shab008

We are currently (painfully) building with Dixon homes.  My simple answer would be 'run the other way'.  However I do understand they have franchise offices so not sure which one you are with. If you have to deal with their head office off Ipswich Motorway then don't bother. 
Office staff are great, but really they never tell you anything and are the first to demand something of you.
Management is just not interested in any customer enquiries or complaints.
They still sell on a 14 week build, which normal people will understand might blow out to 25 weeks with weather etc. Well we are at the 8 month stage and still don't have a house despite them not even having to finish for us. We are doing our own painting, rendering, fencing, landscaping, floors.
So just to give you our story. We started with foundations being cut completely incorrectly.  Yup they completely cut out a room.  As we were onsite at the time at the sales office for our estate we noticed this straight away. Nope didn't have to 'tresspass' onto our property, could see the mistake from the street. Called the office and told them.  True enough while we are on the phone with the office the cement truck shows up and the guy starts pouring into the wrong foundations.  Clearly neither the cement guy or the foundation guy had the correct information but surely they were using the plan we signed to right…  So the first delay start, 3 weeks to rectify this problem which of course then pushes back the slab being poured. 
So the slab finally gets poured with the rectification finally done to the foundations.  Now we are in the XMAS break and we understood we would already be 3 weeks behind because of this, we planned for it. We were assured we would have a slab before Christmas and nothing more.  Lo and behold the trusses and frames show up the week before everything shuts down for XMAS.  So they sit there for 3 weeks we figure. No harm done.  However they were stacked incorrectly, big trusses on top of small ones, not at all in order, causing the bottom chord of a couple of trusses on the top that were hanging over the side to snap.  Great another rectification delay we are going to have to come back to.  Supervisor was aware of it and said it would be fixed. We couldn't relaly ask for more could we.
Come back after xmas and still more delay, no rain, just delay getting started.  Then because they again notice the trusses are delayed and they have no trades to put it up, again more delay.  Then some our supervisor tells the trades to put up the trusses as is.  Yup snapped.  So up they go. Then the delay for rectification starts again, another 4 weeks down.  So by now the trusses and frames have been sitting out in the weather for over 3 months. 
Oh lets not forget the broken pipe that was covered up on the outside of the house by one of the machines i guess.  Yup supervisor saw this with us.  Said don't worry it will be fixed.  We are hopefully nearing completion and nobody has fixed it yet.
So thats just the start of the mistakes.  Took us 4.5 months to get just frames up. 
So yup we were getting near ropeable but figured ok still inside the 30 week mark which we thought was realistic.  So just 2 months to finish it off. Again they were not rendering, painting, fencing, landscaping, flooring etc for us.  Just brickwork, windows, electrical, plumbing and then handover right.
Yup well we have been sitting at practical completion stage now for 2 months waiting on vanities.  Ok so the ones we picked now 5 months later had a delay on them, fine, so any options to pick another one that might be in stock?? Nope.  Any option to go pick out one ourselves and get it reimbursed by them to speed things up a bit. Nope.  Just have to wait we are told.

Anyone picking on us for being precious first home builders can go jump. We were not concerned about letterboxes, paint, taps etc.  We were stuffed at foundations, slabs, frames stage.  The things that make a house.

By the way we have come to know many many other dixon clients who have had the same structural type problems and delays that could have been better managed which have now blown out their living budget.