Macalister Prestige Homes

Great - thanks Macalister team – We decided to build an investment property, which was some 45 mins from where we live. So we thought it was extremely important to use a builder we could trust given that we would not be able to inspect works as often as if it was in teh same town we lived. So, local builders - Macalister Prestige Homes were chosen given they had built large number of homes in Bairnsdale, we had contact with Sale based office of Macalister and the Building Supervisor had an excellent understanding of our requirements to build a house that we could rent basically as soon as completed. We got all we could have asked for, commitment, communication, quality workmanship and delivery of the house within agreed timeframe.

Again thanks to the team at Macalister Reliable and very good communication throughout the building process

Still waiting for a cheque - wish I could select 0 stars – Started building in Feb 2011 and after paying a number of trades directly and having my solicitor send several letters of demand finally got the keys to a 90% complete house in May 2012. I am still waiting for money owed to me for liquidated damages (a clause that states how much money per week the builder owes if they do not complete the project on time). As I have built before, I asked that the clause be changed from Macalisters original $0 per week to $240 not that it has done me much good as I still have not been reimbursed. I have filed a Domestic Building List with VCAT and hope to resolve this situation soon.

Nightmare builder – We Signed 21st June 2010 to build our home on Phillip Island We were given a contract that gave us a completion date of 6 months from the time of commencement. Comencement eventually happened in October 2010. The progress was slow, slow, slow, and requests for payments were constant with every excuse and every smooth talking reason for making the payments. We were excited and having never built before naive.

April came and went we were told Sept then October then after Christmas etc. We have it in writing now a hand over date of 14 May 2012. 3 days away. Guess what they have not progressed since last September. We owe 12000 and our independent quotes tell us there is at least 80,000 to 90,000 to finish. To get some of the work done we had to pay the trades direct because Macalister’s owe money every where and trades wont work for them. We need to get certificates for work done to date as no other trades want to guarantee some one else’s work. Nightmare! We cant even get someone else to finish because they wont guarantee the work. We rang the Master Builders Association and guess what he is deregistered with them and yet he is still pulling in unsuspecting customers using Master Builders advertising materials.

We have been to consumer affairs and they cant do anything because he didn’t respond. We were told of at least 15 other cases lodged with consumer affairs. I have spoken with other victims who were signed up as recently as Sept 2011. He still drive around with his builder of the year decals on all his cars we are so sorry we signed you make you own choice.

Everything!

Would not recommend this builder at all – My partner and I started our building contract with Macalister homes in April 2011. The process was smooth sailing for a while getting the contracts ready and picking out the colours and design for the house etc. etc. and then we started to have trouble around August when the contract could still not be finalised. They had made a mistake on our plans and the house plans had to be changed, no apologies were really made for this and we were made to wait even longer for our contract to be finalised. Once the contract was finalised we paid our first deposit and we were given a start date of the 21st of September. After a month had gone by of constant excuses as to why nothing had been started (the block was apparently too wet to do the site cut - it hadn't rained for weeks) alarm bells started to ring. We finally got our site cut done at the end of October and we thought things were finally started to happen. Now it was time for the slab to be poured. Again we were fed with pathetic excuses such as the concreter is busy, then he was out of town and before we knew it, it was Christmas so of course that was great timing for them as they had a few weeks of using Christmas as an excuse. Once we got to February and nothing had been done we decided to cancel our contract. We have been told that we will be given a partial refund for the works that were not completed on our house that we have obviously paid for but it is a battle. My partner calls the owner of the business every day and leaves messages on his phone and leaves messages in the office but we never get any reply. We keep getting told that the cheque will be there soon but we are yet to receive it. The owner of the business will not even take the time to meet with my partner and I. We have had a year long struggle with these people. They do not return phone calls, they tell you lies, and worst of all they will not build your house – yet they will be happy to take your money from you. I would not wish this experience on anyone who is looking to build.

You will not be able to get in contact with these people once you pay your money and they will lie and make excuse after excuse (that is if they take your calls!!)