Perceptions

We built our dream home with Perceptions 3 years ago. We were able to work with their sales representative and tweak their design to suit us and our lifestyle. There was a lot of exchanging ideas with their recommended interior designer too, not always in agree-ance but working with us to our style. Any issues we had were promptly attended to. Three years on, we couldn't be happier. We love our home.

We were extremely happy with the whole process of building with Perceptions from the initial contact with the sales person (Keith Campbell) at one of their display homes to then dealing with the friendly and efficient office staff and the building supervisor (Jeff Kobel) up to the point of completion and handover of our new home in South Perth. As our home was not one of Perceptions Project Homes but a Special Design (our own) there was a number of adjustments and variations made to the plan when we wanted to change things prior to the building commencement. All this done with the minimum of fuss with their overcoming some awkward things we presented them with. We are very happy with the completed product and are happy to recommend them to others and would build with Perceptions again if the occasion presented itself.

We built in burns beach approximately 2 yrs ago with perceptions.
We were/are very happy with the build. The quality of work was excellent, the time frame they built the house was good and the supervisor was very knowledgeable. With the supervisor easy to get along with and he had a good eye for any defects, this defiantly helped the quality of the build, keeping a eye on all the tradies :)
If we were to build again we will defiantly be talking got perceptions.
The only negative is we have a couple of minor issues since the build ie small cracking and seems to take forever (several months) before you get a reply from them

I have always built single storey homes until I had kids and then they grew up and wanted a bigger home and I hence embarked on the agonizing journey of finding a suitable 2 storey builder as my family wanted this more than a single storey home. My aim was to find a builder that can do the job effectively and efficiently without the massive delays & dramas. It took me a couple of months of searching and the prices were thru the roof. Then I entered a Display home built by Perceptions and fell in love with it, the consultant was very approachable and not too pushy as they usually are, he spoke gently and gave me lots of ideas, we agreed to make an appointment the next week and after coming to our place we kind of made some variations to the plan to suit our requirements. I was worried the price was going to be too high for us but amazingly enough it all kind of swept in perfectly. Whenever I sent an email within 2 hours I received a reply no matter what time it was. It is hard to get such brilliant service and support these days. Both of us agreed to take advantage of the promotion they had and the price was reasonable. Initially we were a bit nervous as this is our first 2-story home but the consultant assured us he would be with us for the long hall and not forget us the moment we signed. We signed up and now after several visits to the home it seems all in reason and coming thru wonderfully. There are couple of hiccups but the supervisor got thru them quickly. We are expecting our keys in June and all excited to move in. well done Perceptions, you truly have given us the peace of mind to come again and built our second home. Thank you

Perceptions have done an amazing job on this being my first build...and a rather large one at that!.
It's a 2 storey home with plenty of room to grow. Nothing was to difficult for Perceptions and no challenge too big.
My bespoke design came up exactly as I wanted it to. Thanks to the hard work of the team and largely to the supervisor.
On time!, and on budget!. fantastic quality, what else can you ask for.

Thanks you to everyone at Perceptions

This is our first time building a home but the third builder we are dealing with. Our experience with Perception home has been great so far. They have been very competitive on the offer and inclusion compared to leading Perth builders. What I appreciate the most is the personalised service Fiona gave us as a sales consultant she was focussed on our satisfaction with the design. She listened carefully to our brief and delivered the right design in a very short time. The team at Perception during the pre-start have also been vey accommodating and friendly. Claire has gone over the entire selection twice and ensured I was satisfied with it. There was a lot of changes and she patiently worked trough them with me. I can't wait to start building now and see the final product.

Our experience with Perceptions

My husband and I would give Perceptions an 8/10 (80%) and would recommend them to family and friends.
Our experience with Perceptions started a little different than most people. We were originally with Collier Homes but they were liquidated and then we were introduced with Perceptions and they agreed to take on our contract as is with Collier. Luckily all we did with Collier was the paper work so perceptions did our entire build from start to end.

We had some trouble at the start with Perceptions as they originally agreed to give us the same specs as we had on our contract with Collier, but when it came to signing the contract with Perceptions that is when we noticed that they were not including everything we had with Collier and they wanted us to pay extra for items such as (stone bench tops in Carrara, LED lights, semi frameless doors in both bathrooms, Harmony roof tiles and colour bond ultra). In the end we ended up getting a few items put back onto our contract and although we had to pay for a few items again that we had previously already had with Collier we just wanted to proceed with the build.

Another upsetting situation was that although Collier approved our balcony (so did the council) and our zero lot wall on our garage to be rendered this was not the case with Perceptions. They ended up leaving our zero lot wall facebrick even though we paid the extra money with Collier which was on our contract; this resulted in the bricks becoming green and mouldy and made the house look messy.


The paperwork/ office side of things took longer than we expected (we first met with Perceptions in November 2016 and the home didn’t start in construction until March 2017) but once the home was put through to construction things started to move so quickly.

Our experience with our contract administrator (Jenna Morton and Amanda Thompson) was good although at times I found that due to the swap over of contract administrator made things a little difficult and messages got missed and information didn’t get passed on.

Our experience with our supervisor (Gary Congdon) and the senior supervisor (Steven) was great and would ring back straight away and was always happy to meet and discuss issues/ concerns. When it came to the inspection Gary was outstanding and made sure that we were really happy with the final outcome of the home. He listened and got all the items replaced/ fixed within a week of our first inspection and our final inspection.

Our experience with our Liaison officer (Kristy Bryant) was good she usually emailed back/ called back in a reasonable time frame and frequently updated us on what was going on at the house and what trades/ jobs were been done that week.

Overall we were so happy with all the trades and thought that they did an exceptional job and took quality care in all that they did. This was not the case with the roofing company that did our home. The trimdeck and flashing were done with no care or respect and we had to have them come back redo the job many times.

(Time frame of our build from meeting with Perceptions to hand over was about 12 months; the construction side only took about 8 months/ with the paper work taking 4 months)
Slab was poured on March 1st 2017.
Bricks were delivered 18th of March 2017.
They started building first storey 30th of March 2017.
Second slab was poured 22nd of April 2017.
Second storey building started 7th of May 2017.
Roof was put on 31stth of May 2017.
Top storey rendered 16th of June 2017.
Texture coat to top storey 27th of June 2017.
Inside plastered 5th of July 2017.
Bottom storey rendered 25th August 2017.
Bathroom and kitchen fitted 29th of August 2017.
Stone bench tops fitted and tiles 18th of September 2017.
Second storey texture coat 3rd of October 2017.
First inspection 6th of November 2017.
Final inspection 13th of November 2017.
Key handover 15th of November 2017.


Thank you for our dream home.
Kind regards Kyle and Faye Briotti

After 54 years in our first home, we felt the need to build again. Choosing Perceptions from their display homes, we began our journey. From Salesman, through planning stages and into the build we received the best of attention from all the staff involved. Our home was completed within the allotted time and key handover went smoothly.

We cannot recommend Perceptions enough to anyone that is planning to build. We look forward to a long and easy retirement without any home renovations needed for years to come.

From first point of contact Paul ( Display home consultant) was so professional and helpful. I can't describe how fantastic Paul was. He was available all the time and responded to email and phone calls very promptly even later on he left Perception. The color consult provided by Jo was so helpful, this was included at no extra cost , I wouldn't have been able to do it without her. She has great experience about color selection and always gave you professional advise to match your expectation. The whole team build a house from offsite and made it so easy and enjoyable.

I have just recently built a new home with Perceptions and have been very pleased with the service and professionalise of Perceptions. The build was slightly delayed but I was lucky enough to not have been in a hurry to have the home completed by a certain date. This was the only problem I was subjected to. The service was fabulous and the staff were very professional and helpful the entire time. I would happily recommend Perceptions to anyone thinking about building, especially 2 storey homes on smaller block.

My Design consultant Fiona Monteleone was excellent and knew her job well. She guided us through the process and was skillful in designing our custom build.We have a awkward shape block and in-spite of this Fiona was able to come up with a design that was suitable and achievable. Thank You Fiona Great Work

Warning flags were raised during the PPA process and we should have walked away then, we didnt and paid the price of an extremely frustrating and at times stressful 30 months dealing with this company. Initial capital savings were not worth it, and we never consider using them again.
Price Point Was OK comparitive to other low to mid range 2 story builders, final finish OK, but yet to move in so do have concerns about long term durability based on our experience with this company and the way they do business, our contract liasion officer was efficient in trying to sort out the many issues
Unbelievably Slow - 2.5 years from sign up to just about to move in, many mistakes, lack of supervision and some trades were very poor - brickwork, grano work, roof carpentary, company does not respond positively to concerns on quality or obvious mistakes made by themselves and generally try to deflect blame or apportion it to others, management group are ineffective, difficult to deal with and unable to control build schedules or resolve issues in a normal business like manner - appear to have no idea of positive client relationship management or on planning a house build , major issues only resolved by threat of initiating BRB dispute proceedings and engaging independent inspectors, maintenance items raised to date have been ignored

We built our first double story home with perceptions in 2012. It was a great building experience. We received superb customer service and had excellent supervisor (Jeff Kobel). The house has stunning finish.
Perceptions was on time in all stages from beginning to end.
Wonderful house plan designer, Michael Gardener, helped us all the way through from selecting house design to do all the variations.

We built with Perceptions the Two Storey Specialist as we loved the house plan and found they offered a great specifications as standard. The whole process with Perception home is easy and stress free. They were always timely reply to any queries and provided us with all the information that we requested. We extremely happy with level of service from initial planning stages through to customer liaison officer and site supervisor. We are thankful that they were able to provide a professional level of service and quality that made our overall building experience enjoyable and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone planning to build.

Where do I start, I signed my contract in January 2005, and am almost about to have handover this week. So that will take it to almost 4yrs from inital signing to hand over.
So Starting at the start, it was all good. They couldn't be nearly anymore helpful, paid the deposit, and then after 6mths the fun all started.........
I did sign at the start of the "boom" but like any good "Customer Service" company, you shouldn't take on any more clients than you can properly service.
Next was when the "Fun" started. Prestart went well, but it took them 42 out of the apointed 45 days to get me the documents to sign and return ASAP. This I would have done by it was only 50% correct. So I called them to advise them that the information was not correct, and they needed to correct it. This eventually happend, however after about 6months from when I finally received the corrected document and returned them, they called to advise me that my contract had expired due to me not getting the documents back to them on time. To which I advised them that even if I signed the "incorrect" documents and sent them back via post, they still would not have received them on time. Long story short, I was advised that I would either have to pay a price increase due to the contract expiring, or a cancelation fee if I didn't want to go a head with the contract. Stupid thing was that the cancelation fee was only slightly less than the price increase. But what was even more stupid is that they didn't want to continue with my job as it was my own architectual design, and not their own plan. (Point to concider - if it's not their design don't let them touch it)
So after I overcame that hurdle, thinknig it would be all smoother from there.....but no, I couldn't be more wrong.
The first stage of my house that was completed WITHOUT needing to be corrected was the roof chippy's work. But let me get to that later.........
1st Step: Site works - Not only did they excuvate my site too deep, they scrapped the site only just before the winter rain, and claimed that all of the problems where due to the positioning of the site. This caused several months delay and another price increase for a thicker slab which was required according to Perceptions engineers.
2nd Step: Slab - After the siteworks where finished, the slab was poured with a hole in the middle of the kitchen floor. There was no reason for this hole, but Perecptions couldn't explain why it was there, but they would fix it properly later. (They tried to get away with covering the hole with plywood and leveling concrete which according to them is "Industry standard" Third world mud brick standard maybe). THe steps down to my sunken lounge are 270mm at one end, and 350mm at the other, but according to Perceptions this is classed as "Maintanance".
3rd Step: Ground Floor Brick Work - There where steel and brick support beams forgotten, and walls knocked down to put them back in or bricked in later, however presented no use for what it was intened for. They put all external doors in backwards, and 1 internal door also in backwards. Bay windows are not square and they have a huge safety risk for small children Windows are not all 100% level to the lintels, and window sills......well I don't think there is a level one in the whole house.
4th Step: First Floor Slab Work - After seeing all of the problems so far I requested an onsite prior to the pouring of the upper slab, however this was the only thing done prior to the date set out by them. Anyway they poured it without an aircon penetration which they charged me for, and then had to diamond cut the floor where it was missed.
5th Step: First Floor Brick Work - Different Brickies, but more of the same. Walls put in the wrong place, and had to be knocked down, some sections of walls not 100% perfectly straight. Still no window sills level, and worst of all the put a balcony door in twisted, not crooked, but twisted.
6th Step: Roof Formwork - Only thing done where they didn't have to come back and fix it.
7th Step: Roof Sheeting - Rood leaked into the Garage.
8th Step: Rendering of External Walls - This was done so poorly and patchy that they have now had to paint over 80% of my external walls, and refuse to paint the rest even though the Texture Coat and the paint do not match properly. What was worse was the dark corbling colour was dropped and marked the light colour walls, and then rubbed in to try and get ride of it. Smart huh?
9th Step: Interior - There where problems with the Tiling, Design of the Spa location, White Set, Oh and they covered over 30+ power points and light switches.

***This is just a breif over view of my 4year nightmare***

These are some of many of the problems I have had trying to build with Perceptions. I have tried extremely hard to work with them (sometimes I don't know why) and fix all of these problems, however it came to the point when I have now had to take the list of over 50 items still not fixed to the Builders Dispute Tribunal to try and get the matters resolved.
Even having the GM - Bob Oldfield go to site, I still can't get the problems resolved so I have no options left.

All in all, you need to take into consideration that no house will be 100% perfect, however it should be at Australia Standards. If you choose to go with Perceptions, please keep in mind that you will have troubles and most probably more than any other builder. Do all correspondence via emails that way you have a recored. Check up and follow up on ALL time frames otherwise it will end up costing you. Also check and double check all contracts, offers, and anything else from them. Make sure you are on top of the supervisor and he gets all things done properly, don't let them cut corners, and keep ALL Correspondence to written form. Cover yourself with a lawyer, BRB and BDT.

Best of luck if you would dare try these builders. I know I will never recommend them to anyone ever!
I signed up with Perceptions as my Mortgage Borkers partner was a sales guy for them for 10yrs.
Not only do they completely mess their customers around with paperwork, extremely faulty workmanship, price rises, extremely long time frames for any and everything, they also like to shaft their employees (even after 10yrs of service)

Note --house was completed 18 months ago.
Our experience completely mirrors other reviews.
After positive dealings with other departments our troubles began with construction. We expected slow progress but liasion with Perceptions during construction was to all extents non existent. The work of many tradespersons was substandard and in particular the plumber, painter and electrician. on reflection it is bvious that neither the tradespersons nor the site supervisor checked the work.
Many problems only became evident once we took possession . Instead of the builder being apologetic and fixing the problems quickly and professionally ( as expected) their response was the exact opposite-- unresponsive, obstructive, rude and at times deceitfull.
{We do recognise that building at that time throughout was especially difficult --with many poor tradesperson in the industry --but that made effective work inspection especially critical, and in the event that some poor work get through -prompt professional resolution}
Painting as an example was exceptionally bad -every door and frame needed redoing.The site supervisor's response was that if we wanted it better we should have built with a more upmarket builder. This work also got passed by the senior supervisor who afterwards agreed it all needed redoing.
Another example --all sinks leaked as did the spa. In the case of the spa neither the plumber nor the site supervisor had tested it --and during handover the site supervisor just said there was no plug. He was supposed to fill it as part of his work. A typical example (of many) where a few minutes omission on his side caused a great deal of problems for us. The problem (improper pipe lengths) was eventually fixed by another supervisor 6 weeks later as the plumber could not.

Several months after listing our defects and with no advice from Perceptions on when correction would occur (despite numerous requests by e mail and phone--the final one which stated if no response by a date we would go to the tribunal) we finally sent off our issues to the tribunal. This triggered Perceptions into action--but their attitude towards us became particulary hostile. As an example we were told six tradespersons would be at our house on the one day and 'they not be harassed whilst on site --a record is being kept where access has been denied. We had taken time of work to accomodate them and access had never been denied --so this comment was very upsetting.

All in all obtaining correction of defective work has been a long and stressfull process-- and one completely avoidable had the work been properly inspected as required.

We would not recommend Peceptions to anyone. Suggest people contemplating building research current performance as much as possible.

Someone advised us the other day that we could have had an independent inspector at every stage during construction from pad to completion --and that progress payment made subject to those inspections. May cost $2000 but more than worth it in our opninion. We are out of pocket by more than this --not to put a value on the time, frustation and stress in rectifying defective work.
Only wish we had had that advice at the time.
Good design input (pre contract) and good prestart meetings
Very poor customer relationship during construction, poor quality workmanship and great problem in getting work fixed.

Perceptions was the builder we chose to build our first house with as money for value they seemed the best. Also they had a design closest to what we wanted and allowed us to redesign it to get closer to what we wanted which we thought was great, basically we had our house designed to our style without paying architect fees.

We had a few teething issues with time lines and the build time did blow out a little however any time I enquired on what was happening I was given a detailed description on why building had come to a halt. There was a few hiccups along the way such as doors not being up to a good standard, sliding door in the laundry placed in backwards, wrong colour selected for the house and a section of the roof not to colour as asked all of this issues were resolved when bought to the attention of the builder. The builder was good to deal with and returned phone calls in due time or kept me updated with works when things were going well.
Some of the tradesmen work I was very disappointed with, I felt Perceptions was happy to find the cheapest tradesmen to complete the works, I also thought this was the reason some works was taking longer than it should have as they were waiting on certain tradesmen.
The plastering was poorly applied, the tiling was cracked or chipped multiple areas, there was cracks in almost all corners of the roof and on the ceiling, Screws not entered or snapped on the balustrading, no inserts for the door latches and the internal PVC for the tv mount so no cables hung was not installed. All these things I felt it was like a hunt and seek to see if I would bring these to the builders attention before hand over. Although most of these things were fixed some were not, I was told it was too late to install the PVC and instead was told to pull a wire hanging through the wall for the tv cords.
There were many times I noticed errors or things that should be changed which site management were happy to deal with but asked that I wait until I have a list so they are not sending people constantly for small jobs which I was happy with.

Being a first time home builder I’m not too sure how I would rate Perceptions, maybe average. The experience didn’t leave me thrilled or overly happy that I would go straight back to them next time I build.

I don't want this to sound like a fake review but our home is not only built to an impeccable standard but the service along the way regarding the client liaison and site manager has been fantastic. The salesman has stayed in contact and has been there ready to assist me with any problems along the way and although the problems I had was through my inexperience in building were never dismissed as such. I have been treated with courtesy and have had every question answered. I guess I have been lucky with trades by my site manager is fussy about who he uses. They made me NO promises therefor broke no promises. I would recommend Perceptions as a builder. I took a plan to Perceptions and they agreed to build it. I never felt pressured to change things and though I made a few structural changes the team investigated the request thoroughly before saying if it could be done or not. I met all the trades on site as I said I would and they were all fab. A massive thanks to the team at Perceptions for building us our dream home.

Had to wait nine weeks after pad laid for brickes to start. Workmanship very poor brickies couldn't read drawings missed out feature walls, built walls where no walls shown on drawings, built single brick instead of double brick feature,
Supervisors four in all over duration of the job, No better. you need to check every thing yourself.
Rendering, Plastering, plumbing, electrical all poor, every thing had to be done two or three times to get it right.
Usually caused an other problem when fixing the first. and so on and so on.
finally moved in after a very stressful time and discovered the gas plumbed in to the solar hot water system.
Add to all of the above 18 months dealing with the building tribunal and
the experience was not one you would want to repeat.
My advice to any one contemplating building, don't use Perceptions.
None to speak of
Had a dispute at pre-start over customer supplied goods we were told it was not allowed when our contract clearly did allow it.
They tried to charge us extra for fittings that were agreed to by the salesman at the time of signing.
Charged twice for some items
They Changed details of drawings and had items omitted with out notice
Drawings need to be checked and rechecked.
Customer service skills nonexistent,

Perceptions built an investment house for us in Bayswater WA during 2013 and 2014. We found all the staff at Perceptions head office to be professional and very helpful throughout the process.
The building went smoothly and according to plan. It could have been faster but all aspects were well finished, walls straight,
quality finish within specification. We were very pleased with the final product which looked very good on the block.

We did find that the building supervisor appeared to be over stretched but he did try to accommodate us as much as possible especially at the end of the build.
We would recommend Perceptions to persons wanting to build a double brick two storey home in Perth.