The REAL reason why I have not been updating my blog lately

Well a lot has happened but unfortunately a lot of what has happened is not around the physical 'progress' of our house.

May I just mention that our Builders Nick Nenville and Terry are FANTASTIC - and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

However, I am having issues with our Building Company.

But I dont want to face a defamation case by spilling all the details, but I will tell you the facts.

So here's a summary of what has happened so far:

1/ It took Latitude Homes a longer amount of time than I expected (4 months) to produce our working drawings. We didnt complain, just waited paitently with our fingers crossed.

2/ The 4 months that we had to wait for a Resource Consent were due to an Engineering Issue that Latitude Homes had not sorted out correctly. Unfortunately I was mis-informed by Latitude Homes who kept blaming the Council, but then I rung the Council myself to find out what the hold up was, and I was told that Latitude Homes had not provided the relevant information. So back and forth I went, until my husband got annoyed and demanded some action. Then he received a text from Latitude Homes saying "you worry too much". My husband replied "you'd worry too if you'd paid out over 100k 4 months ago and nothing was happening!"

3/ Latitude Homes insist that everything is 'PREPAID' before the job is done, and BEFORE the goods are delivered. Our bank Manager had a HUGE problem with this as they wanted to pay for the frames etc ON DELIVERY - not weeks and sometimes months before - because the Building company may go under, and then the bank will lose their asset!
My husband also questioned Latitude Homes about this, because he's in the Construction Industry, and he has set up accounts with suppliers that allow him to order goods and pay on the 20th of the following months. By then the client has received their goods, and paid him - so he can pay the suppliers. Makes sense right?

4/ Our builder visited Latitude Homes to prompt some action (because the job delay was affecting him as well) and Latitude Homes bad-mouthed us to him - for no reason! Our builder told us that he wont repeat everything they said to him, but he did tell us that they said we were unreasonable (amongst other things). I find this VERY unprofessional and without merit.

5/ I wanted to change our kitchen, and drew up a Kitchen Gallery plan as opposed to a U-shaped plan. My new kitchen plan has almost HALF the amount of cupboards yet is going to cost 8k more. When I inquired about this and asked for a breakdown I received an ANGRY email with capital letters and no explanation. So I have left it and will accept paying 21k for a kitchen that the Kitchen Studio told me that they could supply and install for 13k.

6/ We had a one month long stop placed on our house by the Manukau Building Consultants because Latitude Homes Contractor for our Foundations had failed to provide a producer statement regarding the slab. This set us back $1k because the scaffolding went up on the day the stop was placed on our house (and we still had to pay for it), and it mucked up our builders schedule as he had to stop work until the problem was fixed.

7/ We were told to pay for our kitchen on the 2nd of Nov, but it wont be ready until next year due to the Christmas Closedown. This is not Latitude Homes fault, but I still dont want to pay months before. Other kitchen companies usually take a deposit, and final payment upon installation. So typical that in our case there terms are different, and in my opinion - work against the customer.

8/ We are STILL waiting for our retaining wall that we paid for in April - but unfortunately Latitude Homes Contractor is always too busy, or in hospital with a sick relative.
The Contractor really needs to make our house a priority, as he also needs to properly batter our section - as the neighbours surveyor found that he has encroached onto their section, and they have nicely mentioned this to us twice :-(