tiles, carpet then all the rest - bricks, roof tiles, rendering, toilets, taps, lighting, doors, kitchen cabinetry and the list goes on. Also check plans to make sure it is what you want etc etc - they are all negotiable - depending on pricing of course. Good luck on the journey.

Hi
The bushfire levy is a Gov tax and is different for each area. We were lucky that the Gov withdrew our levy and we received a refund.
On the turn key price l would contact Susan Mc Dermott at Long Island and see if she can help. I dont have the details about your pricing but lm sure she will break it down for you. Susan is based in Point Cook office. Hope this has helped. Regards Matt

To my experience with LIH, the only way to ensure no unplanned delays is to allow 3 to 6 months delay at the beginning.
My single storey house has none of the problems that Susan mentioned, but still was substantially delayed, planning+negotiation took 5 months (Jul-Dec), then took 11 months (Jan-Dec) to complete after contract signing. Pre-site (I'm not sure what it means!) alone took 4 months with no apparent activities to me as client, apart from that the grass grown taller and taller and I had to paid for grass-cutting before LIH took over the site.

Why not try to increase the penalty for delaying handing over the house (liquidated damage) from $250/week to a higher value. See what's the builder's reaction.
Please note that there are many other items that the builder can claim extension of time, eg, inclement weather, Christmas holidays (45+ days), etc. Include at least 20 days bad weather in the construction period, especially if it is thru the wet season.

I answer the questions not for demanding any right from the builder as my house was already completed. Just to share the experience with readers. You may judge the reliability of the reviews/answers (both good and bad comments). It is not difficult to see which is true and which is not!

i was reading somewhere in building review web page that the main reason for delaying in house is payment to trades people. When building company gets in financial trouble, when they can not pay their trades and tradies leave them and go somewhere, they have to find new trades who are in need of work and same thing go in loop and build go delay.look in the details of Bob Day's Huxley Homes, Ashford homes etc.

Couple of people I heard saying this builder takes approx 18 month to finish double story and 14 months for single. Horrible stories about staff and cheap tradies. No quality in most cases unless someone is lucky and gets good tradie for the job. Overseas non English speaking workers may be on working visa. Once contract is done one is hanged....

don't do it be warned major delays poor communication having to watch everything like a hawk mistakes abound

I used a company called CDRS Global to review my building contract. They pointed out all the issues within the contract and the special clauses that favoured the builder. They also found issues with the plans. Once all was fixed I had a good run with the builder. Couple hundred bucks spent early in the process will save thousands of dollars as well as time down the track.

Hi Gracie, did you end up signing? How is your build going?

Hey ! I didn't have solar panel installed by Long Island , and just suggesting do ask them from which date your 220 days period will start , make sure it's start from the day you sign contract, I didn't check it and later found 220 days period start when they received all approvals from council and developers , after signing contract they took 5 months to get approval , it's been 13 months since I first met there sales person , they are really slow so be patient, Iam paying mortgage n rent from last 13 months and with 2 kids it's really hard but they don't care about it .. I don't want comment on anything else as my house is still building but do hire personal inspector , I lost my trust with Long Island

Hi Sanjeev, sorry to hear about the delays, could you please tell me more about this 220 days, I don't know anything about it. How long more do you expect they will take ?

Wow! That's shocking, I am thinking If i should pull out now and go with another builder. Yes, I will be hiring a private inspector as my confidence in LIH is dipping.

Q1:I had the same solar hot water system installed by LIH by default and happened to check with a plumber installing a Rheem hot water system in my other house. He told me that Chromogen is regarded as one of the worst brands and always has bad history and poor after sales support. Perhaps you may check other forums,eg, Product Review. Having said so, I have no issues yet (7 months old), but I cannot tell whether the solar panels do help or not as there is no way to know whether it works or not.

Q2: To my experience, you may end up in serious trouble if you don't expect delays from LIH! A suggested "norminal" margin is 3 to 6 months delay. You may notice that even those giving high scores to LIH in this forum mentioned that delay is normal to LIH, like slow progress brings good workmanship etc. (which I totally disagree). You have to be very careful about contract start date. It's NOT the date you sign the contract. See carefully its definition in the contract terms. Usually it's after getting all approval, permits, land clearance, etc etc, AND when LIH inform you after pre-site meeting!! (which I foundthat it is totally unreasonable and ridiculous!) ALSO, you have to check the inclement weather clause/provision. In my case it only allowed 8 days (some other builder allow 20 to 28 days). This will easily extend another 20-30 days for completion. If you want to have less problems, use the Consumer Council Victoria's building contract. Do not use LIH's standard contract which is naturally all on their side. But LIH may not accept this. Another suggestion is to have the delay penalty increase from the standard $250/week to,say, $1000-2000/week? Again, you may face stiff resistance for it. Good luck (yes, you need luck) if you decide to go with LIH.

Q3. Depends on the scope of works. If the builder is not doing the landscaping works, only a general leveling around the site will be done. In my case, it took the landscaper to cart away two big dump trucks of debris/cement/soil leftover (site area about 650 sq m with a 380sq m house envelop) for the preparation of landscaping works!

what i have heard is entering into contract mean entering into stress, trauma for those 300-400 days. everyday, weeks, months full of stress, you simply will never do this again. they will not listen.

Thank you Liway and Jasm for your response. Apologies for the delay in my response. I started to look for other builders, however no one I've checked with so far is willing to make changes to the extent that LIH have agreed to. For being so accommodating of the changes to the floor plan, I'll give them some leeway and come to terms with the fact that the construction may be delayed, however will take your advise on the contract to ensure the delay does cost them a significant amount per week. My trust in them has can only be rebuilt with an on-time hand over and workmanship of the highest standards. I am also hiring the services of a building inspector to check every stage. They claim to build over 300 houses per year... It surprising that they have only received 27 reviews on this site. Is it really a case where most customers are happy and don't really bother leaving a review or are they bring put through so much of a hassle that they have just given up. :) Well only time will tell. I'm certainly coming back here to leave a review once my home is built.

Dot,
don't expect too much on the independent inspectors. My own (also with some other friends') experience is that these inspectors seem only report on relative minor issues; but for certain, having one is better than none! LIH's claim for building over 300 houses per year may be true, but starting from when? People do not write reviews may have other considerations, or simply don't bother to do so. I don't see any correlations between the number of reviews and the builder's performance. Although higher numbers may be more relevant, one has to judge the content, quality and (more importantly) reliability of the reviews. Anyway, it will be interesting to hear your experience with LIH, and again, GOOD LUCK.

Hi Dot, have you started building with Long Island? How is it going? We are looking at signing with them

Hi SaBear, Sorry I couldn't get to this post earlier. You probably already signed your contact by now.

I pulled out, the underlying reason was, communication. I couldn't just pick up the phone and speak to someone over there. Which lead to alot of stress. More over our plans were modified and their team who did the drawings couldn't get things right.

We lost 8-9 months of workings on the drawings leading up to contract signing and I lost complete faith in them that post contract signing things would go smoothly. So , we changed builders and started from scratch, coz LIH won't let you use the same plans elsewhere some sort of copyright rules. We are looking forward to move into our new place next month.

The fact that you are on Product review, makes me think, they have given you reason to doubt their work. If you have signed the contract, I pray that they deliver a quality build for you and your family. Sit tight it's going to be a long 8-9 months ( other builders finish in 6)

If you haven't signed contract, you still have time to pull out, you just lose the $1500 deposit.

Happy to help if you have any further questions.
Regards,
Dot

Which builder you finally chose?

GJ Gardner... Reviews to follow as soon as we get out Internet connection. To say the least we are very happy.

Dont ever go with them. Their drafting is of ppor standard and even after 8 version they cant get things right. Plus they are not affordable..

Go with Simonds .They are very good. We do not like LIH saying big builders are no good because viewing display homes of LIH finish is very bad . There are cracks and bad brickwork in the Rockbank home we saw .

Allow a good twelve months. From when I signed for the block of land at the end of June 2014 to them starting to actually build took four months. My slab went down on the week of the Melbourne cup then my sat for 7 weeks before the frame went up. Nothing was done over the Christmas/January period and I didn't get settlement until the end of May 2015. They are good builders and the quality has been great but they were much slower than I thought or wanted them to be. I built a terrace house so this added time to the build but I would allow yourself a good twelve months. A friend from work was going to go with them but they messed her around for four months. They do their contract process differently now to when I signed with them and after four months she has ended up going with a different builder as she couldn't afford the time frame they were telling her it would be before she could move in. . As I said, a good quality build but allow yourself time or you will get frustrated.

I requested my house (one level custom-built single dwelling of about 370sq m) to be completed in June 2015 when I first contacted LIH in end July 2014. Ended up completing in Dec 2015. Late penalty (just $250/week!) was applied, but LIH showed no concern at all for such SMALL penalty. They don't seem to care about client's completion time expectation nor worry about their reputation for being late.
I don't quite agree that longer time will achieve a better job. Not in my case. Painting works are substantially below standard. Some items of works are good though.
My observation is that if the time taken after contract signing, and if construction works were better managed/planned/supervised, the completion time can be 2 to 3 months earlier.
Your question just mention "from first sketch... to start"? may not be meaningful if you don't take into consideration of the actual build time. Even after completion of working drawings, it took 3+ months for LIH to start work on site in my case.
Generally kit house takes much shorter time than custom built.
My only advise is that if time is an essential factor for you, you should think twice+twice!!

We have finished building with Long Island Homes. They have finished the house in 6 months which is good. We have moved 7 months ago. The big problem is there are so many cracks in all ceiling corners- cornices, cracks in all the skirting boards. Most of them are getting detached from the wall with cracks between the walls and skirting. They have advised me to fix them myself by filling them. Are these cracks common for everyone? Thanks

Hi Susan, please allow me to disagree with you on that all your "construction supervisors are all very experienced and long term members". In my case, there are 3 supervisors within the 7 month construction period. All 3 of them are newly joined LIH. Apart from grossly lacking of technical knowledge and required supervision/attendance, the second one knows nothing about anything, except just let tradesmen do their job and blindly say everything is OK. The last one, changed about 3 weeks ago, apparently is very good. My project has passed the contract date and the date stated in LIH's letter, and is yet to be completed (will write a review after handing over). If there were adequate supervision and attendance and management, the house should have already be completed by now, bearing in mind that at day 1 of contacting LIH, the requested target completion date was end June this year!.

I thought I would answer your question here seeing as though my review was not published and it was removed. From the beginning there is no respect or decent customer service-the sales person acts like you are wasting their time until you pay a the 1k deposit.Very rude, and not good at customer care at all, and there is just no element of trust. I would seriously question their integrity and avoid them like the plague. If there's no trust why would you risk them building your home??

LIH overall is a good builder and i will rate them 9 out of 10. The quality you will get is Good though they are a bit slow but they completed my home in the contract time even though i had all upgrades. I wont blame them for being slow as my experience says that in construction a lot of parameters have to taken care off and usually a construction projects get delayed a little bit. Take you time to read the paperwork before signing them and include all upgrades before hand unless you want to pay more later. To answer your question now in a line " If i will build a sloping block home LIH will be the top contender without any doubt".

PM me on surinder.mehta@hotmail.com if you need anything else

Hi Sunny, I didn't go with Saluja homes. I am building through Long Island Homes and its the slowest Victorian builder with zero customer services and No duty of care.

Thank you and i hope you live peacefully at your new home.

Hi Sunny, I am building with Sulja homes..their customer service is poor and they take a very long time to build your house..i have signed up with them in July 2014 and still waiting for my house to be ready..Thanks Prince

Thank you. I thought so as i could not find any reviews for them online. Best of luck. Regards

Hi Sunny, This is my third home with Sulja Homes. love their quality, no issues what so ever. Great quality and competitive prices. signed the contract in December 2014 and already finished by June 2015.

Lalit Shah

Hi Lalit, can i ask which suburb you have built the new house. I have seen the builders ute with Saluja homes signage in Epping Lyndarum for past 1 year and they are working on that house since last year. Thx

In Melton, my friends are building with them too. not sure what is the issue there, but we never had any issue with them 10 out of 10.
also i am building with Sulja not Saluja may be its different builder. its Lalit not Lalir

Hi Lalit, thanks for your reply. Excuse my typos, using phone to do this. Yes Sulja homes in Epping, very slow process. I guess you were lucky. Anyways thanks Lalit

Hi sunny,

I have built with sulja homes.. My advise don't do it.

Their customer service is so so poor it's actually disgusting. You could literally send 5 email and call 18 times and get no response. I felt completely out of control.

You don't get inspections, and most invoices will be wrong.

Be smart and trust your money in a bigger and more organised company

Hi Sunny,

Do not do it!
Firstly, it takes them 11 months to finish our 19 squares' one story house. Although there is this 190 days wrote one our contract, but we were told that start date should be counted from the date they issue us the first invoice, in fact, they issued us the first invoice 3 months after they start construction.

Secondly, they will only contact you when they ask you to make a payment. During this 11 months we never talked to any managements or a onsite manager, we were only allowed talk to reception or administration girls, even for our onsite inspections. And it already took at least a few days or one week to forward your requests to the person in charge and if you do not ask again and again they will never reply back and try to avoid your request.

Too many problems with them.

Do not worth to sign a contract with them. Really awful experience.

I already built my house with Sulja homes and I had really awaful experience. The sales manager was alright but after that once the construction started ...you are left alone. They are very slow to build, poor workmanship. I have gone through exactly the same as what above has been said by others. Even they installed my very own supplied cooktop incorrect and due to that it burnt glass splashback and I am still in wait to know what is happening with it. I paid extra to get my canopy outlet to roof but I found out after one month of moving, that has not been done. It not only me but all the house build behind by house were by Sulja Homes and they all had similar experiences. I am Still feeling stress thinking of it. It was a whole lot of nightmare of 12 months since the contract signed till handover. I wouldn't recommend anyone to build with them. Just BEWARE.

Three words
dysfunctional
Disappointing
unprofessional
The builder him self is the devil.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I was surprised to see that there was not a single review on google for this company. Now i know to stay away from them. Thx

Be aware!!!! I have the same problem as above. Before you sign contracts they will promise you everything. Once you sign the contract and make deposits. It will be difference story. I have waiting more than 6 month, still haven't got building permits. And can't do anything. In the contract, there is no start and finish date. So you can't sue them. And they don't care you, Even you send 10 email and 20-30 call. There is no reply. One of the guy wating 1 year, his house still haven't start yet.

Read the contract nd sign it for 180 days they will not include 3 weeks around Xmas but with inclusions add everything now else u will pay more at the end especially with brick nd mortar garage door entrance door tiles kitchen cabinet nd handles stone taps upgrade appliances now include extra electric points refrigerator cavity tap toilet seat entrance door led lights Gray/ translucent film glass splash back( gold range/star fire range u won't like the silver range)sliding cavity door....carpet etc Don't lea anything swallow the bitter pill now else u will pay more if u expect to use something later get the provision now ... Check the inclusion point to point before u sign nd prices for tap etc will be online for splash back ceaser stone tiles check them before hand u can negotiate now but after contract is signed u will be stuck best of luck they are good builder but bit slow(which is good nd bad) get ur inspection done( I did with Melbourne property inspection) base/frame/lockup/completion I hope I haven't missed anything....patience is the key here as builders are mucked around by tradies but try to everything in email

Let me know mate if you need anything else

Precautions "after" signing contract? There is not much you can do after you sign the contract. If possible, do it before signing. If you have signed, you probably will be in a similar position as me: signed contract in January, up to now still don't know when site works will commence. Also, there are threads here and in other forum saying that works seem to be suspended after 90% of contract sum is paid. If completion time is important to you, you better rethink your situation and allow longer time.

Hi Surinder & liway, I really appreciate ur both valuable comments. I haven't signed yet and will be doing in coming days. I will be careful now before I sign - to get a clear picture of construction process. I will review my inclusions and do bit research, I didnt realise I may end up spending lot money at colour selections. :-(
lilway - I hope things goes good ur side soon.
Surinder- I am glad u happy with ur house finally.
I will update my status soon here so it will be helpful to everyone.

Hi Billa, If you are a first home buyer and expecting them to finish the job as promised by the their sales-persons. I suggest you better stay away with LIH. This is the slowest builder and once you sign their NON-REFUNDABLE contract, you will be the only looser. Read different people's threads about the issues which you will start facing at each stage during your house build with Long Island Homes.
I signed the contract in June 2014 and the sales-rep gave me words that my house will be ready by Nov-2014 and yes i'll do the X'max-2014 at my house. I was warned by different persons about the delays but i ignored their tips as i was over the moon and sales-rep were very nice with me before signing the contract. I raised my concerns with them about the delays. But they gave me words that it will never happen with you. Other-peoples are either fake or the things got delayed by their end.
I was convinced by LIH sales-rep and i sign the contract and after that it all got changed and there was a delay at every stage. My house is still under construction and not yet given any hand-over date. I will never ever recommend this builder to my dear ones.

Hi Surinder, I really appreciate ur review , I got 2 options to choose for inclusions, any chance if u can give email- I will send inclusions to you and it will be gr8 help if u suggest which one to choose.

Hi Achilles, thanks for your valuable time for review.
Firstly sorry for how things going with you. When you sign contract, how many days it says in contract & do they pay any penalty if they exceed. I guess It's 10 months now u signed ur contract , it's pretty long time & how big is ur house & Wr is location?
I am taking my time & thinking twice to go head or not :-( I will consider all reviews and will take decision.
Good Luck for you. Hope things change & be quicker

Billa my email is surinder.mehta@hotmail.com

Hi Billa, My house is just 19.7 Sq. No i didn't get any compensation for any delays. Their staff is quite rude (after signing the contract) and no duty of care at all.
Just a recent example, when i call to [name removed] (their client's representative) on Friday at about 3pm to enquire about the status of my house. She talked very rudely and said that she has 87 projects to look after and i must not be calling her to waste her time and she will update me by close of business.

Hi Achilles,
Wow i am shocked the response you got from customer service. I believe they forgetting there basic minimums, no matter what - there is no point to be rude. I really wish you good luck & May be u should record all ur conversations for ur future.

Hi Billa,
If you are unsure, I would strongly consider a contract review by CR Partners > www.contractreviewpartners.com.au/faq/ They will go through your plans/colours/specifications etc and sit with you and explain exactly what you are getting (all compiled in a report). Cheap way to avoid disappointment or worse, costly disputes.
regards,

Hi John,
Thank You for your advice, i will definitely check this and sorry for late message, Some how I missed ur message.
Achilles, hope things going good your side.

Billa

Hi Achilles: there are other builders doing the same: suspend works after getting 90% of the contract sum. At least I have a friend, who is building with another builder (quite a reputable one, not a big builder), is exactly in the same situation as you. I was told that the reason is for small/medium builders, they would maintain the number of projects to maximize the bank drafting facilities. It's more beneficial for them to keep the profile/number of active projects as high as possible rather than getting your remaining 10% (bear in mind that their profit margin is way over 10%, so they are already in a sure win situation!). Whereas for mass builders, they just want quick turnover and 1 project less does not affect them so much. So the lesson is that if you want a quick job (quality??), go to the bigger builders for standard design, and you may get a better chance. My view is that if builders are doing this ill-practice all along, eventually people will feel the pain and keep away from them, or at least their business will not be as good as should be.

Long Island Homes Official: Thank-you for showing your presence here and replying to my question. Whatever i posted it was all coming from Rachael's weekly status updates.
Below is the email communication which i had with Rachael.

Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 2:52 PM
LIH CR consultant: The Supervisor has advised of the following:
· The carpet is scheduled to be installed next week
· The driveway is scheduled for next week

Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 2:54 PM,
Me: Can you please also update me whats happening in this week

LIH CR consultant: "I do not have an update of what is happening this week which leads me to believe that no works are occurring at this stage due to being close to the first inspection so we are waiting on the final items to be addressed."

Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 9:26 AM
Me: Since we are heading towards the first pre-handover inspection so i believe the work should be done on each day to finish every thing in time.
But as per your last email, i could not understand that why no work is occurring due to being close to the first inspection?

Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 9:29 AM
LIH CR consultant: As explained at the beginning of the process, works are not carried out each day so whilst we are heading to the first inspection that does not mean that someone will be onsite every day.
It also does not mean it will not be finished in time.
Works will be carried out as scheduled and I will keep you updated each week as I do now.

Me (Current Status):
And after couple of weeks i got the same status update that Driveway and Carpets are schedule for the current/next week.
The driveway is just done by Weekending 27-Mar-2015.
The carpets are not yet done as of Friday 27-Mar-2015.

In addition to my previously comment, LIH CR consultant has sent me a list of small tasks which were done during the subject two weeks.
She told me to give the Pre-handover inspection date asap early April-2015. Previously she told to give that by end of March-2015.
I am hoping that things will go good from here onward.

Hi Achilles.

How are you traveling with your home now?

i am experiencing major delays too.

Only big builders do complete the work on time, the only thing is you need to read and understand their terminology. They make money from their policies, but if you are good or better than them they are the correct people. Small builders do not have a system, every day/week new staff. Contractor, draftsman, etc. not enough contractors in the network so time management is very poor. Only the owner of the company/builder is experience and all front line staff will be not quick and professional. With small builder if you have paid the deposit forget then you are nothing the sale person who looked after you during the sale will not take your call. Will say they did not say this/that so so.. it is a learning step, building home is 1 of top 6 stress in life. To reduce the stress get ready and go to volume builder. 2-3 years down the line they will close the business, they cannot survive long. Consumer are very smart now a days, they meet other house owners on social media or on site to find how the builder go with them. News go very quickly, they even don't realise that they buy bread and butter from their customers money paid as deposit/payment. If no customer then nothing. One day they have to realise.

1. Is it their normal practice that after signing the contract, you'll be ignored?
NI: Yes Long Island Homes will now least care about you or your dream home. When you will followup then you will be told that building house takes time and following up every other week will not speedup any thing. I was also told to have patience as they had when i was choosing my preferred builder.

2. What is "pre-site"?
NI: This is very important meeting. Before starting the construction, they will ask you to come and sign the documents whatever they have prepared and going to build.

3. How long will it take from signing contract to pre-site finalization (for my case, pre-site meeting has not been fixed 2 months after signing!!)?
NI: It should not take more than 4-8 weeks as other builders like Carlisle Homes, Sulja Homes, Porter Davis, My Complete Packages etc etc guarantee me even less than that time. But with Long Island Homes it will take ages. You are not the priority any more.

4. How long will it normally take after pre-site to casting the slab/foundation?
NI: Again Long Island Homes will find reasons for delays. Like in my case after taking several months they told me that they will be on-site in few days. But again that will delayed an delayed.

5. Contract period is 210 days. Will LIH normally keep to the contract completion date? Usually longer or shorter time?
NI: No comment on this as my house construction is not yet finished but overall its is going quite slow.

P.S:- I'll write a complete experience with Long Island Homes and their After-hand-over support services once i get the hand-over.

i u have signed the contract it may be for 210 days as most of January tradies are off....have u got ur finance approved and color selection done....if yes they should have applies for the permits which once approved construction has to start in 30 days .... they will do it under that time period .... they will move very quickly till lock up and then a bit slow till fixing and completion ....once you have got the permits just make sure u follow up with them regularly for the start date.... most of teh builders are doing it in around 6 months if its a custom built

Thank you all for the reply. --- Achilles: it seems that we are in the same boat while you are near to get on shore, but I just set off in the wrong boat! Your complete experience will definitely be helpful. It's good to share experience with others that are seeking builders.---- Surinder: Finance, approval, permits all OK, color selection done in November 2014! That's why I don't understand why it still takes so long to start site works. 210 days count from March (probably), not January or the Xmas period. Mine is a single-level custom built house, as you said most of the builders are doing it around in 6 months, is that also applicable to LIH? You kindly advise me to follow up with them regularly, but what can you do if they just ignore you and do not reply to you?

I signed the contract in June-2014 and was given words that I'll be in my house before X'mas 2014. But they came On-Site in Mid-November after several delays at each and every step. I have heard from other people that this is just the start as they will become extremely slow or No-Work once they get pass the Fixing stage (since they will take 90% of payment from you by that time). So be mindful what going to happen to your house build after Fixing Stage specially.

Achilles: Do you mean that after signing the contract in June 2014, they started in late November, 5 months+ after signing? What is your contract period and when is the commencement date stated in the contract?

Hi Liway: Yes they started the construction in November 2014. Their incapable and inefficient sales team told me that i'll do the Christmas at my house when i signed the contract in June 2014. As per my contract it has to finished by May 2015.
There is no work done at all for the last two weeks. So all the stories are true about Long Island Homes. When they get pass the fixing stage, they stop doing the construction as they have already taken 90% so they never cares after that

Hi Liway,
when you say the last supervisor is good, what is his name? so far they dont have any good for thier site supervisor that is why they have thier own Jim's surveyors , free of charge to give you free survey after build and they will will say all very good. will see them in few years down the line they. Management cant manage the people, ignoring thier own customers will be very expensive. people start talking that going to VCAT, MBA and other associations is the last option. once contract is sign sales/management never say hi/hello/email anything to you even they ignore you.

Hi Jas, his name is Dxxxxx (sorry, naming is not allowed here), just joined LIH a short time ago. So far, he's sensible, diligent and knowledgeable. Although my project is not so smooth and I agree with you that LIH's construction management is very weak (if any!), they have something good in some areas. Totally agree with you that if there is no improvement on their side, they will taste the bitterness later.

thank you, so called experience construction team is sitting inside and sending new site supervisor at sites who even dont know how to look after sites, what responsibilities they have and how to communicate. wow management come out and look your customers see thier houses during build, i saw other day a Metricon house under construction and i stoped thier, i ask a girl that why 3 Metricon Ute's ( cars) standing here, she said we are checking the build as the lock up stage has been completed so we 3 site supervisor's have come here so that we check everything nicely so that we dont miss anything. Site supervisor has a team and they want to make sure all goes on top quality. That is what makes them proud. they dont want customers to write them or ring them and complaine. hope LIH will learn from this.building a house with these builder is like a tatts lotto ticket. may be you are a winner chances are very little.

Hi I just got mine I December nd they took complete 6 months to give me the possession nd as far they are offering you the possession within the contract timeframe it should be fine nd I agree they r slow but after looking At my friend who built with Simonds in 18 weeks I would say " later the better it is" nd u have signed a standard HSA contract nd after fixing its 10% with all the builders nd once ur above that 180 day period they will be paying u the rent so don't get stressed nd even after handover nd till 90 day appointment u will have few small issues which is a standard practice ..... Best of luck nd I hope u will love ur home like I did

On all verbal / Email communications, they were kept telling me that the contract will be max 6 months (180 days). But when i went to sign the contract they put 210 days instead of 180 days. Still they told me that most of the house will be completed by 4-5 months and 6 months is the max which a project can go.
Also they assured me that i'll get my house before X'Mas Dec-2014. But when i signed the contract, things got changed and on inquiring about my house status i was told to stop calling and writing emails. We will let you know whenever we'll have an update.
Currently the Tilling work is going on (Last week of Feb-2014). Still they are not giving me any Hand-over date.
Now my only hope and wish is that i get the good quality house in the end. If i get so, I'll be a happy customer and will give them good rating.

I think 210 days includes 3.5 weeks time during Xmas as most of the tradies are off nd I was also told by sales that they don't include that time nd even the big 4 have the same practice.

No the Xmas, weather related delays etc are not included in that 210 days. They were added on top of that.

All the stories about Long Island Homes are true. After taking the 90% amount, they have stopped my house construction. No progress at all for the past two weeks.
When i inquired about the status and why no work is being done for the past two weeks, I was rudely told that it was never stated any where that they will work on every day. Also when i asked what you will continue on this week. They told me again, no work is planned yet and if they have any update they will contact me.
I am still waiting them to contact me. I advise you NEVER EVER BUILD YOUR HOUSE WITH LONG ISLAND HOME !!!!!!!!!!!!

its a million dollar question .but the answer should be base on your requirements matched with what these guys offer and not on my opinion. My experience with LIH is good and upside is custom design which u don't get with simonds and Henley(if i m not wrong) downside is they are a bit slow and in saying so they finished my house within the contract period of 6 months. finish is good and most of the builder irrespective of their claim take around 5-5.5 months.

cont...

cont.......
if you are choosing upgrades u need to have a idea of the prices of the upgrades(rough idea) like taps, cabinetry upgrade, stone benchtop, tiles(beaumont tlles) etc ...prices are on the internet and u will have a idea as to what is charged outside .... on site costs (very important) most of the blocks end up in having P class which cost around $3K in upgrade for a 25-26 sq home ... plus any extra footing should be around $150 - $170 each ...include everything in your initial quote and add things like driveway (u can take that out later on during color selection) ... if u want to get a good home dont worry about $4-5K (give/take) as most builders will underquote u ealry and screw up the site cost later .... if i will build again LIH is on the top of the list but wills till shop around and also it depends upon your sitemanager ... i have copied their Santikka(most of it) and its a good outcome....

cont...and also make sure you had your own inspector for preslab, frame, lockup and completion stages.

HI, I can only say that we've had a stunning home built by LIH and we cannot stop raving about it, there are so many custom features in our home that people are commenting when they see our home for the first time. This is our fourth brand new home we've had built and have never seen such great quality in the build and also in the fittings and fixtures in the home. We have recently travelled down to the new displays at Armstrong Creek and Warrililly Coast just to see LIH homes new designs and they are amazing!!!! I can honestly highly recommend LIH.

Long Island Homes is slow and will cause you unnecessary delays at every stage of your house build.
You will see your friends and family starting and finishing their house build with other builders but Long Island Homes will definately find reasons for delays. I am an unfortunate cystomer building my house with them which is already delayed. My house is just 19sq
My other friend building 45+ sq hiuse on the same area with Carlisle. He started the build process almost 3-4 months later and his house is almost ready to move.
I am frustrated as i have not been given any hand-over date. Their represtative always tell me that its too early to give you any date as there are many factors which can cause delays. One of their salesrep wrote me that i should keep patience as they kept when i was choosing my preferred builder.
Long Island homes might be the best victorian employer as their employees work without any deadlines and pressure.

HI, i would think twice or more before starting with Long Island Homes. they will tell you all the fancy things and proper answers to your questions, also they will promise you a finishing time period that will impress you, that's all just to get the business. be careful, once you paid a deposit you won't be able to get it back, even if they say its all refundable they will tell they have spent that on admin work. i even went to VCAT, they couldn't help me either. VCAT said i'd have to spend more than my deposit amount to get it back, so it's not worth the trouble. so they took my money for doing nothing for 8 months.
The office people are very rude and hard to deal with. they didn't contact me or didn't put any effort to the project for 8 months and when i told them i'm not going to build with them the whole LIH office tried to contact me and tried to get the business back but still they were rude.

if i were you, i would look for another builder, there are plenty of great builders.

r u building a single or double storey and which area is it in and i think they will sign a standard HIA contract which is around 6 months + allowance for weather(10-*15 days)

Hi Surinder, i am building a single storey house (19.7 Sq).

Mate I dealt with their sales director nd she was good nd genuine I reckon u should talk to her- [name removed] nd I m sure she will sort ur issue out. I think they did my house in 6 months nd these extra days for weather are standard market practice but once roof nd bricking is done rain is no issue usually 10 days for rain are considered on top of 6 months If im not wrong

All home builders can add on some time to construction times, as they can allow for bad weather, public holidays and weekends etc. we have built with 4 different builders the last being LIH, they all have taken extra time on construction due to varying factors. LIH are also very safety and OHS conscious and don't have multiple trades working on top of each at the site at one time, unlike some other cheaper builders that can throw home together in record time.
Believe me long Island Homes are worth waiting for and the strength of the home will be testament to their building practices.

K Montgomery

Seek legal advice. Also can launch complaint to ACCC for misrepresentation