MAKAR inc. Neil Sutherland Architects LLP

We have been living in our Makar House for 2 years now and love it! The house is always cosy, easily heated and as economical as today's fuel prices will allow. There is really nothing we would change about the design of the house. Makar did a great job in designing and building our wee retirement home. I would reccommend them to anybody.

I worked at Makar for two years and what I learnt there transformed my career. It's hard work but very rewarding and my experience there has opened up so many other opportunities since. They were a great bunch to work with and I was honestly sad to leave. The homes they produce are outstanding; from the design, to the production, construction, all in stunning locations.

Neil, Scott, and the team at Makar, simplified an original design that was unnecessarily complicated, and therefore unaffordable, into a truly wonderful, energy efficient home. The manufacturing systems ensure precision in construction, and ease the fitting out". The design and build process was interactive

The difficulty of our site meant our house should almost have been impossible to build but Neil and Steven did it! Nicky the architect was radical, brilliant and has become a close friend, while Alan the constructor in chief was patience and professionalism personified. Great people doing a great job on a really challenging project. A joint act of creation for which we’ll be forever grateful. Brilliant.

If it were possible to award a zero star, we would.After everything we have endured since engaging with Makar in February 2022, we have come to the only conclusion that makes sense to us: Makar aren’t ethical builders, otherwise we wouldn't be in the situation we are.We paid them 79% of the contracted build cost and after works ground to a halt for a WHOLE YEAR, despite all our efforts to get them back on track, we met MAKAR in July 2023 to ask for an explanation.In the meeting Neil told us they couldn’t deliver the design they signed up to build. Nothing had changed but in that meeting Neil told us some aspects of the build were “wholly unachievable” (verbatim) so we were left with no alternative but to get off the merry-go-round, get our money back and try and find another builder to finish what they started.Prior to the meeting, we had appointed an independent QS who valued Makar’s work to date. We then asked Makar to repay the rest (for the works not undertaken but for which we’d paid).The house isn’t even wind and watertight and we’re owed over £100,000.We’re getting nowhere fast and have been chasing (since July ‘23) for our money / a proposal to repay us / an update / some clarity / SOMETHING / anything … instead all Neil has given us is the run around, dispensing every excuse under the sun (which is no surprise as this is how he has operated since day one) and, unsurprisingly has delivered a big fat nothing.We can go into every single build issue, publish all their deceitful emails, expose all their failures to deliver on every one of their commitments but, absolutely nothing will reveal their shortcomings and lack of integrity more plainly than this: Neil Sutherland has taken our money and has held onto it for a considerable amount of time without communicating a plan of how he intends to repay us.However Neil Sutherland chooses to respond to this review, nothing will ever explain this simple fact away.

We are currently living in the second house MAKAR have designed and built for us. As we had outgrown the first property after 10 years, we commissioned Neil Sutherland and his team to design and build us our forever home in 2015.It was a pleasure to work with MAKAR, we knew exactly what we wanted, they listened, communicated, delivered the house at the agreed price and on schedule!We live in a light, bright, peaceful, beautifully designed open plan house with maximum solar gain and minimal heating costs.MAKAR are the experts when it comes to building innovative sustainable homes……we know this, we went back for another one!

Makar built our house in 2013/2014. It is a lovely well-built wood frame house which met our requirements to make the most of the view. We had a limited budget and Makar managed to stay pretty well within that. There were some small issues that needed sorting after completion and even after a year's snag period and these were addressed. Communication was sometimes a problem but we understand there were staff issues. Overall we would recommend them for a house, especially if you want something different and environmentally friendly. Keith and Lyn Butler.

Our house is beautiful! Bright, well designed, warm and wonderful in every way. There were some issues at the start where they were not always very responsive (a lot of staff changes) but once we finally got going past the planning and paperwork stages Makar were extremely quick and efficient with the building of the house.

We chose MAKAR as a Highland based business who have experience designing AND building energy efficient homes. All with local timber and natural materials. Our home was built in the Inverness factory/workshop, assembled and completed externally by MAKAR who provided an efficient, professional service. We completed the internal fit out ourselves and are now enjoying a beautifully designed, warm and efficient home. Especially at this time of the year! Thanks again to everyone at MAKAR Homes.

We built a house with Makar Ltd. Inverness in 2020. Since than we've had a few issues, (leaking roof light, not finishing the interior, surrounding work flaud, no communication)After a few challenges in the past we got it all resolved with Makar Ltd. in 2023, when they paid us the damages caused on the rooflight. All in all after a lot of energy wasted we will take care of the problems ourselves. But the hours and energy wasted in the last years will never be repaid.A lot of other people have reached out to us since we done the review, and they face even greater problems with interiors not finished, completion certification still not issued and danger of revoking planing from council cause Makar left them with the issues and has only stalled them for over 5 years now.....seems bizzar, but that's what's happening. So for anyone wanting to build and invest their hard earned cash, think again, do your research, reach out to clients and take your time.Neil Sutherland most probably has mental issues and can't lead a company, and it really needs a change so that no other people get hurt and damaged.We have our problems resolved so far, by getting Makar to pay us out after a 2 year fight. So we are off the hook". but it worries us badly to know if we ever had another issue on guarantee