National Builders Group

Success – Yeay, Success, managed to convince my first fellow Pom not to build through National Builders Group or Homes Now. Its started!Didn't even have to tell them about half the crap we've been through just told them the length of time we've been building and showed them the letter we Received, stating that as far as they are concerned, "The Matter is… Read more

Closed". and they turned around and walked away from the show home, I am aware that this review may not get to be published ,however whilst ,yes NBG may be only a broker and my contract is with the builder, but at least he has held his hands up and addmitted his failings, but when NBG say they allow a generous 6 months from signing contracts to the build being started, there is a period called the twilight zone, whereby communication breaks down and jack s*** happens, and NBG must bear some of the responsibility. Yes my builder has failed me terribly and continues to do so ,but that is another matter. what I am trying to stress is that the sales pitch is so feasible that even the most intelligent of people would be succered in, When I started there were few reviews to go to for reference and apparently prior to the first home buyer grant all was good, but the greed became like a red rag to a bull to certain individuals within the system and the poor bloody client becomes the patsy bearing the cost, although some of the builders have in turn been "burnt" in the process. good inclusions whilst they try to be customer caring, the client managers suffer the restraint of working with one arm behind their back from their peers

Site Cost – Dear All Just found out that the items stated as "Site cost" & "earthworks" outlined in the estimate are totally different. My contract stated that "excess soil" would be removed from earthworks, which covers levelling the block only. Any dirt and rubble from digging foundations and sewer pipes is not included.Now I have about 20m3 of dirt an rubble that is to be removed at my cost. itemised misleading

Worst Company ever! Do not Deal with them or their associated brands!!! – This is the worst company i have dealt with. Even one star is giving them credit, as they should have a negative or at least a Zero. Originally the staff were really nice and pleasant and bent over backwards to get you to sign on the dotted line! What struck me as odd, was all the "nice" and "Pleasant" staff did not last long at the company.… Read more

Every time i called to ask about the contacts and Pricing i would be told that the person i wish to speak to has now left the company. Seems to happen too many times.

The only staff i could speak to now, are very arrogant and rude!

On many occasions due to poor workmanship i have been left without, heating, lights and water etc.

I have over 40 issues with quality of the build or items that have not been completed (i.e parts and accessories missing)

They claim as they are under new management they are now no longer responsible for the Warranty as the warranty is now void as the old owners have declared bankruptcy, yet their website states they have been building quality homes since 1999.

Clearly no Quality homes have been built and if they have declared bankruptcy in 2012 and now claim they are another company, they are telling lies!!!

They do not answer phone calls and the last proper dealing i had with them was when we selected the colours for our paint, bricks etc over 4 years ago.

They are a classic case of passing the buck as soon as they have your money.

The only way i got into contact with them was to buy a Pre paid mobile with a different number and a new email address and sent a new home enquirey on line. And guess what, i get a response within 2 days, trying to sell me a home.

Steer clear of National Builders Group and their associated companies (there are a few of them such as RMS Homes)

The most arrogant and rude company that take no responsibility for their work or actions!

There is over 40 issues, from minor things like door handles not sitting correctly to issues with Heater not working, Water leaks, Electrical issues/faults. The list goes on and on!!! Not much right with the house built, but a lot that is wrong!

Good – Overall, I'm quite happy with my assigned builder. Been pretty slow going, but that's more than made up by the quality of workmanship, helpful suggestions along the way, and his approachability. Always answers his phone or calls back within the hour, and has made modifications whenever I have asked. Nothing is too hard or difficult. Again, happy… Read more

to recommend, but the delays have been frustrating. His excuse was that he only uses tradies that he trusts and co-ordinating them between jobs is usually the cause of the delays. Price, flexibility, inclusions and quality Slow......

I love my house – Very exciting time we picked up our keys last night for a house we purchased through national builders and I couldn't wait I had to go there straight away I was so excited. Building a house has its ups and downs and doing this whilst having a baby and planning a wedding was not the best but we had secured some family land in the eastern suburbs… Read more

and thought we would be silly not to build.

We aren't savvy in the trade industry so didn't really know the ins and outs of building a house so we decided to go with whoever we felt the most comfortable with and within our budget. The house i fell in love with we couldn't afford but we were able to still get this house because we gave our budget to national builders and they changed and took some things out so we could afford the house.

it originally had four bedrooms and a study but we really only needed 3 bedrooms so they helped out so much. We were a little funny about them not actually building the house as they assign you to a builder who then you have another contract with which had its good and bad points.

we got off to a slow start as weather stopped building and certain paperwork was missing but 19 October 2011 found us picking up our keys almost 7 months after signing the first contract, so it was almost 2 months over time so lucky we weren't renting so we didn't loose too much money, but now that we are in we are really happy.

The best part was going in and picking all the great things for my kitchen, colour of the paint, carpet, tiles and just making our home looks exactly how we want it. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong after we move in but happy to give an update in a few months to make sure the house is still standing.

Overall the experience was a positive one and really looking forward to officially moving in to our beautiful modern home as a family. accommodating to out budget and needs, friendly, and beautiful finished product Went a little overtime

Excellent – A great family builder with great values, I highly recommend them to friends and family. We built a larger home but when the day comes to down size "National" would be our choice of builder hands down. Hope this helped! Darren & Rozanne Great service, always there to assit with any questions ! We built with national close to four years and yes we… Read more

would build through them again .During the build we had no problems. [name censored] and [name censored] were wonderful to deal with through the whole build which only took three and a half months!

palmed off and no care from National Builders – Once we signed the contracts National Builders palmed us off to Hallbury Homes who caused issues with the neighbouring property which has cost us $80,000.00 to date and still counting. Stay away from National Builders and Hallbury Homes. Also before we commenced construction the builder demanded an additional $17000 as construction had not… Read more

commenced within 6 months, even though this delay was purely the builders delay. We received a great house but the costsare still ading up and we now have to take legalactionagainst the builder to attempt to recover our costs builder over excavated causing neighbours retaoning wall to fail, then the builder called the neighbour stupid and we have been in court since

NBG - Stay away – Like most the posts on here.. where do you start..so many issues after issues.. Firstly, they do not tell you once you sign the contracts you are then passed on to a building contractor and left to deal and liaise with this building contractor who then just blames or tells you to go back to NBG. This company is just a marketing engine to sign… Read more

you and leave you..

We built the Buckingham 460E which took in total 16 months to complete, our building contractor was the worse.. there was no structure, no updates and we had to manage everything.

We have been in the house from Dec 2011 now, and never recieved 3 month/6 month review from the building contractors.

Every stage of the build was like pulling teeth, plans were wrong, colour schemes were changed 3 times due to discontinued products.

Altho we survived and managed to complete our dream home, it has been a nightmare and I place this review to assist future home owners.

I wish I had done my research more on this company prior to building.

Terrible – We went to them initially to build the house in june 2007, it is july 2009 and still not complete !!! absolute pleasure to deal with before signing the contract and once you sign the contract then forget it !!! they don't want to take any responsibility and were very rude over the phone when I complained about the delays. asked me to deal with the… Read more

builder directly or to go to the court. the quality of construction was so poor, the builder forgot to put half the inclusions that i signed up for and now wants to refund money for those as it will be difficult to include them at this stage. the builder that was assigned to us was absolute disgrace, infantino constructions !! Don't ever go near this builder or to national builders... Great service before you sign the contract. Once you sign the contract the service is third class.

poor response. no customer service, doesn't take any responsibility, asks you to deal with the third party builder they assigned. very rude to the customers. this could be the worst company in whole australia. absolute disgrace !!!

Terrible – Built our house with NBG in 2006. The builder himself was ok but NBG screw the builder for the lowest price possible so you get the lowest legal quality. There were extra's like external lights we paid for, and never got. Paid extra for upgraded ceiling cornices & never got them. Phone calls about these were ignored, in the end had to get our… Read more

solicitor involved to have these items deducted at settlement & even then NBG MD tried putting the heavy on us. Our house was supposed to be set back 9 meters so that we could get 2 cars into the garage. It was only set back at 8 meters so we can only get 1 car in. We had some breakdowns in heating & stovetop, the warranties manager was quick to remind me "they are just a marketing company." When I told him I would submit comments on this site he threatened legal action. I also worked as a contractor for them for some time & they are so "tight" with money it's not funny, their contractors (I wasnt the only one) have to ring their accounts dept to get any money out of them & then it comes 3 months late. Any wonder they cant get good skilled tradies. I saw so many shoddy homes, even their displays at Epping - go into the 2nd one and you will see cracks in the floor slab which have gone thru tiles. Also, if you look in the front rooms of that house, you will see water damage at bottom of walls because of leakage from roof. You have to wonder if this is the standard of their displays, you can imagine what you will get when you build with them. I all of my dealings with NBG, they couldnt care less. This comes right from the top, the owner Barry Suckling should be a used car salesman. Would never build with them again and I make sure I tell as many people as I can not to either Absolutely nothing Poor communication, they lie, are unnaproachable & couldnt care less

Terrible – This is further to our review earlier, if you have any problems with NBG you should contact the Building Advice and Conciliation Victoria (a part of Consumer Affairs Victoria) on 1300557559, they were very interested in our complaint about NBG and the more people who let them know there are serious problems with the way NBG advertise and do… Read more

buisness the more they can do about this company, we encourage everyone who has written on this web site to do the same as we have and lodge a complaint Our builder did good work before going into liquidation Pretty much everything else

Terrible – Oh, where to begin with!! They are the most un-professional and dodgy builders we have seen. We were on the very first step of getting the quote done. We selected one of their design and asked them to check if it fits on our block of land and there they go with those only known words to them.....oh! it fits beautifully. So we decided to move… Read more

further and paid $1000 and got caught in their set fishnet. Then few days later we get a call from them that there is a problem and the house does'nt fit properly and we have to reduce the size of the house. We had no choice but to go accordingly. And the worst thing is they don't even provide Computers at the display centers and every time you have to take a day or time off from your office to visit them even for small changes. We gave them our wish list and they gave us estimation that we signed. Then the list goes to head office for quotation and all they present is just a crap. Things marked out of our wish list. Were charged for the things included in there promotion etc etc. so frustrated from all these things we ask them for refund. And they told us that they can refund only $150. Upon asking why, they told us it's been used for drawings. But they have'nt done any cuz the one given with quotation were just the standard ones that anybody can obtain fron display homes. So here we are at zero again and after losing time, effort, money, patience etc and the list goes on. We are very disappointed and would like to warn those who are thinking to build with them. They are not worth your money and valuable time. Would never recommend anyone. Please beware and save your time chosing good builders who would respect and value you as a client. Hope it helps. Nothing at all!!! Just everything...

Terrible – Their marketing creates there cash flow which is used to build all of the back logged clients homes. Believe me this true. Fantastic website and marketing. Marketing is their greatest product its building objectives come last.

Terrible – After almost two years of exceptionally poor service and no building activity bar a slab, the builder National Builders Group used in Queensland has now gone into liquidation, leaving more than 20 contracts not started or partially complete. I can't say I'm that disappointed. We can't wait to deal with someone else who may actually decide to build… Read more

our home and end the torment. Houseplan is good and the price was reasonable Our builder has gone broke

Big Mistake – Worse thing i ever done was "try" and get a house built through National Builders, my builder I was assigned to was Rikbuilt, these people do not know one end of the phone to the other, 2 years and my house is no ware near completed, i would never recommend these people to anyone, good to take your money but dont like to give you quality,… Read more

everything from the slab being short and not level to brick work like it was done by a 2 year old, worst thing is the nightmare is not even over yet. None at all the question is what is right with it........nothing.

my dream home...:-( – We have been in our house for 9 months now...and it's not yet a home!!.After the storm in february, our house 'leaked', we had our home inspected indepently, something i wish i had done earlier!!!...26 pages of faults!!1...Thankfully, the builder has promised to repair everything and so far he has kept his word...But after nearly 6months of… Read more

tradies pulling my house apart...i'm tired!!!...only a few more things and hopefully my nightmare will be over....I call my builder everyday....morning, noon and night!!!,....i'm sure he's dying to get rid of me as a client!!!...my advice....if you think its not right...get a second opinion ...and harass your builder.... overall...i do love my home...i just want it finished... basically everything...unfortuantly...in order to make more money, builders se cheaper services....It all comes out in the wash...or in my case...the rain!!!

terrible company – I have had four houses built from new.I am not a builder , but am familiar with the process. NBG are terrible.In reading other reviews the exact same stuff keeps coming up-non existent service (by NBG and their builders), sub standard workmanship , excessive build times, no warranty follow up, and basically no integrity overall. We have an… Read more

uneven slab (over 20mm in areas) , uneven walls, terrible brickwork , numerous errors throughout.

NBG and builder just do not reply to any form of contact.

They ignore you hoping you will go away , but I won't go away until they have completed the job.

There are numerous Government agancies to help you to force the issue , there are lagal options and there is even an area of " A Current Affair" where you can fill in a form to raise their awareness too (enough complaints , they do an investigation)- do all this- ultimately you will win, just be prepared to wait and they rely on you giving up.

Also , like me ,you can remember to make sure that at any and every chance you get you disuade anyone you possibly can from building with them; I have convinced at least three people I know who were considering building with them to go elsewhere , so I have cost them probably around $750,000 already I am pleased to say. initial sales consultant was knowlegable and helpful,that's all. poor workmanship , no customer servive , slow build time,no warranty follow up

NBG Under no circumstances build with these people – Do yourself and your partner a favour and save yourself a lot of heart break, grief and pain and under no circumstances should you even consider these thieves to build your home as you will regret it for the rest of your life. They sound great but the reality is they do not deliver and when push comes to shove, they just do not want to know. … Read more

Read the reviews posted here by good honest hard working people and you will see that they are liars.

I built a home through them and will now suffer until I can sell this [censored word removed] Marketing hype Absolutely everything is wrong with this company.

Worst builders ever seen - NBG Master Builders certifications come free from a cerial packet – House plan design and paperwork "cut and paste kindergarten style" (my 3YO daughter could do a better job), delays, lost paperwork, excuses/delays, mistakes on plans, excuses/delays, mistakes on pricing, excuses/delays/out of pocket expenses, mistakes on inclusions excuses/delays/out of pocket expenses, delays starting to build, during build,… Read more

finishing build, delays $$$$, it it sounds like a broken record and it is. The sales rep [name removed] is a calculated, devious and compulsive liar just like the rest of the clowns at NBG. As most people have said, they seem OK up to the point that you sign on the dotted line, then the reality of the nightmare begins. Their builders are shonks and use the cheapest and lowest grade of tradies available, and their "independent" inspections are nonexistent. I have seen many homes built by them at a stand still presumably in legal proceedings due to horrible defects and shoddy workmanship. My advice, avoid NBG totally and in particular [name removed]. Price and so called inclusions initially The whole experience, dodgy, deliberately misleading, dishonest, shoddy workmanship with defects galore

If you build with National expect pain, pain and more pain – I think if you have read the reviews on this website and still persist with going with National then I can't give you any sympathy and you unfortunately deserve any heartache you get! Actually no, I can't be that cruel, no one, not even Satan himself should have to experience a National build! I feel pain every time I hear their jingle on the… Read more

radio or TV, there is no truth to what they say whatsoever.

I should have taken heed of the warning signs early on and just terminated the contract and lost my deposit. It would have been a far less stressful 2 years of our lives. If you have paid some money to them and are currently reading these reviews and are having second thoughts, I urge you to end it now! Believe me and the others on this site, it will not go smoothly, you will have problems, you will pay extra and you will end up with a substandard house or possibly no house at all after considerable delays!!!!

Our build took 17 months from start to finish, which is good by comparison of others on this site. We have now been in our home for nearly 6 months and I still feel depressed, stressed and angry by the whole experience.

Some (and I stress SOME) of the problems.

- Uneven slab

- Plumbing installed in wrong location

- Contract changes incorrect even after 3 retries and considerable delay

- Roof leaks

- Kitchen cabinets not to contract spec

- Ducted vacuum wasn't installed at move in

- Heating didn't work at move in

- Paint job atrocious ( their 3 coats are a lie).

- Chipped floor tiles

- Ensuite and Kitchen sinks don't drain properly

- Main shower has a sewerage smell about it every few days

- Front door couldn't be locked at move in.

- No key provided for store room door at move in.

- Speaker points not installed properly

- Laundry door has massive gaps between door and frame

- BBQ gas point in wrong location

- Outdoor taps in wrong location

- Driveway poured without any crushrock base and no sealer

- Missing powerpoints

- Missing heating vents

- Missing light dimmers

- Rangehood wasn't flued out of house (was specified on contract)

- Spa bath had chip in it and jets were scratched

The entire process was a battle. The builder and builder rep were very disorganised and lied through their teeth. Any opportunity to charge us they would. But it's not even those extra expenses that pissed us off, its the sheer lack of care this company and the builders it employs have towards building a home. You seriously cannot believe that people could behave in this way and sleep soundly at night. The tradespeople don't give a stuff.

We have now resorted to fixing the remaining issues ourselves. I congratulate the people who are taking up the fight with National and wish them the best, but my wife and I simply don't have the strength to fight on. I have a leaking roof which I have been quoted $750 to fix and god willing that will be last thing I have to do before we can try and relax and enjoy this home.

I don't have the time to go back through the hundreds of emails which detail every problem we encountered pre, during and post build, but believe me the list is extensive. This was not our first home build. We had been through this process before with another builder and it was far smoother, took half the time and I think we had 3 defects (instead of 70ish) at our final inspection.

This was supposed to be the home we would live in for the next 20 years. We want to raise our kids in this home, but both of us can't help but feel depressed by the ordeal we have been through. The house is a constant reminder of the biggest mistake we have ever made in our lives.

I URGE anyone out there reading these reviews to please, please consider another builder for their house. Choosing National and their builders (if you can call them that) will only end in heart ache. None, zip, nada. Lowest quality builders and tradespeople. Not fixed cost. No accountability. Constant lies. Long contract process. Delays, delays, delays.

A very CHEESY homebuilder if you can even call them a homebuilder – It was terrible to say the least. Such bad service and no accountability for their errors and lies. They are a corrupt bunch of people offering pictures and a display suite which does not match the extreme low quality of their finished product. I ended up taking them to court anyhow. Their response was that it was not their responsibility to fix… Read more

the issues raised and that I would have to get the contractor builder they used to fix the issues up. This contractor had done a runner and had disappeared off the face of the earth so they weren't around to fix up the errors that they had made with the lack of finish with the paint, the plumbing, the mess they left lying around the house and the architraves started coming away from the walls. It was pure heartache and I wish I had read something like this to be aware of the consequences of building with them.

Not so impressed so far! – Well what can I say! We are only at the tender stage and I already feel like crying. We gave NB our initial deposit to order site, soil and survey. Everything seemed to be going well until tender presentation. We were very clear in what we wanted in our hose, however there were many mistakes and we were over budget. The NB guy whom presented us… Read more

with the tender acknowledged the mistakes however said we needed to sign within 4 days otherwise our base price of the house would increase by $10000. I was not happy about this and the NB guy said he would give us more time for the tender to be revised. Tender goes back to calculations teams and we get an email from NB the following week only to discover that our intial tender has increased by a further $10000 over our budget with further mistakes!!! In email they say we must sign within 3 days or the house price will increase by $10000. Ah I feel like hitting my head against a brick wall and we have not even started building yet!! So we meet with NB a few days later and point out what we want and don't want. It goes back to calculations team and get an email a day later, yes the price has gone down but still they have not provided us with quotes with what we wanted after spelling out exactly what we wanted. This is not rocket science!!!! And they still threaten us with a $10000 increase if we do not sign even though they have not provided us with the qoute that we want . The NB guy seems nice, however i am worried! If it is so difficult now is it going to get worse when we start building???

Should not be able to build – Well, what can I say. Wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Even the Building Commission can't seem to do anything. Government should fix the loopholes that allow these rogues to start up as another business with a different name. They shouldnt be allowed to just pass the buck onto their builder that they assigned. Once they have their money,… Read more

they throw their hands up and say it is not their problem.

We have had numerous issues and we have taken them to VCAT but that doesnt even work. If the builder doesnt want to pay, they dont. It just cost too much money to try to hold them responsible.

Leaking roofs which has caused alot of ceiling & wall damage. Sharp floor tiles in the shower that can quite easily cut feet. Dust coming into the house above all the window frames. Not enough space in between the ground floor & first floor which stopped us being able to put in ducted heating. I could go on and on and on.

Just rogues and shouldn't be allowed to trade.

Even the builder was abusive and violent which caused a few sessions of the police being called in. Still no need to contact NBG, they didn't care. Absolutely nothing No warranty. HIA paperwork isn't worth the paper it is written on.

Absolute worst of a bad bunch - Cost us over $500.00 in delays – Where do you start? First, our job was "subbed" to another builder subcontractor who couldn't even commence, as it was discovered he had insufficient warranty insurance. In the end what was supposed to be a one year process, maximum, dragged out to 3 yes three years. As a result the building cost hundreds & hundreds of thousands of dollars more… Read more

than it was budgeted for & was a complete financial disaster. Avoid or use at own risk, they are truly horrible. The owner has a no care/no responsibility attitude. Do not use.

They changed teh contract, were unable to supply, slow bad value.

Do not build with NBG – Where do I start..Our first encounter with NBG was fantastic, which is obvious because they want your money. The sales woman we first had was more than helpful and knew what she was talking about. The Meridian display, when we walked in, we both loved and knew it was the house we wanted to build. We decided to sign up as it was one of the only… Read more

companies that would allow us to use our own electrician and they were flexible with plans. We payed our first initial deposit March 2011. We were also happy to pay a little extra as we knew we would have more choice in what we wanted and quality seemed a little higher than other builders. Our first sit down meeting in their head office was very positive, we just happen to have the same lady who showed us around the display home. Then that's where everything went down hill. It took 4 weeks to get our plans drawn up (as there was some minor changes), when we eventually received them, there were very minor mistakes, I think this happened about 4 - 5 times, they were stupid mistakes, they could not get right and each time it took another 4 weeks for them to fix. We were then told that we could not have any of the 8 free facades, that they would draw one up for us and if we didn't like it then we would have to pay extra for the one we wanted, we tried to fight it, but in the end it wasn't worth it.

After we had not heard anything from them for several weeks, I tried contacting our sales manager, I was advised that she had left (which now it makes sense after finding out what happened to NBG). Dealing with the staff at NBG would have to be one on the most frustrating things I have ever experienced. So many emails were written as I could not contact them without getting angry and surprise, surprise, they were not answered or would take nearly a week to answer.

When we were finally handed over to our builder, they wanted nothing to do with us, and kept saying it was not our problem, go to your builder.

Our builder, so far, has been fantastic and advised us that we are the last customers from NBG he is going to be dealing with as they have had nothing but problems with them as well.

It is now almost July 12 and our house has only just started to be built (slab has just been poured, and we are in winter, so not too sure how much will be done.)

If I knew then what I know now, there is no chance in hell I would have built with NBG. I wish you could sue for insanity, because I am sure I would be a rich woman right now!!

Please to not ever consider building with NBG. Plans, flexibility, able to use your own contractors, good value for money. Everything, poor customer service, love to pass the buck.

Unprofessional, Incompetent – My sales consultant constantly lied to me. They took months to make minor changes to my plans. I had to constantly review their work and point out errors which they took months to correct. I was provided with wrong information even after I insisted that they check it as I knew what they were saying was wrong. My colour consultant… Read more

couldn't be bother assisting me.

Phone calls were not returned and I usually had to ring several times to speak to someone.

They allocated me with a builder whom after more than 2 years is still only at "lock up" stage. They don't care and said it's not their problem, there is nothing they can do. This is in addition to the 1 year it took National to prepare the contract. So 3 years so far and my house still isn't near completion.

They receive a lot of money and you have to do ALL the work yourself. I had to contact the Council and Water Authorities regarding my site. I have to arrange underground power, water, temp fencing. I had to check the plans to make sure my changes would fit and where the correct dimensions etc.

My plans were not drawn to scale which meant two of my windows were the wrong height.

It would have been easier, quicker and more accurate if I prepared the plans and contract myself. I have not encountered such incompetency before.

Will not refund deposit - will not return calls – Worked with NBG to create modified design for Buckingham 360E. Paid $500 in Sept 2011 to get plans drafted and lock in offer. In accordance with NBG own rules, this $500 is fully refundable if build doesn't go ahead. We decided NOT to build with NBG and requested refund on 23 Sept 2011. Despite repeated phone calls and a letter, no… Read more

response to date. On 80% of phone calls (and 100% of my last 4 calls), nobody will even take the call. The receptionist claims that relevant staff are not in their office or have just 'stepped out'.

Disgraceful. Would NOT recommend building through NBG. Ability to change plans Everything - appears they have no cash flow, selling & leasing back property. Will not return calls. Will not return cash in accordance with their own published rules.

One of the lucky? ones – We signed up with National in Feb 2010. Started our build in Oct 2010 and moved in Sept 2011. National did help us out when something went a little wrong during frame stage, (bulkheads where there shouldn't have been) but when a smaller staircase was installed, even though they admitted it was their fault, they wouldn't fix it. The builder we were… Read more

assigned was OK, but it's like pulling teeth to get him out to fix the three-month faults. We consider ourselves very lucky to have built with National and survived! Our house has been finished to a good standard and even though we had around 40 faults at the three-month inspection, they are mostly minor and hasn't stopped us enjoying our lovely new house. BUT that is due to the builder not National. I'm sorry for those who have had such a horrible time, a new home is supposed to be wonderful, not stressful. Great design, roomy & flexible plans Bad customer service.

National Builders Are a disgrace – Worst thing I have ever done was to build with NBG. They treat you like royalty before payment, once you have made your final payment you no longer matter. We have had so many problems and we are still going and it's now January 2012 and our house was finished in October 2009. Where do I start, I was having numerous problems with the… Read more

builder and was getting nowhere with staff from NBG., eventually I went to a display home where I dealt with the bosses daughter, [name removed] because for some strange reason [name removed] does not have a mobile phone or an email address,that's what I was told by NBG.

1. I had tiles broken in the ensuite shower and it took forever to replace by the time the builder decided to do so the tiles no longer matched after approx 12mths later all the tiles in the ensuite were finally replaced but the no longer matched the tiles to the bath and sink.

2. I have a 5 year old boy at the time when we moved into the house he was 3 and after a few weeks or so we noticed that he had blood on his feaces, naturally we thought the worst and after some time with test getting done it was established that he had a stomach infection as a result of the water from the bath tap, the tap was never cleaned out properly and it was filling the bath tub with metal. The builder blamed Barwon Water and didn't bother to come and check it, but a plumber from Barwon water showed us the junk in the tap and it what that which made our little boy very ill. That was a very traumatic experience as we were thinking the worse but [name removed] from NBG could not of cared less as the builder or anyone from NBG.

3. I have had many other problems with the house, leaking roof, water seeping through the mortar on the garage bricks, toilet getting constantly blocked, floorboards separating apart, stained kitchen top bench,damaged back kitchen bench panel,incorrect laundry trough fitted,cracks to the walls which are still getting repaired, incorrect skirting board fitted. All to which it took forever to rectify and in the end I had to get the Buidling Commission involved and a meeting with the Building Inspector and the builder took place to which the problems were finally rectified.

At no stage did I get any form of apology from NBG or the builder. Once they have your money you no longer matter. The slogan " We Look After You" is nothing short of a lie. NBG were a disgrace to deal with, the service we got before and after the payment was chalk and cheese.

Very Poor After Care

Dream house turned to nightmare in Bendigo – At first we could not fault National Builders. Local builder, [name removed] was also fantastic. Any queries we had were dealt with even meeting us at our block to discus with no hassles. Once building started, our problems began. At first meeting with sales rep, we took in our soil test we had with our block, being a "P" class. National Builders… Read more

rep told us that we still needed to get a soil test through them, and that it could end up better than what we had, and it did, an "S" class.

Only when building started did this cause issues, and ended up costing us an additional $10,000, as our block was indeed a "P" class. The sales rep assured us that once the quote was done, that was all we would pay, yeah right.

We have been in our home for well over 6 months now, with no maintance check, and in fact we have had to be on the phone to the builder literally jumping up and down to get things fixed.

Ceilings had to be re plastered, skirtings fixed, heating system fixed and the list goes on.

We are in the process of taking legal action.

Be aware. Great inclusions, inexpensive bad follow up service, bad communication, bad customer service,

Lease Back of Display Home – I have a different problem to most but the help and responses are still the same! We purchased a display home (Homes Now) with a two year lease back, which should run until June this year. In January we received a letter from NBG stating that NBG had been taken over and as such my lease would be terminated at the end of Feb. However,… Read more

there have been no rent payments since, the person who we were dealing with in respect to handing the house back to us has been sacked.

The office which was the garage has been ripped apart, leaving holes all over the garage walls, rendering falling off the outside of the house and all the rubbish left in the garage. The garage door which has been fitted to replace the windows does not open and shut properly.

The garden has been overrun with weeds, their advertising banners (Homes Now) left flying outside the house.

There is no Gas metre or hot water service, we have no keys for the window locks or sliding patio doors, the main entrance keys left with our property agent are a one fits all key and NBG state its our responsibility to change the locks.

Dyno bolts have been left sticking out the driveway.

The house itself is a very nice house, great floor plan etc and as far as I am aware has no leaking or bad workmanship issues except from the fact some items are incomplete.

Although my issues are different, I did pay a kings ransom for this house and am probably set to lose between 20-25K out of the ordeal.

One would think that the new owners would be liable for the liabilities and warranties of NBG but it appears not since the company no longer exists those who have a contract with the builder rather than NBG at least still have someone to fight against.

The government bemoan that there is not enough housing. What do they expect when they let people get away with all the things that have been posted on here without so much as lifting a finger to help.

Good luck all in your fight for your rights.

Dante's Eighth Circle? – Building a house is the largest outlay of cash the vast majority of people make in their lifetime. Bankers and financial institutes get the cheap shots in the newspapers. It seems to ignored that the building industry is perhaps the most dishonest, roguish business there is. I have met many people who have built houses with all of the main… Read more

building companies. It is odd there isn't one of these individuals who say 'That was a good experience, I would build with them again.'

My house was built. I was lucky in the builder I had assigned to me. He was reasonable. Yes he displayed some of the traits most builders seem to have ie. a sometimes unreliable memory and

the odd promise not met, but I think he is a decent person and I Currently do not have any major issues.

However NBG were a different beast altogether. Speaking as a human being, when I look someone in the eye and promise them something, I do it. When I meet someone who promises me things over and over again, but never once deliver then normally I would walk away from them never to return. That was a bit difficult in the case of NBG as they were the company initially to channel any issues through. Dealing with NBG made me very depressed and for a while I lost my faith in human nature. It's pointless listing all the individual items of dispute, but each time I received verbal admission and promises to rectify, re-imburse etc. None of these

promises were ever kept. Like I'm sure many others I turned up at the office, tired of being told the person I needed was unavailable or in a meeting. They certainly never returned calls.

Turning up at the office made no difference. Can a company stoop any lower than promising you to your face to fix something and then doing nothing apart from claiming in writing that they know nothing about it. I am several thousand dollars out of pocket, but life is too short

to waste more time with such unpleasant people.

I realise now my mistake was to assume NBG cared about their customers, that they felt some obligation to offer a service to people spending several hundred thousands of dollars. But no, they really, really are not interested. Their only goal appears to be to protect their own

commission. It seems the staff are only learned in what they need to say or not say to avoid losing possible legal cases taken out against them.

If you have to deal with this company, I would suggest appointing a lawyer immediately to deal with any communication with them. If you can't affort that then do not waste time talking in person to anyone there. Put absolutely everything in writing. Flexible Plans Pretty much everything.

National Builders + Rikbuilt= walk away, do not sign up – As per alot of previous ratings on this website, National Builders were friendly and attractive to me being a first time first home builder. After the contract was signed and deposit was paid, the customer service abruptly stopped. I was allocated RikBuilt, a builder who does not answer phone calls, return calls and cannot pay his tradesman. I… Read more

signed the contract in December 2009, Slab down in August 2010, house is now atlockup in September 2011.

The build process has been a lengthy and costly joke.

Rickbuilt does not seem to care about the delays and claim poor.

National have wiped their hands from the build and claim that they cannot do anything as I am in a contract with Rikbuilt.

Every phone call I make to national is answered by a receptionist who claims no one is at their desks, and my messages are never returned.

It has reached the point where I am in contact with consumer affairs which is going to cost me, the customer, more money.

Rikbuilt should not be allowed to continue to build houses, as this example and many others show. Relatively cheap, good 'proposed' extras. Customer service does not exist. Builder is terrible.Extremely long delays. Costly. Poor build quality.

Terrible – This is my second review as after my last one the problems still continue. Spa leaking into roof cavity,hole made in plaster pipe fixed "supposedly" only for it to happen again. Hole in plaster again, problem fixed, replastered only to have plasterer ruin the upstairs carpet by burning a hole in it. We are suposed to move in this week only to find… Read more

most of the taps are connected the wrong way, ie hot is cold and cold is hot. Where this will end god only knows. I am writing this to save anyone from going through what we have had to go through. Eighteen months of bridging finace,stress,worry has even taken its toll on our marriage.

If anyone else would like to contact us so we can form a group to take it to the media and possibly sit outside their display homes and warn people our email address is sledgy@tpg.

eighteen months later still not finished, ongoing problems

Terrible – Overall very poor service, staff will be very helpful before you pay the deposit but as soon as the receive your money they leave your job as last priority and staff become uncooperative creating delays. helpful before you pay deposit. Delays on paperwork are never ending, expect at least six months for plans and paperwork to be complete.