Arden Homes Questions & Answers

NO Most elusive and unreliable mob I have ever seen.Quality and attitude absolutely RS.

Yes, you need to get that permit yourself.

Permit is the owners responsibility

Aspire range ? Same dud Arden Range, Look deeper

We are at the 5 month mark, and no where near done. We have just got to lock up stage.
UPDATE- We are now at 260 build days, and have hit problem after problem. I would never reccommend Arden Homes to anyone, they do not care when they have made mistakes.

Thanks for the feedback, an update on the progress of our build is we are looking at potentially handing over the week before Xmas. So overall our build has taken 5 months, We had the best supervisor in Nigel Wood however he got promoted but handed over a smooth-running build to the next supervisor. Regular contact with us every week which was comforting.
A couple of quality items were addressed promptly with their subcontractors, so have been happy to date.
Will post a last comment on how our settlement goes.

Similar result for us our build has gone way beyond completion date and have had to fight for things we paid for all along. Very difficult to get any comunication and they try to hide mistakes and even though got private inspector they say we do it differently would never reccomend them.

I guess that you could ask the owners. Let me be frank, we had quite a few problems, most notably extremely poor brickwork that needed to be rectified by rendering the whole house. I got a lot of concessions because of this problem. I have built quite a few houses and none have been without fault. I am very particular and have learnt by previous mistakes. Be very careful and if you do build with Arden make sure that you are out at the house every weekend with a tap measure and your plans. I had a couple of walls that were placed in the wrong place, almost 100mm out and I made them move it to the correct position.

In their favour, they did listen and although we had some conflict at times I was able to get my way as I knew the contract inside and out. This my friend is very important, it is your bible and piece of mind, I cannot stress it enough.

Goodluck

Cheers
Mark

So far, I am not happy at all.

We had a very unpleasant experience not reccomend them.

Hi Savi, we've just built with Arden Homes and had a great experience. Is there anything specific you want to know? Happy to answer any questions you might have. Regards, Sarah

So far, we are not Impressed. Sales person at Wollert was fantastic. He is the main reason we decided to build with Arden, but 8 months after making that decision, we are just at lock up stage. Many things have gone wrong, from slab being too short, or too long in areas, to a number of walls being out of alignment, damaged windows and doors still being installed as well. Just seems that things could be so much better if the site supervisor would communicate with us. Really doubt that house will be finished in time, and to the standard that I would expect for the amount of money I am paying.

same same same ! absolutely out of control Mark 0409 339 008 ring me !

Just finishing up a new build with Arden in Thornbury. The directors have come from other building companies, but purposely distanced themselves from other volume builders. Their point of difference is their focus on quality, not quantity, which is achieved by limiting the number and scale of their projects. These guys are the answer to boutique construction at a volume build pricepoint. If you roll up to a display, you'll see and hear the difference for yourself just like we did. Good luck with your search!

What you see and what you get have little similarity! Beware, watch them like a hawk and what ever you do DON'T take possession or move in until ALL obvious issues are resolved then keep a diary of those that reoccur or pop up later. Need this for VCAT !

Zj, we built with them and have left a detailed review that may interest you.

cheers

Mark B

Actually not bad. I can give them 8-8.5 out of 10. The structure quality is the best thing of them and the windows frame they use is excellent.
By choosing Bespoke range, they offer a good price & design & inclusion but with other ranges, they are similar to other builders (from my point of view)

Thank you for your answers.

We built in the south east suburbs.

We are building in Melton South, and not very happy so far. Started out good, and we were optimistic, but things have gone downhill. Private inspector has found so many defects that are very slow to be rectified. Communication is terrible.

Our house is in Officer!

Yes they do bulid in south eastern. We are building in Berwick waters /Clyde nth. BUT NOT happy with construction progress. Passed almost two months. There is NO concrete slab yet. Only plumbing and peers. People who commissioned their construction after us currently their are on frame stage. No reason why Arden is lack on this. Very Disappointed.

visit the arden homes builders experience - will see the latest correct picture with their build process. Like any other builder you have to be on top of things

Our build wasn't fully custom. We took the design from the votivo and then swapped the driveway to the rear, flipped the bottom half of the house etc. They were very, very helpful! Their draftsmen made what we wanted work or where it wouldn't work, worked with us to find something that suited us - ie we wanted to add a laundry chute in, so needed more rearranging. We had talked to a few other builders and they either didn't want to hear our "changes" or it was all too hard for them. Arden allowed us to get the design we wanted and the awesome finish of their houses.
Even with the build, the biggest issue was a power point in the wrong spot (not std), but they moved that no problems.
The quote we got initially was the final price we paid and the build was finished under time. 12 months on still loving everything and the experience we had with them.

Yes, I have dealt with Kim, she is amazing, very helpful, answered all my questions and was straight down the line, when she gave me timelines they were always met. I have no hesitation in recommending her or Arden Homes, so far my experience with them is second to none.
Jas

Dear Leah S,
I'm currently building with Arden and reaching settlement supposedly in 2 weeks time. I'm quoting below the same comment I gave to an answer to another question by [email protected].

"Just yesterday, I made a cold call at the office demanding to see management at a higher level other then the office representative and site supervisor. I've been promised PCI in 2 weeks. This was supposed to have happened 2 months back if not for the tardiness and lack of communication between administration, supervisors and tradies.

From Day 1, I visited the worksite every day and pointed out mistakes in measurement and wrong items which was not picked up by the supervisor. They are still rectifying underground drainage works which should have been corrected before slab pouring. I'm now calling my house ‘patch work quilt’ because of gaping holes in the ground and walls created to rectify mistakes. If I, a layperson could point out mistakes by just eyeballing, it makes me wonder how well qualified the personnel at Arden’s are.

To be fair, I intend to rate and write a more detailed review after settlement, as the end product is supposed to match Arden’s display homes. Do look out for one in the next few weeks.

BTW, mine is a fully custom designed house by Inspired Homes, which contracts out the building to Arden Homes.

Samy replied on May 17, 2016"

We too had heard lots of bad stories about all different builders, but found Arden to be fantastic!! No over budget, not over time - all went really smoothly.
From the start they took all our requirements into consideration (most other builders just brushed them aside). We have been in our house for 6 months now and loving it. We did hire an independent inspector to review the building process at certain stages to ensure that the build was to standard & plans, etc. but there weren't any major issues identified (not like Samy above). All items that were picked up by the inspector or at completion and the 3 month inspection have all been fixed / resolved - with no expense to us at all.
The people next door are building with another custom builder (that promises everything including a mailbox) and they have had nothing but issues. They started the build before us and wanted to be in by last xmas, but it is still not at lock up stage!
Highly recommend Arden & all their staff. They look after you throughout the whole process & we were pleasantly surprised!

We are currently building with Arden and have experienced many frustrations with their admin staff who are merely pencil pushers and not there to sort out problems. Long delays in getting electrical drawings and clarification on variations and no communication between their departments which resulted in us having to send the same information numerous times. If I don't have to deal with another admin person at Arden, I will be a happy person. A few extra costs after contract signing due to over sights on Arden's part which we were not expecting. However the tradies and workmanship we have seen so far have been impressive, and the site supervisor more than reasonable. Heading for lock up stage of our customised house designed by Inspired Homes and will update closer to completion.

I myself did not build in Hebel as it wasn't being offered by Arden at the time we ordered our home,
However researching it since it looks like a great product to consider, I do know its manufactured by CSR who provide very high quality products to the building industry, and have done for decades
So you may want to investigate on line the benefits of Hebel, via their websites.

Ultimately I think it depends if you like the fully rendered look for your home or the traditional brick.
Enjoy your journey with Arden, our home is now at lock up stage and is looking fantastic!

im a carpenter and i deal alot with hebel and one word of advice go brick where ever you can. that being said if you are building a two story depending on how the house is go brick and power panel to save money if steel is needed. but for a single story go brick any day of the week. also they dont render hebel its called texture coat its about 5mm thick wheres render on bricks is a sand and cement mix which is 20mm thick.

The tender can be sent to your bank to start valuation he will also need a copy of the signed contract but this can help speed up the process

Hi sorry for the late reply. If you have picked all your fixtures and type of materials and things then the price generally remains unchanged. If you have land that isn't titled yet than your siting costs may change a little too. We had a few things that changed a long the way which altered the price but it didn't seem to impact. We had a mortgage broker (for free) who handled the bank for us and just told us when we had to pay money or provide documents.

Thanks Kylie & Jess for your valuable advice.

May I suggest you contact them directly. Together with there current promotions there pricing is very competetive. You wont be dissapointed.

We found Arden very accommodating when we redesigned one of their plans. No real premium paid for this service. However if you change a home you must check everything is correct, we found powerpoints, lights and some walls not quite in the right place and this cost us money.
If they tell you, they need to upgrade your slab, STOP the job and get a second opinion, this cost me $19,000 because I did not check. apparently a lot of builders do this to squeeze more money out of you. Our new neighbours also with a new house, refused to pay this at the final invoice, the builder refused handover, they spoke with VCAT over the phone and the builder had to withdraw the extra cost.

No problems with building with Arden Homes! Great after sales service actually prompted 3 others to build with Arden that's how impressed we were! Did you start your build with Arden?