Sarah Homes

First I would like to say the excellence of the tradies work is amazing and they were all respectful when we came round and went out of their way to do the right thing, the manager is great to work with and he went above and beyond and he worked hard to get us in this beautiful house we can not thank him enough. The final pricing was not too far… Read more ·  1

from the beginning as we know things do go up so Sarah Homes did well it was lovely to move in and just enjoy

Excellent and affordable builder – I'm really happy with my new holiday home built by Sarah Homes. From the initial sales process to the final handover, the experience was smooth and stress-free. Having previously built with a premium builder, I was pleased with the comparable level of service offered by Sarah Homes without the expensive price tag. Once the job got to site,… Read more ·  1

construction was extremely quick and was completed within 6 months.

The sales consultant worked in with our busy schedules and met with us several times out of hours. The selections process was easy with plenty of options to choose from and helpful guidance from the consultant. The construction process went well, with regular updates and good communication throughout.

Our building supervisor, Brad, was great to work with. He was professional, friendly and kept us informed every step of the way. He went above and beyond to deliver an excellent result.

Our holiday home – We were very happy with our sales manager and brilliant site supervisor. Construction would have been on schedule but Covid put us behind by 6 weeks. We are very happy with the finished product and the changes we required were efficiently organised. We did think the range of selections could have been alot better? We would like to thank our site… Read more ·  1

supervisor for always answering our calls with any queries we had and attending to these quickly. He made our build enjoyable.

Fantastic work very pleased with the out come of my new home – My build was managed very well the supervisor new his job and everything ran smoothly. The workmanship is first class work very satisfactory, we had a slight water leak which was handled immediately with no further problems, costings was a bit more then original costing which didn't bother us too much. we would recommend this company to my friends if they were looking at building. Show details ·  1

Do not build with Sarah homes 3 and half years nightmare and not completed. Deposit august 2021 signed contract January 2022 .plans passed July 2022.did not start building to April 2023. September 2023 did an inspection found pier holes across the front of house in the wrong spot. Reported it to them said they would fix it. November 2023 they… Read more

sent photos saying it was fixed lies lies . December 2023 engaged building certifiers house not compliant. Feb 2024 meet council on site failed inspection. Cease work order issued they kept building council notified they kept building. April 2024 council Inspection failed again. May 2024 sent a bill for 52k how can this be Possible Cease work order in place. Engaged a lawyer. They continue to build with Cease work order in place. Their own engineers inspection not compliant council takes them to court we join them in the process of,ERD COURT. WHAT a waste of time and 100k . They admit fault but do not want to pay cost they say they have aright to fix it. It's time to go to the media.

Terrible building company with no regard for their clients once final payment has been received – Our home commenced construction in January 2024 with Sarah Homes and we were relatively happy up until just prior to lock-up of our home with the way the work was progressing. It did take a very long time for the home to commence after signing of the contract and a large variation was sent to us quite a while after signing of the contract which… Read more

was apparently for ‘increases in material costs’ which seemed an extremely excessive amount but we were advised after a meeting at Sarah’s regarding the huge variation that we did have to pay it to continue to progress to the building stage. Once we were at lock-up stage we obviously could not enter the home but we did notice that the painting of the exterior of the home was appalling (streaks everywhere and places where you could see that only one coat had been done and large blobs of paint which had dripped down the walls - we wonder if the painters were even qualified painters as it was such a substandard painting job). We then received the final progress payment invoice. I told my husband I was not happy to pay the final payment until we had our final inspection and handover but we were under the impression that if we didn’t pay it in full we would not be given a date for handover of keys. We gave Sarah's the benefit of the doubt and reluctantly paid the final progress payment for the home and a handover meeting was then set up by Sarah Homes for the 4th of October 2024. We were horrified when we entered our home on the day of handover to receive the keys from the site manager to find that the home was not completed (no shower screen in the ensuite, missing mirror in the bathroom, mains water not connected to the home, incorrect shower head connected in the ensuite, oven and rangehood not installed, huge chip in the island bench in the kitchen, etc etc). We had a long list of items not completed or defects to be repaired and I was appalled and stated to the site manager at the meeting that we should not have made the final payment as the home was obviously not completed. He stated to us that if we had not made the final payment that we would not have been given a handover appointment to collect the keys until final payment had been received. We have built 3 homes with 3 different builders over the years and we were never asked to make the final progress payment until the house was fully completed and we had a chance to inspect the home prior to the final payment being made. We were not happy but the site manager assured us that the home would be fully completed by the end of the following week. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and visited our home week after week and nothing was done (we couldn’t move in until the work was completed even though we now had the keys – we were also advised that we were not to unlock the laundry door as it was still under construction key as the tradesmen had to come and go to enable them access to our home to finish completing the work required). Stay away from this company as they don’t care about you as a valued client once they have received your money. We were so frustrated at the continual promises week after week that the work would be completed and nothing was done even after many phone calls and emails to the site manager and the building manager. We do not recommend Sarah Homes and suggest that you build with any other building company but them. It took 2½ months for Sarah Homes to finally complete our home after the final progress payment was made and that was only after we had enough of their promises and assurances that the home would be completed that we were forced to escalate the matter to the HIA and Business and Consumer Affairs and sent Sarah Homes a final notice letter before any significant action was taken to complete the home. The lack of communication and urgency in addressing these issues was disappointing and has compelled me to share my experience publicly. It is my hope that Sarah Homes can take immediate steps to improve customer relations and ensure that future clients do not face similar challenges.

Never Ever Again – I am (still) trying to finish my 5th (and ABSOLUTELY my last) house with Sarah Homes. Having signed in March 2021 it was February 2022 before the slab was poured and mid October, the house is still not complete. Jobs get started (eg over 2 months between flushing the gyprock and the cornices being fitted), I arranged the electricity connection for… Read more

February and Sarah Homes continue to cancel the Origin booking, half the lights fitted, the balustrades painted while the timber safety rails are still screwed into it, and the list goes on and on.

They CANNOT continue to use the whole COVID thing, not that it ever really should have made a difference and certainly the greed they (all builders) displayed over the government handouts is not my problem...if they can't handle the work then don't take it on.

The fact that I was a "regular customer" ie trying to build 3 to 4 homes a year with them made zero difference so all the best of luck to the (mainly) first and only home buyers.

After waiting 12 weeks for the contract for my next house, I finally gave up and cancelled...of course I lost the initial fee but this pales into insignificance when I look at what I (am losing) and was likely to lose.

SO I am now my own builder, all my plans are approved, my materials orders in place and on schedule, my contractors lined up and the next house will be built on time, my way.

Oh...and their communication is appalling and any dates I was able to glean ended up being irrelevant anyway

Very Disappointing – Have had to deal with a very reactive and rude site supervisor. If I talked to customers the way he does, I wouldn't have a job. But apparently treating the people that give you a pay check with disrespect is absolutely fine. Cannot believe that customer service is so poor and communication is non-existent unless they want something. Can't wait to see the back of this company. Show details

Haven't started building yet but very dissappointed – We signed a contract with Sarah Homes on December 10, 2021 and are still awaiting final approval to start building. Whilst we are aware that there are holdups due to Covid (even after two years of pandemic) we consider eight months and still no start to be unreasonable. What is worse, we have now been told that there is a strong possibility that… Read more

the contract price is likely to rise between $20K and $30K to to price rises in materials. Why weren't materials ordered at or around the time of signing the contract to lock the prices in? Why are we paying the price for Sarah Homes' inability to progress things at a reasonable pace? Given the likely price will exceed the contract price so much it is likely that the bank will withdraw their loan approval and we are in a very difficult place.

Told 1 thing from sales team and once you sign it’s a different story… disappointing experience so far – I signed 12 months ago and still not at final contract stage Before signing I specifically asked about their supply lines and was told that they have “ very good relationships with their suppliers and have no trouble at all with supplies” Was told it would take 6-8 weeks in an email to get it to initial contract stage and it took over 11 weeks… Read more

( nothing to do with supply shortages)

Have now been told will take 12 weeks for Sarah homes to create the final contract…

All the extra time they are delaying the process the holding costs and inflation is adding to the overall cost

A provisional sum for sarking to the roof was quoted at $1260- , Sarah homes then sent a variation to this cost @$3000- I find it very hard to believe that sarking has almost tripled in price????

They have been very difficult to contact and often I have had to make several attempts to contact them regarding the process

So far the process is very long and we haven’t even started to order any materials or anything yet?? I wonder if Sarah homes will just hide behind the excuse of “covid” or will actually admit they took on more work then they could comfortable cope with, leaving people who signed in an expensive long mess

I do hope the situation starts to improve

Stressful nightmare – Uncapped septic pipes in the wall, support beams too short, leaking windows, pipes not correctly installed, peeling paint due to no preparation, incorrect paint inside too, blocked drains from contractors pushing crap down them, incorrect installation of electrical things, cracked tiles and just basic things I’ve had to fix. Handover was 5 years… Read more

ago and I’ve spent 4 out of the 5 years arguing with no responses until I made threats of the tribunal. Even having an independent inspector was argued upon handover. 6 months behind on build, no communication at all except to pass the blame. We will NEVER build again with Sarah homes. We have spent over $3000 to repair things in the last 12 months with more to come. I’ve given up on them.

DONT DO IT!! – Great at selling the dream but it will quickly become a nightmare. Multiple people manage you when you have issues but there is no consistency or follow-up. Costs change with no explanations and time frames for completion frequently not met. They build up front quickly but then have long delays when most of the contract costs have been paid but there is still no house to use. It's not worth the stress. Show details

Don't Bother! – I finally have a slab 15 months after signing a contract with Sarah Homes. In early December I was told framing would begin early January - still waiting. Very poor communication. Constant delays as my build was neglected due to over commitment to those with government grants. Price keeps escalating. This is my 5th home build with no previous issues (different companies).Would not recommend as a builder. Show details

10/10 - Would build a Sarah Home again – Building with Sarah was fast and great value for money. Our supervisor was a legend, kept us in the loop with photos from site and called us with any updates he needed, also had a great sense of humour. Only hiccup we had was finding a tree stump in the site which they told us about, verbally quoted a cost to remove which we approved and then… Read more

when we got the bill it was far less than the estimate which was a nice surprise.

Lots of options in selections which was great. Only advice is to go in to the process prepared, research what you want, read all the documents they give you thoroughly and you’ll really enjoy the experience.

The quality of the house is really good. We work for a local high end custom builder and I think Sarah’s did just as good a job of the quality and workmanship of our house. We love living in our home!

Built in 2021 Encounter Bay Site was cut in March and handover was in June.

Excellent building experience – We have just completed our build with Sarah Homes in Middleton. We had such a good experience and are delighted with our new beach house. Two people stand out to us - Sorcha Parrish went above and beyond with her design and planning - such that the finished house is exactly what we envisaged. Complex site issues - engineering, plumbing etc - were… Read more ·  1

all expertly dealt with. Nathan Jak was our site supervisor and we could not have asked for more. He is meticulous and so pleasant to deal with at an extremely busy time for building. The site supervisor makes all the difference, we were extremely fortunate. One tip - Be careful with selections and double check everything as costs will ensue if you change your mind after selection. It pays to have spent some time in the showroom before hand. We also found the Laminex showroom in the city a great resource. We only ran a few weeks over time at a challenging time for supplies and tradie availability.

Poor workmanship – Very disappointing company. Since building with them I’ve had a list of poor workmanship defects to deal with. • 1st issue - I noticed a leak coming from the ensuite shower to the bedroom. Solution – send a maintenance guy around to do a quick fix – he put silicone along the bottom of the shower. 12 months later I had to employ a building… Read more

inspector to do a report. Following that, the whole shower cubicle and floor tiles had to be jack hammered off, a heater used to dry out the soaking wet joists and bearers underneath, new door, doorjamb and skirting plus painting and retiling. We were without our ensuite plus all the mess for about 3 weeks. • 2nd issue – A 4 metre plus section of the eaves at the front of the house fell over 6 metres to the ground. Upon inspection I realized there was insufficient trimming for the width of the eave plus the nailing was completely inadequate ie – the biggest gap was 1420mm (AS state minimum gap 600mm) for the wind speed (I have photos to back all of this). When the maintenance guy came he was horrified at what he saw but couldn’t get a mobile scaffold to fix it until Monday (it was Friday afternoon) so nobody was allowed out the front or back of my house for the entire weekend because there was no guarantee another eave wouldn’t fall – bit stressful when you’ve got young kids and a dog… • 3rd issue – The sliding door and 2 windows (found in most SH designs) failed at the back of the house in a SW storm. Water got in between the jamb and wall resulting in the whole window/door jamb and skirting swelling. This was also noted as a poor workmanship fault in my building inspection report. To date – no one has fixed this problem – it’s a big one that requires good weather and an uphill battle for me to fight…. • 4th issue – (the last one to date – it’s a beauty) …. I got solar panels on my roof and was up there with the installer working out where to put them. I noticed my back gutter (the one above the leaking sliding door) was full of water. Upon inspection I realized that the roofers had joined 2 pieces of gutter together and it was bowing at the join and holding water. Given that the gutter was only 6.5m there was no reason for this except poor workmanship. I took photos and emailed my building fault issue to the office and received a reply that the photos did not show enough fault of SH and it was possibly due to poor gutter maintenance on my behalf. I replied this time with a video showing all gutters around my house dry, the surrounding lack of trees and the problem gutter again full of water. They finally admitted fault and informed me a roofer would be around to look at the problem. He came while I was at work and proceeded to adjust the brackets on the gutter which did … guess what…. absolutely nothing. I rang the office back and was told that no further action would be taken as it was only an act of good faith that they sent a roofer around at all.

There are other issues of poor workmanship that I should warn people about. Both toilet roll holders and a towel rail have fallen off the walls in the bathrooms. The reason – gyprock screws have been used to attach them although you can see a timber stud through the hole less than 100mm away. The small back deck was built upon broken pieces of weatherboard and a ripped piece of 90/45 timber as a packer instead of using another concrete block to fill the gap or a larger bearer to alleviate the problem ( I have photos) - just poor carpentry on that one.

So there it is. Unfortunately, I believe every time there is a problem Sarah Homes thinks a quick fix will get rid of the customer. What I find particularly disappointing about this company is their lack of detail to build correctly, the short cuts they constantly take and their lack of integrity to fix their mistakes properly. The houses sell like hotcakes is this area (Victor Harbor). I could literally walk past 10 new SH homes that have been built recently within a 5 minute walk from my house so business is booming. It’s just a shame that the end product and dealing with the company is such a disappointment.

Christiano Encounter Bay SA Sep 2021

Outside Warranty Time Frame Update – Part 2. Thank you Sarah Homes for rectifying my concern. Now fully Compliant and functioning well. It is unfortunate though, to get a result I had to resort to writing a review...Please in the future follow-up concerns and treat them with proactive rather than a reactive response. I am sure future positive reviews will follow...Kind Regards. Gregg Show details

Great Build! Very happy with the outcome – We were overall very satisfied with the planning and build process with Sarah homes. The initial consultations with Carmen Wright were excellent with her thorough processing and eye for detail. The planning and documentation stage lagged somewhat with at times frustration with Head office not getting back on details and queries emailed with… Read more ·  1

sometimes long delays and the need for direct meetings at the office. However, the build itself went well, with great liaison with the site supervisor Richard Jones. His helpfulness and ability to solve concerns was great. Further, the speed of construction was right on schedule with the quality of workmanship generally good. We were pleased with the finishes and the final result was wonderful, topped by the build occurring within budget and on time.

The absolute best process from beginning to completion – My build was managed in a professional friendly efficient way, on a strong base of two way communication. The workmanship throughout the process was of a very high standard. The complete build ran on time and in some cases early and I have had no issues since completion. My build stayed on budget and the team at Sarah Homes were extremely enabling… Read more ·  1

and supportive throughout. Mark Taylor was my first contact and working with Mark set up the entire home layout. Liz Thamn guided me through the selections process, the standard range of fittings and appliances are of high quality. Jake Lindsay was my build supervisor and was regularly on site and coordinated the trades and kept me updated with the process. The attention to detail throughout the planning, selections and building process was personal and professional, the Sarah Homes team know their product and they have a solid capacity to work with people to create a beautiful home.

Best Consultant Ever – After a devastating house fire left me without my home of 30 years, Melissa Stanton made the process stress free and as seamless as possible. From the design process to selections. We designed a spectacular home while taking into account practicality as well as resale and value for money. She gave me some good tips and assisted me in sourcing my… Read more ·  1

own flooring at a competitive price. Kirby in selections was a real sweetheart and very patient. My site supervisor Jake was a professional, approachable guy. He was always available when I had a query and amended any issues immediately without hesitation and found solutions to a electrical issue I had. I am really delighted I chose Sarah to build my home. Being in my 70s, I didn't want to stress and fuss over my home. They delivered a well built, quality home for amazing value at lightening speed! Thank you to the whole team!

Absolutely wonderful people! – Everything from contacting the New Homes consultant to the way she handled contracts, build deals, and any statements that we may need more elaborate information on were spot on! Our New Home Consultant was and is extremely helpful in every way we could possibly imagine! My partner and I are very happy to have her as our New Home Consultant! If I may drop a name, her name is Melissa Rowsell. Just an amazing woman to get the job done! Show details ·  1

Better than we Thought!!!! – From our first contact with paula of Sarah Homes in victor harbour she guided us through the process and listened to our needs for our new home and came up with ideas and plans that suited our needs an excellent representative for sarah homes would recommend her to anyone.Then onto the build our supervisor (Jeremy) was excellent the finished… Read more ·  1

product was exactly as we envisaged and maybe a little better than we expected he listened to our issues and acted on them accordingly as did we to him, he went above and beyond with his help for our solar needs recommending an excellent local company. We are currently in our 90 day any issues period and there are no major ones to report so far, as for costs they are what we planned for so all in all i would recommend the team from sarah homes we had to anyone .

Great to build with – The whole experience was great, from the time we spoke to mark at the display home to the end product, we could not have asked for better, no problems at all and no cost blow outs, thank you Mark Taylor for your tips that have made our home perfect and Jake the supervisor for keeping everything running smoothly, you employ top tradies Show details ·  1

Our perfect experience with Sarah Homes – Alex Stender was so thorough with the planning process helping us to turn our minds to things such as the window structure, benchtop top size and lay-out. As we were building a beach-house he also helped us get the best sea views by designing the balcony with the best angles. He thought of everything & made the whole process enjoyable without any… Read more ·  1

hidden surprises. The price was exactly what we were quoted. He is trustworthy, honest & reliable always keeping us informed every step of the way. The building & construction phase was seamless. We were given our building supervisor Jake who kept the project on time & to a high standard. The building was completed in the timeframe suggested. We could not be happier with the finished product.