Reputation of Developers: Universal Property Group, Trimes and Merhis
Hi guys,
I’m looking at new apartments in Seven Hills, Wentworthville and Auburn and was wondering what the forum’s opinions are on the developers’ reputation. Note, I have not signed anything at this point so this is all precautionary.
Universal Property Group (I think they’re also known as Bhatla Investments and Western Sydney Property Group) seems to have a bad reputation from searching this forum and the occasional plant here and there, or at least, I believe they are plants. From what I could surmise, they craftsmanship is lacking, materials are not the same as on-the-plan and they utilise dodgy business practices to get customers to sign with them. I am dealing with a real estate agent from Macquarie York Real Estate in Parramatta who are also selling new Crown apartments in Parramatta. I was told this developer built the apartment complex on the Corner of Hawkesbury Rd and The Great Western Highway, Westmead.
The second developer is ‘Trimes Pty Ltd [who] works for Leighton Holdings’ (quoted from agent). I can’t find anything on this developer on the web and the ABN Register did not seem to list current ABNs for companies with similar names. I was told by the agent that this developer previously constructed town houses also sold by this agent at 7-9 Magowar Rd, Pendle Hill.
The last developer is Merhis Constructions, which I have only started to research. I can’t much on the web about these guys but at least I could find their website: I managed to find one court case on the web where Merhis Consturctions barred a trade union from a site visit , which they lost and had to pay $12,000 for breaching the Work Relations Act 1996 (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FMCA/2010/751.html).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
tukchen
Just a small update. I went to their new complex at the Corner of Hawkesbury Rd and The Great Western Highway, Westmead and talked to a family outside their home. They said there were a few problems but they were fixed in a week. They concluded saying that Bhatla were OK but not the best. They also said that Bhatla Group was worse before but has gotten better.
A few things I noticed using my untrained eyes:
The company on the sign was “Bhatla Group”;
There were some cracks in the rendering with some painted over;
Vertical lines (?) in rendering under window edges;
Rendering panels did not align on one house.Hey tukchen,
I personally have not used or have not even researched anything about any of these groups. From memory though, Bhatla has a really bad reputation and was talked about before. I have not heard anything anymore since then from this group.
Are you looking at OTP properties? Or newly established properties? Make sure you do your due diligence when considering OTP properties. Its generally a bad investment but there are a few stories stating that they are happy with OTP purchase as it suited their strategy at the time.
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