Hickinbotham Questions & Answers

Internal paint for me was Taubmans Easycoat Flat 2 Coat System (Lightly wipeable). Skirting and eves was as per walls but semi-gloss. You can call their office number for more specifics 8366 0000. Hope this helps.

We had also paid a deposit but after receiving a ridiculously overpriced costing of our footings (almost double then any other new build in the estate despite soil tests and foundation sizes practically exactly the same), we have pulled out and gone with another builder. We also found Construction Services difficult to deal with and having to ring them constantly and leave messages waiting for days for them to get back to us,if they did at all.Even losing our deposit we are 20K better off,have a bigger house and have way more upgrades. We found the whole experience with them confusing and difficult and we were also asked to pay to get our master plans changed when it was totally the sales consultant fault as VCR's were not forwarded on time. I regret it all from the first day we walked into the display village

Who did you end up building with?

I have been dealing with Fairmont Homes who have built 4 homes for me. Ask for [name removed] a very thorough sales person.

Second this. [name removed] was our sales rep. She is quality. Site supervisor was jaded and non existent but we had few issues with the build so I was no problem. Good move to avoid hickinbotham thou. Avoid like the plague! Good luck.

We ran into the same problem, we bought a house and land package and signed up while the blocks were still being built. They placed the water meter and a light post in the middle of where our driveway was going to be, we had to either pay to move the water meter and light pole or mirror the plans of the house to avoid them. We chose to pay the $500 to change the plans as it was cheaper. It's annoying as hell but the builder doesn't talk to the developer and the consumer gets stung. So to answer your question, yes it's on you to pay for it.

The water meter to the block should be installed by the person who subdivided the block. This person ends up paying approximately $20k to divide one block into two and this cost includes all services to the block ie the gas, water and sewer connections. The original block will already have a meter installed and then they install the other in a nominal location normally near the side boundary. If the meter is in the centre of the driveway then at a guess this may be the original meter. I would say from experience to date to relocate a meter the new owner would have to pay this cost. However I would dispute this with the builder (good luck by the way as Hickinbotham Homes are poor at this process). Can you build any form of house on this block where the water meter is placed if not then why are they selling it as a development block.

Chris CDDS

I hope that is just a theoretical problem - and not something you actually have to deal with!

My friend's mother had her tiling in wet areas done improperly, her laundry flooded and as far as I am aware, she required an ombudsman to have it repaired.

My partner also treats a lot of Hickinbotham homes (Pest Control technician) and many of his clients have complaints about the company. Nothing as serious as a slab in the wrong place though! Mostly issues with tiling not done very well, leaks, water damage.

We have now finished with the "maintenance" after the three month period, and the maintenance bloke didn't really do a great job. He got stain on our walls and floors, patched up wall damage and repainted with a completely different colour, and also broke kitchen tiles trying to fill a hole under our wall cupboards...

we had our slab poured in the wrong position and wrong size. The site supervisor never picked up on it, i had to ring the site supervisor and ask him why the timber frame was hanging out over the slab. They kept going with the building. They ended up cutting one side of the slab back and repouring the other side meanwhile pouring concrete all over my sliding doors and window. They scratched all the powder coating off the doors and windows then sprayed over them with a spray can. the day of hand over we still had exposed reo rods sticking out of foundations so we refused hand over until the problem was fixed and had a engineers report. Needless to say we had to get lawyers before anything was done

When my slab was poured they used too much water and as a result the edges of the concrete to the garage entrances are crumbling i've already had them repaired once and now 3 years later need to be redone again. to top it off i have problems with slab edge dampness as they failed to use a damp course and to pull up the plastic from the footings when doing the driveway and pathways around the house. i will have to pay to have it redone as its going to cause serious problems with the slab

no they didn't. the selections were pretty basic and any upgrade from the standard cost quite a bit more. pc items were fairly accurate. must mention that our problem with bricks of our house has finally been corrected in that our whole house has been rendered and painted (after almost one year!)by hickinbotham, and both the renderer and painter did a really good job.

I found their quote to be pretty accurate - our footings were cheaper, and they had a decent selection of items except flooring. Definitely get that done elsewhere. Better quality for your money - same with air con. Watch them though, their customer service was disgusting once we had a problem. They installed the wrong cupboards in our kitchen and we had to see a lawyer to have it resolved...4-5 months later.