Rawson Homes

Hi
My house is almost complete.And had 2.5 pallets of bricks remaining ,therefore I have requested my supervisor to leave a pallet and remove the rest as I can use for my landscaping and post box.Now,I am left with only a half a pallet of bricks.
And was been told that I have to buy the bricks if I need extra....
I have spent 450,000 on house but can't take some of the left over bricks ...wat a shame..and
....such a pain

When we first came to sample house visits in early 2013, We loved Huntly 30 and since then we wanted to get this house, we went to multiple builders and we finalised Rawson home. Sales team was not required and we were so impressed, not only we went with Rawson many of friends also opted to go with Rawson Homes. We finally found land and started the work with Rawson in mid 2017, After out Land registration in Feb 2018, Team started the work in June 2018.

Overall process is excellent, If you get the right consultants and team all will go smooth, we faced issues and team escalated to Management and got right amount of support. After little bumps and some annoying mails form individuals we finally got our Site Manager.

Excellent workmanship, very nice and supportive. We were little worried about the next stage, after meeting Chris we explained the experiences. Chris supported and taken the build process very seriously. Regular updates with all miner detailed mails on time. Our Experience dealing with Chris Attard is really excellent. After early problems we haven't found any Build related problems, Yes we found issues with Designs (Lack of focus from design team, management should put a control gate).

We are not waiting for the Final completion and Inspections which is due shortly in Feb end 2019.

We want to especially thanks Chris Attard for his professional attitude and support.

Amit

We've finally reached the construction stage and Rawson homes has been phenomenal to helping us design, submit and approve our dream home. Variations were easy to make, communication was prompt, clear and easy to follow and we've always had someone to turn to for information if we had any questions and in multiple languages too! The price felt very fair and nothing about the pricing ever felt unexplained or unjustified. Special thanks to the constant support and reminders from ever professional Lauren to help us stay focused and on schedule through all the ups and downs of the application process, as well as Ethan for his on call mandarin support and reassurances.

If the build process is anything like the application process so far, we rest assured knowing with Rawson Homes we are in safe hands.

Such Slow Speed!!! If I knew the speed is so slow, I would never make decision to buy the off plan from Rawson Homes in March 2016. I was verbally told to have my home ready by end of Dec 2018. But for whatever reason, I settled my land by end of August 2018, It was 5 months late. Until Now I haven’t the got construction DA approved by Hills Council, I’ve signed multiple various Variation form.
The recent decision from Hills Council is to have the stair window glass updated as standard privacy requirement. I selected the option to upgarade it to Translucent glazing as soon as I receive the email, then it took 3 days to receive the various form, then I was told to have the plan amended so as to resubmit it to Hills Council, but no news now, just to update this little thing, it takes more than 10 days with no deadline, Hills Coucil application tracking system is still showing information required. I can’t believe how slow it is, I can’t believe how the service is promised, no deadline. Are you value your customer?
I sent email to your pre-construction staff yesterday, you must submit the amendment plan to Hills Council by Monday 21/01/2019, Please don’t leave my documents in nowhere please action it, You have to know how annoying you bring to me and my family.

I can see Hills Council is approving DA very quickly in Jan2019, some DA just approve within 3 working days.

Please action it, do you know your team’s daily work speed is too slow ?
You are making customer like me losing money.

During this period, My Pre-construction Administrator changed 3 times.. Only one Admin who respond to my enquiry on the same day did good job, the rest can not respond on the same day , phone never reached..

Please kindly action and escalate this as a urgent matter, so the DA can be approved quickly, I can’t wait anymore.
....

The staff at Rawson are very engaged in the process and the service offered at pre-construction is extremely professional and efficient. From pre-sales to construction, everything went smoothly. The only minor criticism I would make is that its difficult to decide on upgrades when you don’t have price lists at the outset and have to rely on estimates to be calculated for every change.

The planning process was very well coordinated from initial sales person to the building stage. It was very easy to get Rawson's design customised to your requirement. The sales person had an exceptional knowledge to add a lot of good suggestions during customisations. All issues were attended within few hours by email or phone and Rawson Home customer service was exceptional. Variation costs were very competitive.

This review is only based on the sales, tender and pre-construction administration process, as we are yet to commence construction (which is imminent).
Our journey has been a long one (6 1/2 years in the making and still counting) but Rawson have been great through this. Our sales consultant was fantastic, as she listened to our needs, concerns etc and gave us practical and sound advice, as she had an interior design background. This set us up for a pretty seamless tender process. She is still in contact with us to see how things are progressing, which is great. I feel that we’re more than just a “sale”.
Our pre-construction administrator has managed the process well and was very accommodating with answering questions and responding to us in a timely fashion. We had a lot of dramas with council and she was doing her best to help us along the way.
The only only room for improvement was in managing the adaptable housing condition (imposes by council). While there was nothing that Rawson could do about the restriction, I think the delay could have been mitigated by communicating to council directly, rather than spending time on design and cost implications, without seeking an alternative resolution. I believe our experience with Rawson will add to Rawson’s compliance management side, as we have been informed that they haven’t had to deal with this before.
All in all, we are happy with our pre-construction administrator’s professionalism, understanding nature and willingness to assist. This was evident in not passing the full escalation costs.
Looking forward to the construction phase.

Not only the delivered product and finish is next to rubbish but my biggest issue with Rawson homes has been the way make things up to gain advantage and changing standards from time to time to hide or cover up their mistakes.

Here are few instances of Rawson homes and an advise for someone if he/she is still looking to build with Rawson Homes.

I provided a list of upgrades to sales staff that I wanted to get quoted but when the tender came to me there was just one total figure of all upgrades that I requested. They refused to give me break down of each item but when I insisted on it they finally provided the break down however they never reached to exact total figure, apparently they had no clue how they were charging me for upgrades. I found that they gave me one figure so that they can manipulate cost of individual items incase I remove anything thing from upgrades list. The list of upgrades included changing Facade piers from Brick to Merbau for $615 which I got from estimator. After couple of months I decided to remove Merbau piers to go back to brick piers and Rawson homes refused to give me any credit and told me that upgrade to Merbau piers was complimentary but they forgot that they had given me a breakdown of upgrades so when I sent them the proof they apologised and provided the refund. If you are planning to build with Rawson homes then please ask for break down otherwise you will never get any refunds for deleting items or it will be ridiculously low without any proof.

Rawson homes manipulate standards to match their suitability - I requested to increase the width of driveway. The answer from PCA was "A standard driveway is 6 metres across from double garage and tapers to 3m at Kerb". I investigated around a little and found that 4.5 metre is standard which she agreed later saying it was mistake but I was still charged for it. When I asked for clarification they said the standard driveway size is 50m2. So there is not one standard and it will change to match their suitability. I never got an answer if council strip is included in 50m2 or not.

Here is any another example of how they manipulate and change standards from time to time - The house that I built is about 35 squares and upgraded 20KW Aircon was added to my tender and I was told that because of my house is big it will need a big aircon. I was charged more than 5K for this upgrade and when I asked for justification about cost they removed upgraded aircon altogether saying that I don't need it. After some investigation and asking people who have built with Rawson homes I found that Rawson homes provide free aircon upgrade for house that is around 35 squares. When I went back to Rawson homes they told me that they don't include garage in 35 squares and this is our standard. Apparently if you have these standard then why not list all these standards in tender or contract. The person who got his aircon upgraded definitely had his garage included in 35 squares so this is another way to deceiving to benefit themselves. Just not provide list of standards and then change them as you need. Now that we are moved in our house, this smaller aircon provided to us can't even cool down single zone (half the house) let alone running both zones at same time.

Rawson homes will try to sneak in things in tender that doesn't exist and if you are not careful then be prepared to pay thousands of dollars. I was charged $1600 for extending porch and when I asked for break down it was reversed saying that it was a mistake.
At the same time some extra area was added towards back of my house without consulting me costing more than 3K and sales staff had no idea. I digged around for couple of weeks then found the extra area was added.

Rawson homes didn't provide me real figures - I added extra bathroom to house and was charged $7700 (this figure doesn't include extra area added because it was charged separately) but I never received breakdown of this cost. This should have been around 5K from experience but because they never gave me breakdown I can't challenge it. This is another way of exploiting their position.

I reduced length of kitchen benchtop and added some width but the overall size was reduced. It not only stayed within the standard caesarstone slab size but also removed some cabinetry however they ended up charging me $780. Again when I asked for justification as why I was charged instead of getting credit they removed amount charged but no credit was provided.

I was also charged 3K more than another colleague for raising ceiling height for similar size house and Rawson homes failed to provide justification.

Rawson homes are inconsiderate and not honest - I gave them a site where I was going to build a pool and they put Sewer overflow right next to it. When I asked them to move it they ask me to pay them to relocate it. There was no information about sewer overflow gully on plans and I wasn't given any heads up before putting this sewer overflow gully there so why should I pay for relocation? They were aware of swimming pool location and intentionally put sewer overflow next to it so that they will have another way of making money. We as a common people trust these builders to be somewhat considerate and responsible but in the end this is just a business for them and they come up with ways like this to make extra cash.

I received full approval of my loan from bank. Rawson homes sent an email to bank staff (I trusted them and forwarded email from bank staff) to verify that if I have full approval and the letter of full approval I provided is authentic without even consulting me or asking for authority. When I asked how can they do this, they told me that this is an editable document and anyone could change it. This was the line they crossed but I was so far ahead in process I couldn't pull back.

Another example of Rawson homes manipulating standards - The path in front of driveway was supposed to be 1 metre wide but they only put in 850mm. I was onsite when a guy was excavating site and he had a large dingo so he couldn't excavate extra 150mm on top of 850mm which was already excavated during initial stage and he told me that concretor will extend it but they never did. When I went to Rawson homes they told me that 850mm is their standard width which was clearly a joke. I showed them couple of other houses which has 1 metre path and on this Rawson homes told me that it is at contractor's discretion to go over 850mm, he can decide to lay 950mm or 1 metre path. So now a third party contractor will decide what I need for my house not the site plan.

This is just a tip of iceberg and if I list all instances then the list can triple. I will not go in much details about finish at this time but it is terrible and there isn't a new house feeling.

The Driveway cracked from one end to other during first week of handover and they are telling me it is normal. Not Normal IMO sir, it is a poor quality.

Front door is another joke, the colour of door, frame and draft is different so we received a tricolour door. This is ridiculous. We were asked to pick a door during our external colours appointment. The colours consultant never mention anything about frame or draft. Now I am told that draft has to be hardwood but there are all sort of hardwoods with different colours and if we were told about colour of draft and frame during appointment then we could have chosen the door to matched with the colour of draft.

Paint is so thin that you can literally see the background material and colour. It is easily getting scratched and this is the worst paint job that I have seen in my life.

We paid thousands extra to get square set cornice and the finish is terrible, the paint from ceiling is running on to wall and wall paint is going to ceiling at almost every wall. This is somethings that could have uplifted the interior of house but now this is most disappointing feature.

Supports and joints on ceiling can be seen clearly. How can a site manager miss this? You had so many inspections done of the property. Where is your quality control?

Paint on doors has yellowed already within first week. Crisp white turned to cream white within weeks. What a quality.

Finish on facade cladding is such a joke that everyone laughs at it. They have installed cracked battens, putty on battens can be see clearly, nails on battens can be seen clearly, gaps between battens is uneven, paint from back wall is all over on battens and paints from battens is all over on back wall and surroundings. It seems like carpenter's job was done by 8 year old kid and approved by someone at midnight when nothing can been seen.

Garage floor is damaged and there is a paint left everywhere on garage floor.

Our project is on pre construction stage, Melissa has been assisting me in the whole pre construction stage. Our experience working with Melissa was amazing, she is super attentive and super patient in assisting us on all stages on pre construction. Amazing, sincerely thank you for your kind assistance and patient in answering our question for the last 6 month.

Ray, site manager was performed well, he was quite helpful in order to understand how to settle down the house as we are first-home buyer.
I don't have any issue so far, I don't think I have any other extra cost involved at this stage.
hope I can come back to the property market and buy Rawson homes again..

Thanks All.

It took longer time than I tought，and the end of the year is not a good time for property rental，but it looks fine after finish，if the wall fence can be paint color will be better；for more details still need time to prove it. I donnot understand why dishwasher machine is not included，it brings me more steps to rent the property. The builder is nice and responsible.

Settled on time and the building quality is good. Don't have any issues so far. No extra cost, the final cost is the same as contract. Ray is a very good site manager, reporting the progress of the construction regularly and helped a lot with the settlement. Overall I would say that I am happy with the home built by Rawson Homes.

We have had a poor experience with Rawson Homes in Canberra. I‘m mostly happy with the house design but the build quality is poor. I wouldn't expect anything near the build quality you will see at the display home, even if you ask for upgraded fittings they may not be installed to an acceptable standard or to the national/state standards. Some examples are:
1. Within 4 months of moving in, the shower floor leaked through to the walk in food pantry below and caused black mold to grow on walls. Also the floor tiles in the shower were laid in such a way that the water did not drain correctly (see the Building Code of Australia and Australian Standards). It took more than 6 months to fix the shower floor and we still have the following issues less than 6 months after they supposedly fixed the initial shower issue:
a. There is still a 300x300mm hole in the ceiling of the walk in pantry (which I have asked them to fix but have not responded); and
b. There are multiple holes and cracks (>600mm long) appearing in the grout on the new shower floor.
2. There are several sections on the first floor that squeak and one location in particular moves by when you walk over it. It feels like the fasteners they used to secure the floor panels to the joists has come loose. I have lived in two story houses before and never seen a floor that makes this much noise or moves like this.
3. We spend several thousand $ upgrading to dry pressed bricks and we checked with the construction coordinator and the site supervisor on several occasions that they are capable of laying the different bricks. After they laid the bricks we discussed the poor finish (not cleaned properly, gaps 5-15mm, cracked mortar, etc) with the site supervisor. The site supervisor said we probably shouldn’t have chosen the bricks because they are hard to lay. Our neighbour who built with Rawson has regular bricks and he seemed to have similar issues.
4. I believe there is also an issue above the garage where they have put a horizontal piece of timber (blue primer only, no final paint) below the flashing on the outside of the house to hold the fibreboard to the framing. This piece of timber sticks out past the flashing and is exposed to the rain, I don’t see how this is making a waterproof seal or how a piece of timber like this will withstand the elements? I discussed this with the site supervisor and he didn’t see an issue with what they had done.

Overall we are satisfied.Our construction started with few confusions , however the way site supervisor Mr.Leon Raaff managed the construction , ensured the progress is on par with the timeline and timely addressing our concerns made us feel at ease.
We are very pleased with the site supervisor ,he ensured us we are in good hands.
Company handled most of the issues but we felt there is no proper coordination between the internal teams in office which sometimes confuses customer.
Cost wise we feel construction is bit expensive

Pre-Construction Stage.

It's been a very long journey so far, registration of the land took over 2 years. However Rawson have been absolutely fantastic with us up to pre-construction stage. They understood our situation and extended our contract so we wouldn't pay any additional costs/charges.

At every stage of pre-construction, the staff we have dealt with have been very understanding, even after the 100th change we made to the plans, even those annoying very late changes we made... They have all been very patient with us, which has made our journey with Rawson enjoyable and not a chore.

This our third build and Rawson Homes have been far superior in every aspect so far than our previous two builders in Masterton Homes & AVJennings.

We would like to give a big thank you to all the staff that have helped us at every stage up to pre-construction and we are hoping everything runs just as smoothly during the building stage.

Thank you Rawson.

This is a review for the pre-construction phase only, as our build has only just commenced.
So far the process has been very smooth. Right from the outset, our sales consultant was very helpful in discussing all the changes we wanted made to our layout, our tender presenter explained everything to us, and our PCA has been very helpful in answering many questions, and just generally keeping us updated in where we are in the whole process. So far the cost has been pretty much what we expected, however we did a fair amount of research beforehand.
We have had minor issues, mainly due to our internal colour consultant making quite a few mistakes, resulting in a bit of a delay. However, these were rectified and, fortunately, we still made it to construction within our tender period! All our other consultants (externals, external colours, electrical, tiles) were very helpful and fortunately were willing to give a bit of input on what would and would not look good - this was a good thing for my partner and I as we are not great at imagining the end product.
Our piers have now gone down, and our site supervisor has been very friendly so far. But we will update this post once we are a bit further along in the building process.

We have just moved to our Rawson home. The management of the build was good. We had two site supervisors during construction. The first gave us email communications on weekly basis. We found the second site supervisor (Chris) to be good with progressing the build along and found him to be really professional and a good communicator. The workmanship on the property was really great on the internals. The garage slab set out for under the roller door was a mistake and the patching of the slab terrible. The outside has a few problems with eaves sheeting.This will be fixed under defects. We also have minor cracking across the garage slab. We found Rawsons paperwork and communication to be excellent. In terms of final cost We were slightly over, due to variations but that was anticipated. Overall I would recommend Rawson Homes.

Half a million dollars and 15 months since construction commenced with no commitment to a completion date!!! If you are about to sign with Rawson, maybe think twice. Our slab was laid in the first week of September 2017. The frame went up progressively with very little work done for months at a time. Prior to Easter 2018, we inspected the frame due to our concerns that the exposure to the weather had warped the frame. Sure enough, we checked three walls, all three were out by up to 40mm. NSW building regulations allow for 4mm over two metres. Rawson assured us that all walls would be checked and straightened prior to gyprocking. So, after 15 months of incredibly inept quality control and project management, we receive notification that the house is ready for final walk through.
We checked the three walls for plumb and alignment only to find that they essentially had ignored our concerns regarding the straightening of the walls.
We have an extremely long list of unsatisfactory workmanship, too many to list here. The more we investigate and check the property, the more sub standard, unacceptable workmanship we are discovering.
The current situation is that Rawson are in full agreement with our concerns and are stating that they will fix everything. Great, major renovations to a house that is almost at handover. Ripping out completed walls, new plaster, repainting, the list goes on. This will entail, with the lead up to xmas and the xmas break, by our reckoning, a possible completion date of around Easter. Given the performance history of Rawson so far, our expectations will probably not be met. Does anybody believe that at minimum, an 18 month build time is acceptable? Although Rawson are not disputing any of our quality issues, they are refusing to even indicate a completion date. Fifteen months already and no end in site.
This is now in the hands of Fair Trading, and it has gone way beyond concerns with lack of progress and quality.
It has now become a situation where many of the walls, window frames, doorways etc will need to be deconstructed and rebuilt to meet NSW guidelines.
To any people currently in the build process, may i suggest you take a two metre level over your frame or walls and check thoroughly that they are compliant. To those currently making a choice as to who to build with, be cautious, very, very cautious. Be warned!!!!

It was amazing. We had a great experience with Ray. He showed us around the us and pointed out the flaws that he is going to fix. We pointed out something and he was more than willing to help us fix them. The communication process was easy and convenient. The result of the house was genuinely good and clean. We are happy with it.

As we bought a house and land package we are stuck with Rawson homes. First off they underestimate the time it will take for land to register and provide you with an unrealistic contract start date. Making it an unrealistic time table to get the compliance plans and DA plans completed in time before the projected contract start date so that they are able to charge you an extra 10k to get your project/contract start date extended. As my partner and I don't have experience or knowledge of how this whole process works, we had no choice but to agree to the variation and pay an extra 10k to extend our contract date to July 2019. We are hoping and praying Rawson start building before July 2019, or else they can charge us more money. Rawson has told us they will be building by July 2019 but we are not so sure they might delay it just to charge us extra again. At first they told us they will start building in January 2019, but we just received an email stating that they will begin building February 2019. What's to stop them from emailing again saying we will start building at this time or another time.

Their upgrades also cost a lot more when you get a house and land package. The more cost effective way would probably be to buy a land that's registered first and then seek out Rawson as the builder. Then they cannot charge you the extra 10k for a contract start date extension variation and your upgrades for the house may also be discounted if it is not a part of a package.

Rawson have also had a high staff turnover while we have worked with them. We have had two different pre-construction admins and two different internal/electrical admin staff. This has also cost us more money as the staff working did not provide the correct information to the next person. At our first meeting we explained that we want to put in a feature wall like in the display home and she said that she will follow it up. Never got back to me about it. I emailed her about it and she says that because our case has progressed to the next stage we have to pay for a variation admin fee that costs $450. We have to pay this twice as it has happened again on another occasion (with our request to put in extra insulation in the garage).

Also I wholeheartedly understand that once our land has registered that it is our responsibility to maintain/keep clean. Unfortunately we did not get a temporary fence up in time and we experienced quite minimal rubbish dumping but excessive landfill dumping. We asked Rawson to assist with the extra dirt thats on our land, and we didn't even mind paying a bit extra, but Rawson did not even want to help. They just said to call council.

I don't think i'd choose Rawson again. As we have had such little customer support during the pre-construction phase and they haven't even started building yet.