I have choosen a new Townhouse which has been built by Unversal Property Group. I am hearing mixed opinions about that builder in the market. I am confused at the moment. I have also read one post in this forum where someone is recommending not to buy from this builder. Is anyone can give me any specific information on this builder?
I’ve bought a property from Universal property group (bathla investments a year back. it’s a brand new 3 bedrooms freestanding villa with all the inclusions and modern features. My experience with this builder is fantastic as all my family & friends praised the house (most of them are trades people). I have bought this property when this was under construction or 20% complete. They have done every thing what ever they committed rather more than that and I guess no builder can ever do that unless I pay them extra.
Every one knows nothing comes free in this world but my experience with Universal property group is exception to that. Hey guys after reading this don’t higher your expectation. I have read few unfavourable comments as well for them which I will never agree.
If I am new home hunter in the market I would rather does my own research have inspection from the specialists if required and would go for it? You know 80% of worlds population is pessimistic in one or other way so they will say negative about most of things even though they gets positive experience with that particular thing.
Hi Bluemoon, did you finally bought that property .
I am talking to universal group/bathala rearding one off the plan house.
how was your experience. how negotiable are they?
what was your after purchase experience? what @ defect and strcutural warranty?
If possible let me know all detailsHi guys … any other comments abt this builder ? I am in mix state as well .. should I go with them or not.
Straight from the ASIC website:
11-81MR Property developer enters into enforceable undertaking providing compensation for vendor finance borrowers
Thursday 14 April 2011
ASIC has accepted an enforceable undertaking (EU) from a Toongabbie (NSW) based property developer, Mr Bhart Bhushan, and his company Universal Property Group Pty Ltd (UPG), following an investigation into alleged unconscionable conduct in connection with their lending practices.
As part of the EU, UPG and Mr Bhushan have agreed to a scheme whereby vendor finance borrowers – who were clients of UPG or Mr Bhushan – will be entitled to seek compensation if they believe they were victims of unconscionable conduct.
The compensation scheme will involve UPG and Mr Bhushan writing to clients and providing them with an opportunity to provide information in support of a compensation claim. UPG is also required to appoint an independent person – to be approved by ASIC – to consider any compensation claims that UPG has rejected.
UPG has operated a residential property development business from 1997, mostly in western Sydney. Mr Bhushan is the sole director and secretary of UPG.
From 2004 until mid-October 2009, UPG offered vendor finance to people who purchased property from UPG and associated entities. Mr Bhushan met with prospective purchasers and made oral inquiries about the person’s income, assets, and liabilities. Mr Bhushan accepted the information he was given as true and accurate but neither he nor UPG took steps to independently verify the information provided by prospective purchasers about their financial situation.
Many of the purchasers were immigrants – from Sudan or the Philippines – who came from non-English speaking backgrounds.
UPG stopped offering vendor finance in October 2009.
ASIC’s investigation identified concerns relating to the conduct of UPG and Mr Bhushan, including:
whether UPG made adequate inquiries as to the borrower’s or any of the guarantor’s financial situation;
UPG’s reliance on the borrowers’ assertions as to their financial situation and its failure to test or verify independently the borrowers’ assertions as to their income, expenses, assets and liabilities;
whether the borrowers understood to a sufficient degree the terms and conditions of the vendor finance loan in circumstances where UPG knew or ought to have known that some borrowers had a poor understanding of spoken and written English and/or little financial acuity;
UPG’s offer of vendor finance to some borrowers who were recipients of Centrelink benefits;
UPG’s offer of vendor finance on promotional terms, including the offer of capped repayments, contributions to the borrower’s first mortgage loan, and lump sum cash rebates.Further details relating to the compensation scheme are contained in the EU, which is available from ASIC’s website. ASIC accepted the EU as an alternative to commencing court proceedings.
ASIC acknowledges the assistance provided by the Mt Druitt & Area Community Legal Centre Inc in this matter.
Hello All,
I am new to the forum, and have been absolutely delighted to know the source and knowledge of this forum, Its great and helps lot of people,, to understand a lot of things,, In regards with above builder would like to know,, I have already signed contract with him gave him 5% deposit,, for off the plan property,, is it safe now,,, as this mixed review are concerning me know,, may be I am late in regards with understanding him,,,?? can anyone pls assist,Can please anyone kindly respond back to my above question/concern,,, thanking you's all
If you have a signed contract you are locked in unless he becomes in breach. I would read your contract well, and ensure that it covers all you were verbally promised. If it does not, any chance you may have to do something about it would be now. Not sure what you can do, but I would check now.
As to stepping away because of his past background, I don't think there is anything you can do..
Sorry, you are the guy who mentioned his back yard has shrunk. Can you tell us who made the first claim that lead you to believe your yard would be bigger, was it verbal or in writing, you saw it marked on a plan etc etc.
Hello gmh454,
Thanks heaps for your response,, Yes I am the same guy abt bit of backyard issue,, the original off the plan contract that I was issued and have got in writing outlines a diff sq meter size,,, and after a while that was shrunk down nearly by 20sq meters,,,the internal living is fine,, no issues with that just the courtyard size have shrunk,, Is there anything I can do,, or simply live with it,,,??Thanking you in advance,,,,,,,,
Hi,
Any further comments about the builder?
cheers
s.There are plenty mate, were do u wanna start from,,, poor quality,, high prices,,, bad bank ratings,,, low quality people the list is endless m8
Guys ,Stay away from this builder by miles. Very poor quality,<moderator: delete personal comment>Very disapointed after signing a contract for the off the plan property and will be taking matter into court for the quality and structural design change without consent.
Me thinks that Richard10 who made his 1 and only post back in June 10 praising this company for their wonderful product and services might have been a Company plant.
Yours in Finance
Richard Taylor | Australia's leading private lender
Hi Guys,
This post is a bit of warning to all of those peeps who are looking at signing Call & Put option. DO NOT SIGN anything before you speak with your solicitor. Here is my classic example. I wanted to take benefit of post 1st October FHOG scheme that the government has on offer. The person I was dealing with suggested me that i should enter a 'Call and Put" option. what this document does is(as described to me) it fixes the price of the property and allows you to settle the property at a future date thus enabling us to obtain the FHOG. THIS IS A CON. They will pressurize you with all their tantrums to sign the document without consulting your solicitor. I later found out that in the document he was asking me to sign, my fees for the call option was in tens of thousands where as their put option fee was merely $1. If something happens between the period of you signing that document and that future date and you cannot buy the property any more,your tens of thousands of the deposit will be forfeited by the vendor. Further,the vendor will exercise his put option after the expiry date of our call option in which YOU WILL HAVE TO BUY THE PROPERTY.YOU WILL HAVE NO CHOICE what so ever. Legally/technically, they can sue us on the basis of our signed agreement.
Although,the document in itself is a legal document covering every angle for the vendor/builder. It seems to be legitimate but the clauses are outrageous and if exercised, it will burn you.
Besides, I can't comment on the workmanship of the house since i did not buy one. If you have money with you, go through the bank (normal process). Do not hand out money to them directly. Let your solicitor and bank deal with the intricacies of the legal process.
Moral of the story: Do not put your hard earned money into risk. Do not sign without consulting your solicitor and where possible stay away from entering into 'Call & Put' Option.
After visiting this property groups website it can be noted that this group is building properties in literally every inner west suburb. It is worth noting that this group manages to secure the best plot in every suburb, being close to stations and shopping centers. I have just last week signed the contract with them and handed over my 5% deposit. I hope everything goes to plan. I just know one thing, "1 satisfied customer tells 10 others, whereas 1 dissatisfied customer tells a 100". I would not go by all the negative reviews here, instead use my commonsense and own research to make any decision.
Cheers all.
Was that the same week Akshay you started on the payroll !!!!
Seriously mate you sign up and your first post in to support an organisation that until the last positive wrap hadn't been mentioned for over a year.
Give me a break…..
Cheers
Yours in Finance
Richard Taylor | Australia's leading private lender
Hi, i purchased the property from bathla in July 2013 and since been living in the house, we were given 3 months warranty, overall it is good, but the work done in the house were not so fine. For eg, we had issue of leaking water from shower in the living room ceiling, windows not properly fixed, blinds doesn't close properly, paints not done properly, telephone ports not working, door knob n handles, hot water issues, holes in the garage, and all other minor issues.
no major issues so far and i hope we don't have. we have 5 town houses, and some houses i could see have problem with drainage systems. but they were fixing it too.
my suggestion: As soon as you buy the house, start living in there so you know what is going wrong in the house to fix it and use all the bathrooms, showers, dishwashers, alarm, fire alarm, telephones, bulbs, air conditioner, everything possible.
not so good: You need to keep ringinig and send them email about the issues and chase up.
someone will need to be in the house most of time so Bathla people can come and fix it.
but they do come and fix it, so its not bad, i am now waiting for my window to be fixed. and have to keep reminding them.
overall its not a bad buy with the property market rising, i did find the price that was right for me with this company.
i hope you will find yours too. good luck.
I had really awful experience with them. Very unprofessional. Poor material. Poor finishing. Poor communication. Very rude as well. I think I suddenly got 50 years of age since I purchased the house built by them.
Bathla Group or Western Universal Property Group, whatever it is ! I guess just changing the name cannot change the work ethics for their team . I am having the worst experience with Bathla Group or Western Universal Property Group in Australia. I never had experienced such a worst work ethics /communication / unprofessional from any company in Australia. This company just does not meet any standard to be still existing with such a huge scale. Not sure how this company is in the open market. The repair teams are the worst. Obliviously, the sales team are really nice and helpful but once the settlement is done the company's image just downgrades with everything. We have had major gas leakage which could have killed our lives and they still do not give it a priority to provide Compliance Certificate. We have had water leakage , Air Con not working , worst finishing paint , very poor landscaping . And this is not just in my townhouse, all our neighbors are complaining about something or the other everyday.
We all only have 3 months to fix so many things and after that we will be liable for all the poor work done by Batha's construction team. Please be very very careful before the settlement date and check everything before it and make sure you have a really good solicitor if you have already purchased or will be purchasing ( as almost 80% of the new building are done by them so we have no option left!!).
I was never going to write on such forum but we are just totally frustrated with the product and their repair team !!!!
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
