Rossdale Homes
79 reviews
- Pre-Construction
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- Mid-Construction
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- Post-Construction
If I could give zero stars, I would. Building with Rossdale Homes has been one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. Four years later and my house is still not finished. What should have been an exciting experience has turned into years of frustration, stress, wasted time, and wasted money. The customer service has been absolutely… Read more
unacceptable. I was given promise after promise, only to be disappointed over and over again. Every time I thought progress was finally going to happen, there was another excuse or another delay. I felt like my concerns were ignored and that my requests meant nothing.
If you're dealing with Leianne, don't be swayed by promises alone. My experience was that what I was told did not match what actually happened, leaving me feeling completely let down.
I have invested years of my life into this build, and instead of enjoying my home, I've been left chasing updates, dealing with endless delays, and wondering when it will ever be completed.
My advice is simple: walk away. There are plenty of builders who value their customers, communicate honestly, and deliver on their commitments. I wish I had chosen one of them. I wouldn't recommend Rossdale Homes to anyone after what I've been through.
“Trust is a trap.” Three years on the house and they still left it unfinished. Don’t believe a word they say unless it’s written down and even then, be cautious. They refused the building inspection report, and the house still has issues due to their poor workmanship. The build is a meter off the plan. Absolute con artists. Save yourself the trouble and stay far away. Show details
The Rossdale Sierra building design would have been ok if as in our case it wasn't riddled with shortcuts and shoddy workmanship taken by the building company or contractors to save them money. For example, a complete eaves panel on the 2nd story was left loose by the builder so that after a few wind gusts it began to sag and eventually required… Read more
thousands to pay for it to be reattached. The wiring was a complete disaster again requiring thousands to be spent to retrofit corrections. The list of faults is extensive.
Reviews with attachments
Extremely disappointed – After doing a lot of research we settled on Rossdale as being one of the better builders, the quotation process went reasonably well compared to another builder that we originally signed up with. The planning and design went without a hitch as we looked forward to our new home. The construction moved along well and we were reasonably happy with… Read more
the progress and it was completed in a good time frame. We had requested a good quality and level surface finish on the concrete slab as we were having vinyl plank flooring laid after we moved in. We queried a crack in the slab that went across from one side to the other and were told that it was normal for concrete to crack and to not worry about it. There was a 2cm gap between the kitchen bench and the slab at one end, self levelling concrete was applied which left a raised "island" that then had to be ground down before we could have the flooring installed. The sliding doors were not installed as per the plans and the frames didn't touch the floor so had to be bogged up to make them look ok. The quad under the eaves started to drop within six months of us moving in. I am constantly applying No More Gaps around the kitchen cupboards and skirting boards. The rainwater tank did not fill as it had been plumbed incorrectly and the showers regularly do not drain without removing the Smart Tile. All in all a terrible experience.
- +5
Terrible Building Company – Never going to recommend Rossdale to anyone in SA as their dream home builder. In fact, we will do our best to keep all our friends and relations away from these incompetent time and money wasters. We have had the worst, most stressful and disappointing building experience with Rossdale. "TRUST IS A MUST" is just a hollow set of words this… Read more
company flags around. They don't know what the meaning of TRUST in a service is.
We signed our preliminary service agreement with Rossdale to build our second and dream home on 06/04/2021. After spending a very long 15 months in pre-construction period the construction phase finally commenced on 25/07/2022 and we received the completion date of 03/07/2023.
The footing was only poured in September 2022 (the land sat there, barren for over a year). After the footing it took another 7 months for them to get started with the frame. The frame was completed in April 2023. Then the brick laying began in September 2023 (another 5 months after the frame had been finished). The roof and internal linings were completed in November 2023 and there is still a lot more to go.
We experienced extremely poor communication during the first year in the construction phase having an inexperienced Customer Service Coordinator who constantly fed us inaccurate information or nothing at all.
After one year in the construction phase, we had to reach out to the Managing Director and the General Manager of Rossdale as there was no progression in the construction and we were not receiving any information from the Customer Service Coordinator despite our countless attempts to get in contact. We finally got a response from the General Manager and a new Customer Service Coordinator was allocated. We have had slightly better communication since.
Rossdale are always waiting for tradies to pick up their jobs. Very sadly the site supervisor is not aware about the status of the construction site either. Without completing the roof, they put up the ceilings. With the recent rain our ceilings were getting soaked, and the site supervisor was unaware about this. The site supervisor is not aware about the activity and timing of the tasks happening on the site according to the tradies, contractors and office staff.
Rossdale homes have accepted thousands of projects, but they don't have the tradies or resources to complete the work. Tradies are continuously turning down work from Rossdale as they have bad experience with the company. This means that a small set of tradies work on all the projects and then we, the customers, suffer with delays. We have been struggling with finance and paying construction mortgages for years due to Rossdale’s careless judgement. Poor coordination between the site supervisor and the construction team has caused so many delays and is ultimately reducing the quality of the building with so many defects due to weather and incompetence. This is going to be the third disappointing Christmas we are going to spend due to our building experience with Rossdale Homes. We have had our dream home ruined by Rossdale homes for three Christmases including this year.
We had hoped to spend Christmas this year in our dream family house with extended family. We thought with the big boss’s engagement would make this a reality but now we are not getting any response from the General manager, and we have never got any response from the Managing Director in this regard. They all just keep quiet and fail to fulfil their responsibilities.
We received confirmation from the office staff that the home will not be handed over before Christmas this year and it will be another couple more weeks after the Christmas/New year break. We wouldn’t be surprised if Rosedale pushes out the handover date to mid next year given the experience we’ve had so far. Perhaps they don’t plan to hand it over at all.
Rossdale homes has ruined our dreams, hopes, finances and has put everyone in our family into a stressful, helpless and hopeless situation. Rossdale has been the root of so many problems our family has experienced. We are never ever recommending Rossdale Homes as anyone’s dream home builder.
Attached photos shows the wet ceilings and floors after the recent rains.
Rossdale communication was appalling – If you're thinking of building with Rossdale be prepared for frustration and stress. And please read this whole review. We initiated the build process with Rossdale in Jan 2020 and finally got handover in late May 2023. The process of building with Rossdale was long and disappointing. Their communication processes were woeful, including staff… Read more
being unresponsive and taking ages to reply to emails or phone calls. Although the overall house looks nice, some work was not up to standard, including faults and poor workmanship. The most serious problem was the safety hazard that we couldn't exit via our front door because Rossdale installed the front door lock incorrectly. This fault was identified at handover but took almost 2 weeks to fix. Finally we are able to exit our house via the front door if there's an emergency. Rossdale said the lock was faulty, which was wrong. The technician who fixed it confirmed it was clearly Rossdale's installation that was faulty. There's plenty more negative things about dealing with Rossdale as builders but it's not worth the time to tell them all. I'd simply say, consider alternative builders, but if you choose Rossdale you'll need lots of energy and perseverance to initiate the communication and make sure you get the standard of house you deserve. We're still being blocked in our requests to get a face-to-face meeting to discuss and resolve our final concerns.
Don’t bother – The whole experience was a joke. The place is like a revolving door, throughout the time we were building, the staff turnover said it all. I had to complete my selections all over again because the last person left and didn’t leave any indication of my previous selections. We lived remotely, so this was an effort. Because they took so long with… Read more
our build, multiple of our selections became discontinued, and a lot of the partners would not allow phone consults…until COVID occurred. We were hounded for money abruptly when we were actually awaiting variation reports from their end, and we proved this. We noticed a change of tone the second we signed our contract, and paid deposits. At one point, we were so close to pulling the pin, that we started looking at houses to purchase. After handover, the place was meant to be clean, when we pointed out that it wasn’t (sawdust on flooring etc) we were told it’s actually meant to be a ‘builders clean’. We found bits of rubbish throughout the entire front yard, where the builders had just thrown crap towards the slip, and decided not to pick them up. We have now lived in our Rossdale home for 3 years and are finding multiple shortcuts and faults. Cabinetry in particular is falling apart, some weren’t even assembled in the first place, bits of rubbish were placed in instead of screws to hold things together. Well, for just enough time to get past the grace period. I attempted to reach out to Rossdale and ask who the cabinetmaker was, in order to raise this concern, it was ignored. They try to get you to recommend friends and family to use Rossdale to build, and they will give you a $500 voucher. By the time I hire people to come in and fix up the crap they messed up, there’s that $500. Pathetic.
Positive reviews
Love our home!! We had a very difficult block, a lot of slope that we weren't sure we could e degr the house we wanted on there. The design was perfect. Our consultant, Tiff, helped us through all of our (possibly annoying) questions and made the pre-construction process stress free. The build started with a delayed slab due to 40 degree weather… Read more
the week before xmas, however the lost time was caught up during construction and handover was the week prior to the date in our contract. No variations that you normally hear of because of our fixed price. We honestly couldn't be happier.
Honest Builder – We built our home with Rossdale and work was completed to a high standard. Sagar was our building consultant and Steve was the Site Supervisor. Highly recommend them as a builder. We had no major issues during the build, and any small issues that arose were rectified quickly with a respectful email. There were small touch ups after the build was completed which were fixed at no charge. I would build again with Rossdale. Show details
Amazing Process and Build – We purchased a very difficult block without knowing if any builder would be able to create our dream home. Luckily Rossdale had the experience and knowledge to give us exactly what we wanted. The design process was straight forward and we were updated at each stage with updated plans etc. We visited our home throughout construction and was amazed… Read more
to see how fast each trade worked, and were all super friendly which was nice. We have our amazing forever home and couldn't be happier.
Negative reviews
This is our review of building with Rossdale Homes. After visiting display homes from alot of builders we decided on Rossdale Homes. Sales consultant was pretty good, always answering our questions etc promptly. We signed our contract August 2023. Our selections were all completed by October 2023. All finance, contacts and paperwork was ready… Read more
to go before Xmas 2023. We thought “Wow this is great, things moving quickly”
And then crickets… block sat there until July 2024. Contacted sales consultant and was told that since house has gone to construction she doesn’t deal with us anymore. Communication or lack there of and lies started from there on.
Few examples of what we’ve experienced
After the slab was down we noticed water meter was just inside the driveway, we organised SAWater to relocate. The portaloo was where it needs to go. So emailed if it could be moved at our expense. Was told yes give us 4 weeks. Hadn’t happened, so asked again, was told yes it’s been organised give us 4 weeks. Advised SAwater that 5 weeks should be good. They went to do the changeover it still not moved. Emailed again was told it’s been organised, the company that owned the portaloo must be delayed and it’ll be done in 4 weeks. Again 4 weeks passed and nothing. Emailed the company whose details were on the loo, they had never been contacted!
Noticed through the windows that our staircase wasn’t what we had on the plans. Emails back and forth trying to explain that they don’t match our plans. Kept getting no exact response as to why. Eventually was told this is what you paid for so this is what you get.
After we hit the 12 month mark (July 2024) we asked for a rough timeline. They couldn’t give us a date etc. Things had been progressing really slow, the neighbours in the street had all commented how slow things were. Asked again September was told hoping for handover October. We went overseas first two weeks of October, when we got home nothing had been done. Neighbours said one trade was there one day that was all. Handover wasn’t until 31st January 2025
I emailed to express our disappointment with how things been moving, was told there’s supply issues and trade issues… funny thing was a few streets over there were two single story homes being built by Rossdale. They started months after ours and all the jobs we were waiting for had been completed there and people moved in before us. A manager rang me to explained the situation about trade and material shortages but went quiet when I told her about the houses near us.
The final and best example I can give… we did handover on a Friday. Jobs were still to be completed. We went back at 6pm to finally walk into our own home. A trade was still there finishing up so we left. Saturday we organised with a few family to meet us there. Have a celebratory drink upon opening our front door for the first time… we were given the wrong keys and couldn’t get in.
Painting was pretty poor
Had to get driveway laid twice after council rejected it
All pathways to home were cracked before we moved in
BBQ gasline was missed, had to cut out brickwork and install later
Maintenance took 12 months to come back and fix things
Have pictures and emails to corroborate review
What a bad experience we had.... Lot of promises but nothing happened whatsoever, Besides they have $8500 of our money in their bank account. While all the neighbours were about to go live in their newly built homes , we been told: it could take up to 6 months before we break the ground and the funny part is that we all started together more or… Read more
less.
My question is, can they make you pay $3500 then another $5000 way before they quote you? And of course, if you aren't happy with something, you lose your money.
To me sounds a bit of a scam, what's everyone's opinion about it?
Definitely I don't recommend this company to anyone, use every other builders but stay away from them
It was a scam, all the way. $8500 spent way before we got quoted (and beware as if you're not happy with the quote, they disappear ... same as your money) Show details
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Recent reviews
Poor workmanship – We thought we were signing up with a well-known & reputable company, but were sadly very disappointed. “Trust is definitely NOT a must” should be their slogan. We signed up in March 2021, with a fixed price contract. After selections were finalised about 9 months later (partially our fault), we had enormous problems getting to finalise… Read more
variations, & the actual costings. They kept getting variations wrong, left out, things mixed up. When this was finally done & signed off, 10 months after contract was signed, work started 2 months later. The concrete for the main bathroom shower recess was cut in the wrong place, & we had half of the cut out in a bedroom! Apart from this we were happy with the slab. The bricks were delivered April, but the framework did not start till end of May. For the next 4 months we had only 2 days & 2 half days work done. This left our timber/wood out in the weather elements for a total of 6 months, and at one-point apprentices were working on it unsupervised. The quality of the workmanship was appalling, & the wood was slowly deteriorating, due to the very wet winter of 2022. They also left out a niche in the ensuite toilet & a seat in the ensuite shower, until it was brought to their attention. The only problem with the windows was one, where the wood under the aluminum frame was cracked & had a bow in it. This also was not fixed at all. The bricks having been sitting on site for 5 months were put up & the workmanship was excellent. Note: We still did not have a roof, & still the whole build was left out in the elements over the entire wet winter. Roof was finally put up 9 months after commencement of build. Electricians. After some consultation with them ourselves on site, we had some minor changes to positions, which were adhered to, & by the end of the build & their return a few times, the work was satisfactorily done. Insulation was done beautifully (both external & internal walls had upgraded insulation), but due to bad storms, ¾ of them came down the next day. Notified supervisor, put up again in the next couple of days, but not as good as they were the first time, with few gaps left out, & several parts of the ceiling ones not put back in. When the gyprock was put up a week later. Although not too bad. Again, we thought the quality of the workmanship could have been better. A problem arose with the floor tiles, as Beaumonts, the supplier, deleted the approx.. 156 sq metres of floor tiling from their paper work, without consulting us. But the price did not change though. As we did not sign off on this change, the original signed paperwork had to be honoured. We did have to fight for this though. I do not recommend “Beaumonts” either, as they must be colour blind, as they made a change without our knowledge, consultation or consent. And our matching floor & wall tiles in the powder room do not match. When questioned, they said the tile was the same name, but a different supplier, but even a blind person could see it is a different colour. However, the workmanship of the laying of the tiling was excellent. Overall, there is a distinct lack of communication with the company. The supervisor did not give out his phone number or email address, so had to go through a consultant, who also did not always communicate. On a plus side, our initial consultant Rob was excellent, he tried hard to help us, & at one of the early stages, he went out of his way to resolve some issues, we were at the head office in person, he went off to get a consultant to talk us, & he was told to “make an appointment, I’m too busy”. When the time came for handover, again bad weather hindered progress after our first walk through, but again there was no communication, & we were not even told that the handover would not go through, on the day. However, there were lots of minor defects, which had to be fixed before we would be happy. After handover, there were a few minor items still to be done, 3 months later they were still not done, (even though it was in writing & signed by both parties to be done), & the company seemed to have left us ! No communication, would not answer phone calls, texts, or emails. Sadly, disappointed, & would not recommend them at all, they do not care about their builds or their clients.
Shameful! – If I could give this company no stars I would. DO NOT BUILD WITH ROSSDALE!!! The entire process has been nothing but a nightmare. Emails get ignored. Our house is not making any progress. The blatant lies they spew from their mouths is just unbelievable! An Independent Building Consultant has pointed out so many problems and we are only up to the… Read more
end of the brick laying (AFTER MORE THAN 12 MONTHS!) - so their workmanship is clearly not up to standard. I have read through all the reviews before writing mine - I wish I had done this before signing up with them - I would have taken my hard-earned money to another company - but the sales people get you - all friendly and accommodating! Then when they have you locked in and the "customer service" team takes over it's all downhill. Well we have hit rock bottom and the worst part of that is that Rossdale Homes does not give a continental! They just DO NOT CARE! They do as they like, when they like. When will we have a completed house? How long is a piece of string??? TRUST IS A MUST - WHAT A JOKE ROSSDALE HOMES - AND SHAME ON YOU!
Great build and quality – We would like to thank you Leon Margaritis for helping us build our dream home. Through the first stages of assisting with the design, all the way through to the handover, Leon has gone above and beyond to ensure we received exceptional service. As stressful as building can be, you would always contact us directly and promptly for any questions we… Read more
had. Any issues we encountered, you would personally handle and ensure a smooth process. Your exceptional service has played a big part in our overall experience with Rossdale and would highly recommend Leon Margaritis to anyone looking to build their dream home. Thank you, Alec and Amie
5br 2 bth home Clarence Park – We signed our fixed price quote Sept 2020. Rossdale started the build in Jan (2021) slab was poured in March. The house was completed October 2021. The process was pretty straightforward. We built a 5 BR 2bathroom house in Clarence Park. Most of the tradies did a great job and we were blown away by the tiler’s attention to detail (we have… Read more
herringbone splashback and large tiled flooring in living areas). Overall a great experience with Rossdale. The reason I haven’t put 5 stars for the review is because the painting wasn’t brilliant. The walls have droplets visible and I needed to activate Karen mode to get them to paint the front door as described in the building schedule. Aside from that, we had excellent support from our sales rep throughout the experience and from our site supervisor. Thanks Rossdale!
Retirees dream come true – Was a big gamble for a retiree couple to build a new home. We selected Rossdale after friends who knew Stan Parker recommended them. From our initial meeting Michael Penney and Stan made us feel very welcome .We presented our own plan and they were able to deliver exactly to that plan. Their true Fixed price guarantee was also a major factor.… Read more
They assisted us with the Government 25k home builder grant application which we were able to submit by the deadline. We had a very good supervisor Stephen ,who followed up all the minor glitches we identified during the build process. Furthermore in a Covid year he was able to arrange hand -over on the exact date as per contract date. In all it took 7 months from scratching the dirt to finish. An exceptional effort from all concerned at Rossdale. Despite now being in our new home for 3 months there are still a few minor issues to be resolved. Front security screen door needed to be adjusted and we are still waiting for it to be fitted. Also our front porch sensor light does not work. Rossdale have acknowledged these issues are still outstanding and have occurred due to trades covid cases and assure us they will be rectified as soon as possible. Overall it has turned out to be a dream home .
New House – A big thank you to Rossdale for making this process easy, especially to Tiff Hall, Amber and Paul our project manager. It was our first time building and I can not fault Rossdale I highly recommend them. Our house was built in less than 6 months. 10 out of 10. Show details
Really happy with Rossdale Homes – I don't think I appreciated how many "pieces" were required for a new build before undertaking this process with Rossdale. Michael & Brooke were really informative and gave great guidance on the variety of choices when it came to designs and selections, and going through the council application process. I see some people try and micromanage the… Read more
building process and that's not me as a customer - they are the experts and there are so many elements required to building - the main thing I care about is the finished product. The quality of the build is excellent and any minor issues were identified and rectified quickly - the building supervisor Tom was honest, down-to-earth and attentive despite a busy workload. I can see the building industry is really stretched thin at the moment (as evident by demand and then shortages in supplies and staffing) so I feel grateful and happy to have the house I do now, and very happy to have chosen the journey to be with Rossdale.
Disgusting, disinterested, disingenuous, deplorable – 30% Over estimate, without all requested items being included. Deception and stretched truths about inclusions, only to be charged variations later on, even with written proof on their own documents. Contract provided 6 weeks late on Xmas Eve with no recourse to change, or loose the home grant. Errors in floor plan they said they would fix in… Read more
writing months before signing contract, never did, then claimed it was too late.
An absolutely horrible and abusive customer service manager.
Given just two weeks notice to have finances approved or be hit with a $60k price increase. Caused by months of delays during selections through their sheer incomplete. Only to continue to wait another 3 months with no site works.
Staff who purposely made build more difficult after being called out on their major mistakes. Currently 6 months late on start date, with no footings laid. That's 18 months now of dealing with them and still no site work.
Endless excuses and lies, and a mentality of blaming the customer, even when there is a clear email trail of their promises.
Purposely hiding communication details with site supervisor so there is no method of feedback on anything they don't do correctly with the build.
I have never experienced such a disgusting process where I am treated as an inconvenience to their business. They have clearly no interest in actually building a quality product or providing any form of service.
It's too late for me to leave the build, so I'm hoping to prevent others from sharing my experience. Absolutely horrible company.
Please share and avoid.
Our Forever Home - Perfect! – Our build was managed extremely well from pre to post-construction. The quality in the build is very evident the moment you walk through the front door. We had a couple of hiccups during the build which were dealt with promptly and professionally and we are more than satisfied with the outcome. We went over budget, as we suspected we would, but it was worth every penny. Show details
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Poor service and no accountability – The overall project was very stressful. Pre-construction was okay. A couple of months into the construction, a few issues were noticed, and communication and customer service became very poor. There were a number of issues noticed during construction, at handover and shortly after handover. Many issues and the way Rossdale handle these is extremely poor. There does not appear to be any accountability to rectify the issues internally. Show details
I trust rossdale – I contacted the builders through friends ,and then went to the Rossdale homes company I found that the company is very formal service is patricularly good and staffs are very enthusiastic.the construction contract is also very detailed and clear . when I saw the house delivered . I felt very happy and it was my dream home Show details
Normanville build - Leon Margaritis – Being in the construction industry the last 25 years and project managing two of my own houses I did think of building my own home again but was referred to Rossdale Homes and thought I would give a builder a chance as I’m very fussy with attention to detail whilst making sure my value and knowledge was going to be accepted part of the building… Read more
process. I was lucky to be introduced to Leon Margaritis which he was very understanding, friendly, positive and always replied to my text messages at all hours of the day and weekends, his communication was outstanding and put me at ease allowing not just him but Rossdale Homes to look after my project. I can’t fault the preliminary process once signing contracts with Leon, his assistant Nikki was very helpful and whenever I had a query with my selections or pricing she always got back to me in time as I anticipated how busy the industry is at the moment with the building grant. I’m very involved with the Greek community and can’t praise Leon enough for his efforts and by the end of our dealings his Greek did improve dramatically but in all seriousness he has a good name and happy to recommend him to all my family and friends in the Greek community.
Paid $5750 last year. Cannot get a start after almost a year – We Paid $5750 last October. The salespeople are nice. The display village is nice as well. Then they get almost a year to get the plan approved. After that, we keep waiting for a quote since 20 July 2021 (After the council approved). We think we are forced to give up the $5750. So stay away from this builder. Show details
Customer service went above and beyond, on top of a fantastic build quality – The main factors in deciding to go with Rossdale for our dream family home build was their true fixed price quotes, competitive pricing and the excellent customer service we experienced with the Sales Consultant David Bann. David Bann went above and beyond during the design phases to help us recreate a 1930s Sandstone heritage cottage look that… Read more
suits the Eastern Suburbs style. David also negotiated hard with NPSP council on our behalf as the council was painful and demanding as most councils are. Rossdale and David were able to recreate this look perfectly and David helped with building and design tips to improve the plans we had in mind. Throughout the build process David was also only a phone call away and promptly allayed any concerns or organised rectification.
The selection process was long but thorough and the suppliers and trades Rossdale use are top notch. We had a few minor hiccups with selections which Nikki at Rossdale rectified promptly.
The build quality is fantastic, Rossdale recreated this style perfectly, particularly the Stone Mason Guido and the heritage verandah tiler - craftsmanship was superb.
Rossdale site manager Stephen was very thorough and attentive towards the latter stages of the build, ensuring we as the customer were 100% happy with the final product. A few minor issues or workmanship faults came up in the latter stages but Stephen was onto the trades before we even noticed, filling us with confidence. Not to mention we had our own private building inspector who thought it was a high quality build with only very minor faults he was able to pick up that were fixed ASAP.
All said and done Rossdale honoured the fixed price quote as they state and delivered a high quality 1930s Sandstone Heritage dream family home. I would be happy to recommend them to anyone. Specifically David Bann the consultant and Stephen the site manager went above and beyond for us and our home.
Thank you
Retirement Home – As in our previous two builds with Rossdale Homes we have nothing but praise for the way Rossdale Homes carried out this build. The supervisor was excellent as was our consultant and all other staff members that were involved. They were extremely approachable and were quick to fix all problems, (not that there were many). Workmanship and… Read more
quality of materials were excellent. The design was arrived at after consultation with our consultant and has proved to be a winner. Neighbours have described our house as "a very pretty house" It certainly stands out as different to all the other houses in the street all of which are similar to each other!! It is an excellent example of a downsize house without being too small!!
Average overpriced builder - dissapointed – Have now been in our Rossdale built home for 16 months (Mount Barker). Like most builders, the sales team were exceptional and spent a lot of time working with us. Unfortunately the selections process (which had us driving all over Adelaide) was disappointing. The quality of the cabinet maker and other trades allocated to us were of average or… Read more
sub par quality. The inclusions were absolutely bare minimal, the same as hickenbotham and most other budget builder, but i suppose we did expect more inclusions from a more expensive builder. (ie: Plastic toilet, basic round basin and the cheapest tapware, one light bulb per room etc) Ridiculously overpriced electrics and data points. Some of the selections meetings were rude and condescending to what we thought were completely reasonable questions. They already have your business so why bother being polite i suppose?
The build process was extremely slow. For a bog standard 4 bed 170sqm house it took over 8 months once ground was broken. Delays because the site manager forgot to order the bricks left us with a choice of either changing the brick colour entirely (but we couldnt change anything else to match because it had already been ordered). It wasn't until i called the brick company directly that this issue was resolved (no thanks to Rossdale). This left our frame out in the elements for 2-3 months with no coverings. Multiple issues with bathroom tiles not draining (replaced but not actually fixed). Driveway broke apart within a few months. This was replaced but they poured the new driveway on a day of torrential rain which has now resulted in severe discolouration and cracking. We raised this with Rossdale ([Name Removed] - Mount Barker), they have refused to repair it again leaving us with a sub par quality driveway.
Poor quality trades were used throughout. A subpar frame installer was used. This also meant we can't attach a pergola as they put "no additional load" labels on the frame - i have since learnt this is uncommon and means a cheap method was used. No communication from Rossdale this was happening. Cabinet maker left gaps and holes, raised this with site manager but it was apparently "within tolerance" so no effort made to repair these blatant issues. A beading was placed on the floor around the kitchen cabinets which we were assured there would be no beading. As a result the flooring installers picked a random colour to use without consulting us and now we are stuck with it. Cheap quality flooring is showing signs of severe wear already (only 16mo). Many other quality issues raised with Rossdale were completely ignored. The quality is basically the same as budget builders so there is no point going with rossdale. We thought we would be getting a higher quality builder.
Unfortunately we haven't been able to recommend Rossdale to any of our family and friends who are also building in Mount Barker. I'm sure this has resulted in multiple lost sales because they also have friends who are building in SA. If they had spent a little more time resolving some of the quality issues we might have been able to recommend them. All in all, we have a house and most things work fine, but we could've just saved some money and gone with a cheaper builder and got the same quality product.
Can't even get a start – After visiting numerous different display homes i found a program on line and drew up our floor plan with all measurements room sizes etc we wanted. I emailed Rossdale the dimensions of the block we have as well as the floor plan I drew up. I emailed 2 sales consulats with the floor plan and block size attached. One got back to me saying he would… Read more
do a quote that was 4 weeks ago and I have not heard a word since. After reading some of the reviews I think we have dodged a bullet. To think they spend all this money saying the are the knock down rebuild specialists what a joke. It was a $450-500k build maybe they are too busy or only take on bigger jobs who knows. After my experience with them I would say do your research, if I had of read some of the reviews first would never have contacted them in the first place.
Trust is not a must – My partner and I met with Rossdale Homes early this year with the following documentation: council planning approval, our own plans, soil report, engineering report (for footings) and a 'wish list' with all our desired specs. Their consultant provided us with a price guide for a dream home, which was well below other builders such as Weeks… Read more
Building Group and Rendition Homes. We thought to ourselves that this was too good to be true. After voicing our concerns to Rossdale Homes, they re-assured us the price would not change materially as it was a price guide. We even had in writing 'fixed price footings' per an email from our Rossdale Homes consultant.
We then committed to Rossdale Homes and paid a $4,000 payment for preliminary work. After three months of waiting and constant follow ups, we received the fixed price which ended up being over $80k more than the price guide (20-25% increase).
I believe my partner and I are very reasonable people, we added an extension to our kitchen island bench and two windows however nothing structurally or to the size of the house that would result into an increase of $80,000. We were extremely upset as it put our whole dream to a standstill and caused significant stress.
At this point Rossdale Homes agreed that this increase was partially their fault and offered us a small discount, nowhere near the $80,000 mark, however continued to argue it was our fault for adding so much to the house. We tried for several hours to breakdown the cost increase, but no specific or clear breakdown was given, which made us feel extremely uncomfortable.
After weeks of negotiating, my partner and I decided to walk away from Rossdale Homes as their fixed price was well over our budget. I honestly believe we were misled from the beginning and the fixed price process was ridiculously dragged out to 'trap' us into committing to build with them as they had knowledge of our deadline to our wedding.
After deciding to withdraw from the build, we were hopeful that Rossdale Homes would refund us our deposit (or part of) for our ordeal. This would have been a good opportunity to uphold their slogan 'Trust is must'. However, after weeks of emails, we were told majority of our $4000 payment was spent, and $257 was available for a refund. They did not provide any invoices of their costs.
A week or so later they posted out our $257 cheque, after we requested a bank transfer. I believe this was issued as a petty justification to make our lives more difficult.
I believe Rossdale's staff's 'pride' was more important than their brand. We were extremely excited to build our first home and had nothing but high hopes for our experience with them. This ordeal has left us severely scarred. We believe they under quoted us, took our deposit, dragged out the process and hoped we would commit to the inflated fixed price due to a deadline.
I am sharing my experience in the hopes that this does not happen to anyone else. We believed we went in with all the appropriate information and knowledge, maybe more so than others and unfortunately, we were absolutely railroaded.
I love my new home – Rossdale happily accommodated my self drawn plans and ideas and turned them into a home I love. Leon Margaritis interpreted my non- builder language with patience and good humour. I never felt as though anything was too much trouble to change. Steph Zeilonka , my office contact, answered emails in a timely manner. Matt Leonard project managed… Read more
in a calm and professional way whilst being genuinely friendly and understanding. Linda Hutchinson - post build maintenance, attended to any concerns in a timely and friendly manner. The maintenance team and builders were friendly and professional. Building is an exercise in patience. It wasn't the fastest build and its important to keep a perspective. I'd say allow longer than the projected completion date if you don't want to be stressed. Its inevitable that things will change or be delayed and alter the time frames. Similarly with the pricing. Whilst the initial pricing was very low I allowed quite a bit extra for the final amount. This is because their standard spec range is quite limited and was not to my liking. As with all builders, their show homes include many products and features that are not part of the standard specs. Rossdale were very happy to include non standard products from other suppliers as long as I obtained written quotes and submitted them. My house is finished to a high standard and there have only been minor maintenance issues which have been addressed promptly and in a friendly manner. I recommend having other tradesmen inspect the work after handover - they seem to love telling you if something hasn't been done properly. 18 months in I discovered my chimney flu wasn't installed to code and this was promptly dealt with. The final cost was accurate to the cent with the contract price. Rossdale's fixed price guarantee gives peace of mind. I have recommended them to friends who are currently building. My only criticism is that the process was not always clear from the written documents I was given and I had unnecessary anxieties about cost penalties that did not materialise. Rossdale seem to genuinely care about the satisfaction of their customers.
Perfect build with Leon Margaritis and Rossdale Homes – I came into building a home with absolutely no idea and was worried about builders and the games they play with promotions and variations (free aircons, etc are rubbish), Leon Margaritis was very helpful and made my choice easy to pick a builder and he guided me through not just the early stages but during the build I called him on many occasions… Read more
asking questions on process because I trusted him and he always answered my calls or would call me back the same day. The supervisor Stephen Scholfield has built a great home, there was some things he picked up during the build that I wasn't aware of which gave me peace of mind. Overall very happy Rossdale Homes and would refer Leon Margaritis to build your home.
Fantastic Build!!! – Very happy with our home, we highly reccommend Leon Margaritis who was our building consultant. He helped us through some challenging times with finance dealing with our broker direct and we wouldn't have built if it wasn't for his patience and professionalism. Our supervisor Paul Stringer was great and helped us if we always had a question,… Read more
selections process took a bit of time but happy with the finish and quality of our home. We would highly recommend Rossdale Homes and to deal with Leon for peace of mind.
Excellent experience and building process – Our building consultant Leon Margaritis was amazing from start to finish even coming to our handover, the building supervisor Tom Parker was exceptional on site and very communicative both by telephone and email. We had issues with our neighbour with building on boundary and both Leon and Tom were more than helpful to assist with this frustraing… Read more
matter which got resolved but did delay our build slightly. The quality of the build is very good and they didn't hesitate to fix any minor imperfections after hand over. I would highly recommend Leon Margaritis and his team to build to my friends and family, his knowledge and detail with council made the preconstruction process very simple and we didnt feel pressured throughout the building process.
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