Archicentre Australia

I am the owner of a property which is for sale, a prospective buyer asked for a property inspection prior to making an offer. They engaged the services of Archicentre. The inspector stated to his client that there was major structural problems with part of the building which would require very expensive repairs. The inspector quoted that the work would cost around $100,000.oo to repair.

As a result of this report I engaged an HIA registered builder to give me a quote to fix these reported problems. I am glad I did, amazingly he could not find or see the identified problems stated by Archicentre. He did find one problem which he quoted at approx. $1200.00. I am not impressed with this company as they have caused a lot of unnecessary worry and sleepless nights. Be wary read the comments by many others and make your own decision.

The inspector failed to detect bowed load bearing wall of garage as a result of excessive retained soil around the perimeter and wall being only 2 bricks wide (breach of code), clearly visible at time of inspection (2 engineers picked it up within minutes). Now facing $50k+ in repairs which will not add any capital improvement but will hopefully stop our bedroom (above the garage) from collapsing. Seeking legal advice as it is a disgrace. Archicentre when contacted indicated extreme weather conditions were likely responsible, however they failed to acknowledge the breach of building code. Next time we will employ structural engineers. Do not go near this company!!

I organized a building inaction advising them I was concerned about underpinning work that had recently been completed and formed part of the contract I had gotten from the estate agent. The "building inspector"called me to say he had inspected the property and all looked good. I asked him about the underpinning, and he didn't know anything about it. He then arranged to go back the property. A little while later he called back to advise " he didn't know how he missed it", and then told me about a few other joins in brick work throughout the house. The report I received idenified exactly what he had told me the second time. So concerned with his report I arranged to have an experienced tradesmen to come with me to further inspect. The underpinning was clearly visable with fresh concrete and brick joins from the adjacent lane way . Further inspection discovered an uneven floor surface on the interior org the underpinned way.

I contacted Archicentre with my compliant and advised them the property was being sold in 5 days by auction if they needed any further information. I did not hear back from them , until I made a call a week later. The customer service manager had made the decision they stood by there report. I asked to speak with him, but he was too busy. I left my number no call, I emailed and finally got a "feedback" form sent. I have filled it out but given the response to date don't realistically expect a response.
In future I would get a local builder to do the inspection,. I seriously question, if there was any proper if sny inspection done in the first place.
I would not pay for such poor quality service.
I would have no confidence in any report from Arcicentre.
Nothing at all
Did not identify building works until advised by me work had been recently comp,eyed

I used Archicentre in December for pest and building reports, [name removed] was very helpful and did everything to make sure I was happy.

We have bought a home in Dec 2012 and as inexperienced people in property market. We contacted Archicenter , through their highly qualified, renowned and experienced team of professionals, offering a comprehensive report covering a 200 points check upon inspection of all the accessible parts of the property as in website. We were provided with a written report, in which it was clearly stated that the property did not display any major defects nor serious structural defects. But it have a bit of dampness smell in the ground floor. It was recommended as small drainage issues in person and can be fixed up by a plumber on spending up to $2k. As soon as we settled and moved into the house the advice and contacted a plumbers to inspect the rear and lower floor of the house. All tradesmen came in and checked the property basement through the manhole had same answer.

That there were many issues concerning the state of the property. No single tradesman wanted to take the job on board as they stated that it would take a coordinated effort and many tradespeople to rectify the multitude of problems inherent to the state of the property. During the autumn and winter rainfall experienced in the past year, by accessing the man hole underneath the stair-case we noticed that water seeped in and deposited itself underneath the ground floor. Based on this evidence, it can be established that Archicentre failed in ascertaining that there were major problems with the structural integrity of the property. Such a qualified specialist would have further investigated into the possible causes of such extensive dampness. They would certainly have taken the time to access the easily accessible man hole underneath the staircase and taken note of the fact that the wooden beams were recently changed and taken into consideration the deteriorated condition of the concrete stumps.

They would most definitely have attempted at arriving at a plausible conclusion, not just limited and contended themselves with the observation of dampness in the ground floor and rear of the house.
Tried contacting Archicenter about their promised guarantee of upto $50k. They will then start to transfer your calls through different departments of people explaining and bluffing about the definition of what is Major and Minor defected until you give up. As mentioned by a previous reviewer # if you read the Terms&Conditions , you will see that the guarantee is very shallow and is not automatically given in support of their reports.
Finally after 14months of purchase we found a builder who was willing to take over the job and rectified it for $16000. Thanks to ArchiCenter
Its better to get a builder or induvidual trades men to inspect. They will give a much defined review of the property for as low as 100 bucks each
Review finished in few papers ticking major and minor very easy to read in 2mins
They will on find problems like rusting locks and broken switchs in toilets, Which a comman person with some sence can understand.

I have had a lot of cracking in my house, I had an architect from archicentre come out and do an inspection. He was very professional and knowledgable. I would recommend archicentre for all structural inspections if you really want answers.

Relying on resources like Archicentre's cost guide, we were lulled in to the belief that we could do a modest, minimally specced, double story addition (about 5 x 8m below and 4 x 8.5m above) within our budget of $4000 / m2. Adding Archicentre maximum recommendations for a kitchen, bathrooms and euro laundry, we were still within budget. So nearly two years and $50,000 down the track (architect, planning, engineering) we finally went to tender and 4 different builders have came back at $8,000/m2, $10,000/m2 if wet areas included.

We requested specifically that an Architect inspect a builders works and mark off any works that did not meet the Australian Standard or Building Code of Australia, as well as this we needed a Building Scope of Works based on an Engineers Report for future works.
Archicentre sent a Building Inspector who instead Decided it best to inspect our house (not the works specifically requested) and then refused to provide a Scope of Works without charging $125 per hr and 30hrs for his opinion. He didn't even include items mentioned that he believed did not meet the BCA on site (I.e. Bathroom repairs).
We contacted all parties at Archicentre and to date had no response. Save yourself $580, these guys provide no service and if I had the time I would take them to VCAT for breaching the consumer act

They take your money then provide no service or then tell you they can not provide the service

I filled out the customer enquiry form for Archicentre and got a response saying I would be contacted in 24 hours. Rang them after four days of nothing and they said I had to pay $475 up front, which I paid, and they promised a call from my state office within 24-48 hours. I heard nothing so rang after 3 days requesting a refund. They agreed to a refund without any argument at all (does this happen a lot?). Another three days have gone past, I have rung once since, but still I have not seen my money refunded.

they provide no service

We searched online and found that this business has an active Facebook page with 10 followers. From our experience this can indicate that the business is either not actively engaged with online communication or is new and growing. We have discovered that this business has SSL (secure sockets layer), which means that this business handles your data, such as personal information or credit card details, with secure connection. We discovered that the domain for this business is relitevely new, which means that it could be a start-up business that does not yet have a huge amount of customers.