Montego Homes

SCAMMERS – I signed a contract 1 year ago with Montego and paid a 5% deposit, now they are under ''voluntary administration'' and we found that Montego didn't purchase a VMIA insurance for our contracts. As per the law '' the builder must obtain a VMIA insurance before signing the contract and receiving the deposit''. Which means that they have the intention… Read more

to screw us from the beginning. Now, we can't claim our money back because we don't an insurance policy, which means that our money is gone, unless the government steps in and supports us like they did with Porter Davis clients.

Defects still out standing – 9 months in I'm still waiting for defects to be fixed slab at front door is not level out 13mm land scaping Rendering PowerPoint's The Roof just to name a couple I have emailed over 5 times it's starting to become a joke I have other things to worry about come and finish your job. Show details

Thanks for our first home – I am pleased to share my experience with Montego Homes as I recently built the Maddock design in Fraser Rise. Overall, I can confidently say that I am very satisfied with the quality of their work and level of customer service. The build was completed within the specified timeline, which was important to me as I had planned for a move-in date.… Read more

The construction process was well-managed, and the team was efficient and professional.

After the completion of the build, we had a couple of minor issues that needed attention, and I was impressed with the level of aftercare provided by Montego Homes. They responded promptly and addressed the issues in a timely manner. It's reassuring to know that they stand behind their work and are committed to ensuring customer satisfaction.

Overall, I would highly recommend Montego Homes to anyone looking to build their dream home. The Maddock design is a great choice, and the team at Montego Homes will ensure a smooth and hassle-free building experience.

Thank you, Montego Homes, for making our dream home a reality, and for providing exceptional customer service even after the build was completed.

Scandy facade london – We love our scandy facade! Thanks to the team for building our london with a scandy facade. We moved in prior to christmas and couldnt be happier. We just reffered our friends to build with Montego and they are due to go to site this month. Nicholas was amazing to deal with from start to finish. He kept us informed every step of the way and we are… Read more

so happy our friends are also dealong with him as we know they will have a great experiance as well. Thanks again guys! We love our home!

Maddock In Wollert – Thanks guys for my Maddock in Wollert! Really happy with the entire process. We moved in March last year and have been really happy with everything. We would recommend any friends or family to build with you guys. Thanks again! Show details

Love our London – We recently finished our London design in Wollert. Nicholas was our sales consultant and guided us every step of the way. He was answering questions late at night and nothing was too much to ask. Everything Nicholas promised at the beginning was exact how the process went. I also want to shout out Scott our supervisor. His eye to detail was… Read more

amazing and we cannot fault his work. We have our 3 month check coming up and so far we have loved everything. Thanks again team!

Great first build – I want to say thank you to the entire Montego team. Big shout out to Lorraine our supervisor for watching over our build. We were hesitant at the start as the building industry was facing challenges. We had no issues even though our neighbours still dont have a slab. We love our home and couldnt be happier. Show details ·  1

Build Time In 16 Weeks! – So happy we decided to build with Montego. After months of searching we decided to choose montego based off of their inclusions and their time to get to site. We were promised 2 months to site start and a 16 week build time and they delievered. Scotty was our supervisor and he was amazing with his uploads into our portal. He guided us every step… Read more ·  1

of the way and we couldnt be happier with his trades work. We are moving into our home next week and couldnt be happier with the quality and the service. Big thanks to Lachlan, Scotty and Jessie for making this happen!

Full Turnkey Package!! – We selected a full turnkey home package, which in addition to the home also included all landscaping, blinds, floor coverings, coloured concrete driveway, letter box, etc. Pretty much everything required to move straight in once completed without the need for any additional building works or add ons after handover. Quality of the home was… Read more

fantastic with good quality modern fixtures and fittings. The Montego team provided great communication throughout all stages of the build keeping us updated with the construction progress and any issues arising (which were minimal). Thank you guys

Built Colorado 23 In Wyndham Vale – We had handover 3 months ago for our Colorado 23. We are absolutely grateful and appreciative of the final product we received. We shopped 10 different builders and actually deposited with one prior to our experience with Montego. The other builder was a volume builder and prior to site start, they tried to charge us extra for rock removal we… Read more

had no idea about. Following a very informative, detailed and trust building consultation with Lachlan we decided to cancel our build with the volume builder and move to Montego as they were agreed and understood that we wanted no surprises along the way. From the very start we felt comfortable and felt a part of the family. Nothing was too much to ask and the team responded within a great timeframe to any of our questions. If you are looking for the best pre-sale process please ask for Lachlan as he is the best in the business!

Not having used an inspector our Site Supervisor/ Director Todd went above and beyond with the build of our house. I have never seen a cleaner site and felt extremely proud showing our family through at each stage of the build. We are in total love with our home and are extremely thankful for all the effort Todd and the Montego team went to to ensure we are happily settled in our home. Thank you to Montego for giving us a beautiful place to call our home.

Amazing Experience With Montego – My wife and I are just about to commence building our dream home with Montego and I thought I would leave a review to sum up our experience from conception to build commencement with the team at Montego. In sum, my wife and I could not be happier with the incredible service we have experienced. We opted for a Maddock Design. From the beginning,… Read more

our new homes consultant - Nicholas- understood our vision and what needed to be done to achieve it. Despite being flooded with work, Nicholas always went above and beyond to communicate with us - which is so important when designing a new home. As our design progressed it became highly detailed: many builders would get frustrated with such detail, but not Montego. Todd, the Director of Homes by Montego took interest in the detail of our design, understood it was our forever home and he worked with Nicholas, to ensure we had the very best outcome possible. My wife and I were so incredibly impressed with the amount of practical knowledge, immediate understanding, and invaluable suggestions made by Todd. After dealing with Nicholas, we were not surprised to hear that he won the best sales consultant of the company last year. Moreover, the admin process with Nadia was also exceptionally helpful. She was amazing to deal with, and once again understood our vision and offered invaluable advice to ensure we nailed that vision. Finally, as with any builds, deadlines are a concern and we had plenty of them. The entire team at Montego took this in their stride, and despite being inundated with work, they all went above and beyond to ensure we met those deadlines. Ultimately, we were demanding clients and the team at Montego thrived off this to ensure we were happy. And we are. Cheers to the entire team at Montego, and we look forward to the start of the build!

Avoid Montego homes at all costs. Unprofessional, unethical and infuriating. Zero stars – *The short story*: Montego promised they would build a home with some minor customisations - which they confirmed were possible prior to me even placing the deposit. They took my deposit, and eventually provided quotes for the changes after several weeks. They communicated poorly throughout, and took weeks between emails. Then suddenly… Read more

they demanded I sign a contract (within 3 days) or lose the hold on the land - all before i'd even seen a comprehensive quote, working drawing or the contract itself. When they eventually sent me these documents, I raised several questions, discrepancies and inaccuracies contained within them, but they refused to respond to those. They just kept insisting i sign the contract or lose the land. They then would not provide a final working drawing with the customisations included, neither would they confirm if they would actually guarantee those customisations without said final drawing. Eventually they stopped communicating altogether, and suddenly cancelled the job without so much as a courtesy call. I got an email saying it had been cancelled because "we couldn't compromise" on the changes requested, and I should find a custom builder - which is laughable since they'd already approved all but 1 change (See long story below) Montego promise but do not deliver. They exhibited an astounding lack of accountability for their own failures in communication, their mismanagement of timelines, a lack of responsibility for their poor documentation, and they need to train their agents in client relations. They wasted two months of my time and I've never been more angry, or more disappointed. Avoid them like the plague.

*The long story*:

It all started well. This would be my first time building a house, and I expressed interest in a Montego house & land package - but knew that I would want some minor changes to the advertised floor plan. I knew that Montego are not a custom builder by any means, so set about confirming they would entertain some minor changes before spending any further time considering this particular home. The agent, [Name Removed], confirmed that the my requests were all possible (extra windows, cabinetry / shelves, upgraded sliding doors, fly screens, etc), as none of these altered the footprint or general structure of the home. The only change they rejected was a fireplace, but said this could easily be installed after completion. [Name Removed] himself even suggested options for customisation (eg installing skylights) and showed me one of their homes under construction where the buyer had changed windows to sliding doors - so it proved that there was also a precedent for this level of customisation. All they warned me, both verbally and in their documentation, was that all changes needed to be finalised before signing a contract and no changes would be permitted beyond that point. I spent a good 3 weeks thinking this through and talking with [Name Removed] during this time. Being a zero boundary block, the house would be built similar to a terrace, with no space between it and the neighbouring houses, and therefore no windows on the left/right sides of the building at all, so I had to consider carefully if this was the right type of house for me. I decided it was, so I summarised all the changes we had discussed and submitted them to the agent so he could provide me with a quote, and he suggested I pay the house and land holding deposit while they sought quotes from their suppliers. In the meantime I continued to think through any questions or issues I had so that they could be resolved prior to contract signing. I was pretty happy and excited at this point And then it all went down hill:

*The preliminary quote was incorrect* After paying my deposit, the preliminary quote I received based on the standard house plan contained the wrong lot number, the wrong price, different and incorrect quote validity dates on each page, contradictory inclusions to those advertised, and even the terms and conditions contained discrepancies, eg stating the house/land holding deposit could not be refunded, when all other documents said it could. [Name Removed] happily fixed the lot number and price, confirmed the inclusions were different for this particular house (eg 4 x split systems would be installed instead of the advertised ducted evaporative cooling and gas heating because there was no room in the roof), and confirmed verbally that the deposit could be refunded. Reassured, I pressed on. But then…

*Agents grew impatient with questions and later refused to answer them* I say “Agents” because by this stage, two different agents were now involved with my account, [Names Removed] - and they never explained why or who was responsible for which tasks. Anyway, as there was no display home of this particular floorplan, and there no working drawings were available yet, I could only work from the advertised floorpan and there was much to clarify. I asked many questions, but they took several weeks between responses and grew more impatient with each question. They began answering selectively, and later not at all.

*Poor time management* It took far too long to resolve quotes and questions and the [Name Removed] would let weeks lapse between responses. For instance, after paying the initial deposit, I didn’t hear from the [Name Removed] for 3 weeks, during which time the deposit period lapsed (!!!). The next response took another 10 days. At no time throughout our dealings did he refer to or mention any particular timeline that this sign up period should take or how soon we should endeavour to finalise contracts. Neither did he indicate any timings for when working drawings would be ready to view. I took his lead - after all, there was no way to move forward more quickly if they simply weren’t ready with quotes and drawings, and the land wouldn’t title for another 10 months (end Dec 22). I was happy to wait as long as it took. Though I was always responded to their emails on the same day they contacted me, there was no urgency on my end, and they certainly demonstrated that there was no urgency on theirs. Later… they would cite “it took too long to finalise your plans” as one of the reasons they cancelled my house/land package.

*Agents demonstrated poor attention to detail* This led to several emails back and forth between [Name Removed] and I where I had to clarify the costings provided as they were unclear (eg were prices per unit, or total amounts?), and led to quotes on the wrong item altogether (eg they provided a quote for a fixed skylight instead of the opening skylight I requested). Eventually after many weeks I did get quotes on every change I had initially requested (at the time of placing my deposit )and was clear on pricing.

*Agents provided initial reassurance and support, but then flipped the script* In initial conversations, [Name Removed] reassured me that clients often submit change after change, causing up to 40 revisions of quotes. He reassured me that none of this is an issue to them, as it’s natural for clients to not think of everything all at once - sometimes it takes time for the possibilities to occur to them. I was more organised than this, only submitting my changes in 3 stages, the first being before I put down the deposit, the second after the deposit which were just 3 last minute things I thought of during the three week wait for their initial response, and the last set were very minor changes (extra powerpoints, extra tiling in the bathroom etc) which occurred to me when I finally got to see a working drawing with the floor plan at all elevations. Later… they would cite “too many changes and back and forth” as one of the reasons why they cancelled my house/land package.

*Dishonest* They rejected the final 3 changes I had submitted, as is their right, but in one instance, where an extra bath niche had been requested, [Name Removed] said that it could not be done due to the bathroom being ‘a wet area”, and later citing ‘structural issues’ - which was incredibly strange given they were already building a shower niches in each bathroom (wet areas!) as part of their promotional inclusions, so there were no structural issues at all. Another builder even confirmed this for me. When questioned, [Name Removed] refused to explain or engage any further on the matter, or on any other outstanding questions, discrepancies or issues at all.

*Lack of process, ultimatums to sign contracts* By this time, over 4 weeks had passed since I paid my deposit , and [Name Removed] suddenly delivered an ultimatum to sign the contracts or else the house/land package would go back on the market and the price of the package would increase by 15k. He wanted it done by the end of the week (3 days time) - “due to pressure from the developers”. I indicated that I wanted to sign the contract, but there were still so many outstanding questions, and he hadn’t yet provided any of the documentation to me. Their preliminary quote document explained their process: I should have received a comprehensive quote, a working drawing, and a contract to review (with a solicitor / conveyancer if necessary). I didn’t understand how he could possibly get all this to me within 3 days for finalisation, especially with his track record to date. I was expecting that the aforementioned working drawing would include all the changes they had already quoted and approved during the previous weeks, however when I questioned this, he responded that they in fact would not provide that customised drawing until after I signed, and simply repeated the ultimatum to sign. And yet STILL did not supply all the required documentation to enable that to happen.

*Poor documentation* When they eventually did send those documents after several requests (it took a pretty direct email from me to get them to act), the documents were incorrect. The working drawing had wrong facade, there were discrepancies with inclusions yet again - the insulation should have been R6 batts to interior and exterior walls but was was listed at R1 batts to external walls only, and evaporative cooling and gas heating were shown in the drawings when previously I was told this wasn’t possible and they would be installing split systems (refer back to the original conversation about the preliminary quote above for some lols!!). I also found discrepancies in the terms & conditions and fees listed in the quote vs the contract. (Eg contract variations were $3000 in one, and $500 in another) Both agents refused to comment on or resolve any of these issues. The comprehensive quote I received also did not contain all of the agreed changes, and though the agent who supplied it asked me to check it and let him know if anything was missing, when I did just that, he did not reply or provide an updated document.

*Would not provide a guarantee that the approved changes would be built* By this stage I was getting frustrated and not feeling very comfortable with how things were panning out nor at the sudden change in tone from the Montego agents. I questioned the working drawings again, as their own process indicated that I would have to sign off on the drawing prior to signing the contract, so in my mind it should show all the final changes. One agent, [Name Removed], indicated that they would mark up my changes on the standard drawing in red pen and submit that with the contract. This didn’t seem very official or legally binding to me so I called to chat about it, but got an sms message telling me he was suddenly on leave and I should contact the other agent, [Name Removed]. [Name Removed], provided a contradictory response - saying that all customisations would be handled after signing, and would be form a contract variation (and he neglected to tell me a contract variation would cost $3000, which I had to read about in the fine print later). I didn’t know which was correct. I also took the opportunity in that phone call to try to resolve the issue raised with the rejected changes - I indicated I could live without two of them if they absolutely couldn’t provide those, but really wanted to understand why an extra bath niche was not possible. (See section on Dishonesty above!). [Name Removed] said understood that confusion and would follow that up with the team. He didn’t do this, or if he did, he certainly didn’t call me back to let me know the outcome of that discussion, nor did he contact me to provide answers to any other issue I raised.

*Escalating to management proved futile* In the final weeks of my experience with them, both agents stopped responding to emails and voicemail messages altogether. I escalated the issue of the contracts and inaccurate documentation, and the lack of response / refusal to answer questions to one of the directors of Montego, [Name Removed], and in that phone call she took the time to listen and understand. She promised to sort it out with the agents the next day. I was hopeful…. but she did absolutely nothing, and I didn’t hear from any of them. The deadline was looming and they had all stopped communicating with me.

*Cancelled the project without so much as a courtesy call* On the day of the deadline, they simply cancelled my account / job without so much as a phone call. Instead I received a very short email from [Name Removed] citing it had been cancelled because we couldn’t come to a compromise on the changes requested, and that i should find a custom builder. (Firstly, all changes had been approved bar the one that [Name Removed] said he would readdress with the team. Secondly, a compromise suggests there had been a conversation - but they didn’t actually return my calls to have this conversation, so WTH ????) So, rather than discuss how we could resolve all the outstanding issues and questions raised about quotes, contracts and drawings, they chose to abandon the project altogether and told me to find a custom builder.

I called the director, [Name Removed], for an explanation - she palmed off that responsibility to [Name Removed] who called me to explain that they cancelled the project because “there were too many changes”, that “it took too long and there was too much back and forth” and that I “questioned the prices they were charging” ( I didn’t, I only asked them to clarify if window prices were per panel or a total, eg as I requested 2 extra windows on either side of a sliding door), and my favourite reason (excuse) - they cancelled my project because i escalated the issue to management. (Of course I did - what else could I do given my experience with agents who weren't doing their job)

I don’t think I’ve ever been angrier hearing an agent absolve himself, the other main agent, or Montego in general of all their failures to communicate in a clear and timely manner, their failure to provide accurate documentation, their failure to manage a timeline and provide fair and due process before signing a contract, but most of all, their attempts to blame all their mismanagement on me.

*They promise but do not deliver* They wasted 2 months of my time promising everything, and delivering absolutely nothing but disappointment. Why go through all the effort of approving and providing quotes for minor customisations, only to cancel the contract and tell me to find a custom builder?

*Avoid Montego at all costs* If this is how they treat you before you’ve even signed a contract, imagine trying to communicate with them throughout the build process and warranty period beyond! Be wary of all their documentation. If you were considering Montego, my advice is simple - Don’t. Dodge this bullet while you can.

Pleasure to deal with! – Building a new home can seem overwhelming at first but found Montego Homes to be a pleasure to deal with from start to finish. Moved into my new home and they fulfilled all of my wishes. The selection of colours was so organised and made the process go so smooth. A special mention goes out to Oliver, he was quick to answer emails and phone calls and made the process so much easier. Show details

Felt part of the Montego Homes family – We had been looking for our first home and had no idea where to start. Some friends advised to go to a display village to see what houses and style we liked, this made us very confused and disillusioned by the whole processed. All the sales people where worried about was for us to pay them money before the price went up and things like that. They… Read more

never took the time to understand what we were after, we also didn’t really know how much the extra items would cost or what we could actually afford.

We told a friend of our frustrations and she told us to contact Montego Homes and we were surprised by the response. We met with their House and Land Manager, Lachlan, who didn’t try to sell us anything he was more interested in what we were looking for, how we liked to live and what we could afford. He took the time to introduce us to his finance broker, who was amazing and educated us to what we could afford and the whole buying process. Lachlan also showed us lots of options, and got us a great deal on our land.

We have just secured the block of land and are building their Melville Design. We have been to their show room in South Melbourne to see what style we like and what is exactly included in their houses, so there is no surprises. We are meeting Lachlan to do our colour selection next week which is exciting!

We have felt like part of their family so far and we also met the other owner who will build our house, Todd, and he made us feel very comfortable and supported.

We would highly recommend Montego Homes to anyone starting out of the home buying journey. Can’t wait to see our house start once our land is ready.

Thanks Montego