The Shocking Truth: Builder Vanishes, Leaving Half-Finished Project...
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2023
- Welcome back to Site Inspections, your trusted source for unravelling the complexities and surprises of the construction industry. In today's episode, we delve into the troubling tale of a homeowner who found himself with two half-constructed homes and a builder who vanished halfway through the project.
After paying the builder most of the agreed amount, the builder disappeared, leaving behind a construction site filled with incomplete work and a litany of defects, such as non-compliant roofing and incorrect waterproofing. To make matters worse, the builder demanded additional payment beyond the agreed contract, citing escalating building materials costs and other challenges in the industry - an all too familiar story in Australia's current building climate.
Left with two incomplete double-story homes, the homeowner is now faced with the harsh reality that there is still about $150,000 worth of work needed to complete the job. However, as our TikTok Inspector guides you through the project, it becomes clear that the actual cost to rectify the defects and finish the work will likely far exceed that estimate.
Join us for a candid interview with the distressed homeowner as he shares his story, providing a poignant reminder of the emotional and financial toll such situations can take. This video serves as a wake-up call for anyone currently building or considering building a home. Learn from this family's experience to ensure you're adequately prepared and protected for your own building journey.
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This bloke is putting on a strong face but you can tell how much this hurt him. I really hope it eventually gets resolved.
Young families don't need this rubbish
Good news is the bank wont release funds to the builder so atleast he hasnt completely lost everything
@@sin_fc3822still frustrating
He struck me as a dream client and if you did the work right he'd send you a Xmas card every year for life as well as recommend you to others which is the best promotion money can buy.
As a 4th generation Australian pensioner. Worked in the building industry. Labourer, hammer hand, crane operator, steel fabrication, sandblasting, spray painting, house painting, fencing and more. That house is absolute disgrace, The builder should be found, named and all his assets sold to finish the house. Shame Australia we have become dishonest, greedy and disgusting thieves. Not all however it's worse than you believe.
The trades who did the work are the real culprits… the builder does his best to find tradesmen to do a good job but trades are not what they once were… a bricklayer once did 1 yr pre app then 4 yrs apprenticeship… now the govt has a 12wk bricklayer course and then the govt gives them a certificate saying they are a legit bricklayer and lets them go build new homes… and what do you think the quality is like from these 12wk wonders ??? That’s not the builders fault… that’s the govts
@@canitrader2423...It IS the builders fault.. First, at the end of the day, he's responsible for everything. HE was hired, so HE'S responsible if HE hires someone who does shoddy work. And let's be real, with how bad most of these are, I GUARANTEE they're going with the absolute cheapest bid possible.
Second, they should have a manager who goes from site to site REGULARLY throughout the process, making sure everything is getting done correctly. Someone who's knowledgeable of codes and how things should be done in general.
Third, no matter WHAT the case is, there's absolutely NO excuse for not catching ANY of this stuff THIS far along in the project. It's not like a few things were overlooked, it's hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work that needs to be fixed.
It's not like the code is just crazy strict but the work is "technically" fine.. They're straight up robbing people with the quality of work, and many of the houses he inspects are UNSAFE to live in!
@@canitrader2423And if it's THAT hard to find good tradesmen, the builder has even less of an excuse for letting it get to this point without catching ANY of it. He should already know he needs to stay on top of them and inspect regularly
@@Jason-un9ps so, because its almost impossible for Builders to find a tradesmen that isn't a Govt 12-week wonder its the Builders fault?
Heres some facts about this issue of low skilled tradies builders are forced to deal with.
There is a shortage of skilled trades because kids nowadays dont want to get work outside and don't want to work with their hands.
The Govt's answer to this was to create super-short trade accreditation courses...12wks, to be a brickie or carpenter or grano worker and others.
As a result the aussie building industry has completely changed over the past 20yrs and is now is plagued with low skilled, high priced, entitled tradie-wannabe's because of the Govts stupid ad campaign run in all States that told brain-dead troglodytes that they if want to be a brickie or a carpenter or a grano worker, we have a 12wk certificate course you can do , and afterwards you can earn 150k PA building peoples homes.
Brickies, like most trades, once upon a time had to complete a 12mth pre-app course, then successfully complete a 3 or 4 yr apprenticeship.
Now, because the govt has fuked up the TAFE apprenticeship scheme and young people are so entitled they don't want to get dirty hands building a house or mixing concrete, the Govt allows them to do a 12wk course and then receive the same level of recognised credentials as the guy that had to do 5 yrs of training.
And then they are allowed by Govt law to build your home for you and Builders are NOT allowed by law to discriminate and say to these wannabes they have no skill so I wont wont employ you on my client house.
These low skilled fools are the only resource available now, due to the govts failing on skilled education for our trade workforce.
Bahahahaha the scary neighbour looking over the fence through the window. I like the scary music you put to it. Lol
Holy shit I jumped 26:42
Same! haha
Faarcs, me too she didn't move or blink. Gave me the heebie jeebies
That old lady at the window scared the living f* out of me
The lady looking through the window.........................fark man. Good editing by the way. Had to replay that bit a few times for the laugh 🤣
We didn’t notice until the editing! We were all shocked! 🤣
A body snatcher neighbour , look for those pods
I always thought, nah leave it to the professionals.. now I’m thinking nah I’ll do it myself, got a better chance of getting it right..
You need to team up with an Aussie legal content creator to tackle things where we might be able to curb some of this behaviour in the industry and also get these unfortunate home owners some help recouping their losses.
Came across your channel a few weeks ago and have been binging them! Keep up the great work.
I agree, it’s so heartbreaking and infuriating seeing story after story but nothing can be done to name or warn future prospective “victims” for fear of legal action.
You cant curb if the law is a toothless tiger.
Cancel the company, switch names theres a lot they can do to keep going.
The law is weak in that context so not much come back
Me too, I can't stop watching! I've been in my roof 3 times in 2 weeks!!😆
I had to break one side of access into roof space to even get into roof space older build , various reasons related mainly to invaders , sure I'm not small 6'5 but no way could fit shoulders through in a fit , were they all hobbits just decades before
Deregulation that means you haven't a leg to stand on.
Whilst I can appreciate calling out crap work and garbage tradies
Maybe when you see good work call it out and give those who did it some recognition and praise and hopefully this will set a trend of good work more than the trash that has been viewed. 👊🏼😊
Keep up the good work compliance man!!
Probably doesn't happen
If he praises somebody's work and I use them and it turns out they had a good day and then reverted back to awful it looks bad for our friend here
"Got the inspector from Gum Tree"... You crack me up!🤣
Their LICENSE should be taken away FOREVER and jail time for THEFT … because that EXACTLY what it is
Why isnt this the case? Loss of builders licence at least or suspension 😕
@@razz0r1980 Could not agree more it is ridiculous and cost people thousands of dollars… No different to somebody coming into your home and breaking in and stealing… Because they’re stealing their money not doing the job properly and leaving them in Debt
Unfortunately what ends up happening is they go under, take money and run and then just open a new company under a different holding name and continue. It's legal scamming. The Australian trade standard, not just building. All trades. Is an absolute disgrace. We are a laughing stock. We are supposedly a proud tradie nation. However there are no more reputable tradesman left anymore
You are correct, criminal liability meaning potential prison time might just slow the rot in the industry. Too often these guys just go bankrupt and resurface elsewhere.
What was the go with 26:42 😢
This is despicable. I really feel for this owner. I’m glad he still has a sense of humour despite having every reason not to. Good on you for helping this fellow. I really hope he comes out of it ok in the end.
We need to make a legal fund so you can name these builders. As a carpenter, it puts my business in disrepute, totally failed regulation.
lets do it!
@@davidbrayshaw3529schools where they create all the dead shit usless carpenters, pretty much what most do today.
It's in the public interest to name names. 4 Corners/60 Minutes/7 Spotlight should be reaching out to you.
100% this is a Metricon builder & house !!
15:53
Yes its very sad and used to un-Australian but those days are gone unfortunately, best of luck to you mate
There probably needs to be a mandatory building insurance fund that is paid into similar to Workcover by any licensed trade, with their premiums reflecting the number of times their work has been deemed faulty and in need of repair. That way you only need to deal with an inspector working to the codes and standards, who then authorizes work to be carried out by any tradie the owner selects. With enough strikes against your name, your insurance is cancelled - which would mean you are effectively no longer licensed to work as a trade - at all.
The people involved in this poor workmanship should be ashamed of themselves.
they don’t give a crap. they’ve got the cash, time to dash…
Oh shit, random lady through window was spooky.
We only noticed it when we were editing the video 🤣
LOL
yes lol
name the builder to warn people
Must be alura builder
Don't think he can do that, Prob will sue him for defamation since they do amazing jobs in reality.
Name the inspector
As carpenter I 100% agree with you
If u think this is bad quality you should pull the exterior walls off any high end caravan and take a look
I love you man you do a good things for people by exposing how rotten it is .. cant imagine it happens in Australia. the whole system check and balance are worse than most third-world countries.. this how far Australia has become as a country
The building system is no different to the medical and political systems.
All taking as much money for themselves and fuck the rest.
This country is systematic with corruption. I'm sure the kindergarten hall monitors are even corrupt or maybe they need to get to year 2 before they figure out how Australia works.
you can thank our shitty government
So many rules and no one to make sure they are enforced
It's utterly disgraceful and sad. And so without any proper measures put in place and while Aussies keep being gutless in not standing up, it will continue being a race to the bottom.
26:42 non complient observation.
Shit like this makes me terrified to eventually own a house. What are we doing to ourselves..
As bad as it is, it just makes good builders more valuable. Like in any industry, the bad ones makes the good ones look even better, and the good ones become more in demand. Their is an incentive to do a great job, don't give up!
26:40 😮 just the neighbourhood bush inspector.
and now you have Metricon Homes cancelling 'fix priced contracts' & telling customers, "pay us double or we're just walking away..". State & Federal Govt. need to step in a start telling these builders, "not good enough..". 100% this is a Metricon builder & house !!
Poor guy... He is caught in the middle of builders who can't get their stuff together...
the inspector who signed off first should be named and fired
LOL the lady looking at you over the fence was hell creepy hahahaha
Just became a licensed builder in Victoria Australia where this channel is based. Crazy to see how no one seems to take pride in their work anymore. Shame to see hard earned money being outright stolen. Would love to work with you brother to get some experience love watching you very informative videos and learning what to look for! Super passionate to start my career!
Being a builder shouldn't you know all the standards, or is this our problem, carpenter does a bit of concrete work, and a bit of plumbing, thinks there builders???
@@boydcurry317 I've got no idea how half of them get a builders license, I had one builder here that couldn't work out where north was on a map.
@@boydcurry317you have to do a course and get your license. Like everything you can’t know everything straight away you need experience, he said he wants to be an inspector
That's how the builders get their waterfront houses and their stables full of AMGs.
@@davidbrayshaw3529All tradesmen must meet a minimum standard by the time they achieve their qualification however they never stop learning and are constantly becoming more efficient and knowledgeable. I'm doing @HVACR and it will be impossible for me or anyone to know everything even in a lifetime.
I don't know which is more scary, the building or the neighbour...
lol love the messages to the building surveyor 😆
How on earth did we get to the point where polystyrene foam is used as exterior cladding?!?!?!
Don't worry mate. I'm sure it's secured with twine.
I know it looks cheap and nasty.
I was wondering the same thing. Polystyrene is highly flammable also.
@@dominiccatherin6661 I think it's supposed to be polyurethane or something else, which is fire resistant (I think, if I'm wrong feel free to correct me).
It’s been around for years. More common now with brickie shortage
This is horrible, imagine the new homes in 10 years will all have to be rebuilt at this rate. What a complete waste of resources and money!!
100% this is a Metricon builder & house !!
So.... When do these builders become accountable? This is becoming a joke on every level. Imagine what's happening on a commercial building site?
That’s where the buck stops. With such money and influential players involved in commercial builds the standards and quality are upheld.
I'm mystified by the deficiency of the builder's mastery of those properties.
Woo! How would the average person know how to choose a reputable builder now?
That’s true, I watched a newer video of his. I found the builder online. The company has won multiple awards and has glowing recommendations. But the house almost a million worth was terrible. How can you tell exactly right
We had delays during our build and our builder demanded extra payment of "late fees" which caused by them failing to follow the timelines set by themselves.
We spoke to couple of lawyers and unfortunately it is a Justified action under Australian law.
The government obviously has no appetite to make changes and the building company has the upperhand.
If you want to build a house in Australia, you definitely need to know about building (reviewing the inclusionsbefore signing contracts ), knows about the law (literally the ins and outs about construction law), hire a inspector like this guy (A must!)
So they can fall behind the demand you pay for it?! What the actual fuck?!
@@Jim-yk9zw Oh not only that.They wasted 6 months of parking permit (work zone) that costed us $6k+ and demanded another $6k+ for further extension. that's $13k on top of delay fees.
You really don't have any power in the process. The builder also can put you on their "bad book" if you are being too demanding and further prolong the process. They literally have 0 care whether your house is late.
They can come up with 100x ways to get extra money (ex: set a stupidly small area for the traides to throw their rubbish and charge you multiple "clean-up site" fees).
If you try to bring them to the Tribunal in the middle of the build, they will charge you for "stopping the build" (had a customer charged $30k) and the process took 2 years on the tribunal.
Yes, the system is completely hopeless here.
now I see why so many builders are closing shop, they see you coming.
Each time I watch one of your videos I think I’ve seen the worst, but yet again I am simply flabbergasted! What a bloody disgrace, not a single trade on this whole job worth feeding. Nice editing and relevant extracts are really helpful. It must be depressing going to work looking at this crap everyday.
My anxiety level goes up watching this.Not keen building my own home any time soon.
All builders should be required to watch all your videos before becoming certified.
Great job Site inspector.... Name and shame the builders!!!!
15:53
The rendered wall on the roof was cut so the plumbers could fit the apron flashing. This shit happens all the time lol
This was your best video yet, especially great when you point out the things that are correct, e.g. the painting this time.
I appreciate that!
I inspected a place a while back with a massive site cut. Drawings said "core fillretaining wall with massive slab on top of it should hold back the 8 houses up hill" builder substituted a timber shitshow with a double brick wall and no waterproofing. Then cut an access door so they could use the unbattered subfloor for storage. Certified OK. Not a single right angle in the place.
What is the realistic lifespan of these houses? Are we talking 15-20 years? Or is that being too optimistic.
In my opinion even the cheapest house (but still within the standards and some basic pride in the job) should last 15 years with virtually no major maintenance/issues and a lifespan of around 30 years.
The expensive builds should last 50 years and virtually no major maintenance/issues for 25 years.
At least that's my expectation based on my parents house and their friends houses when I was young and what I saw in construction as a kid (in the 90's).
I'd be surprised if this thing would last 10 years without major issues and by 20 years it would probably be a dump.
My parents cheap simple build from the early 90's went about 20 years without any major issues and at 30 years old it's going to be simpler to rebuild it or sell.
@@retsaMinnavoiG- the council (public housing) house I was born in back in Wales 75 years ago, and which would have been some 20- 25 years old at that time, is still there and habitable. It has stood through the harsh Welsh weather of rain, snow blizzards, and freezing temperatures and with a few basic upgrades over the years, still looks like a good build. Not so my 6 year old apartment with its suspect cladding, balcony leaks, non-compliancy issues where the builder seemed to think that any building codes he may have know about were recommendations only, and where silicone was his best friend. At 75 years of age, I might still outlive my apartment. While we expect a home to increase in value over the years, I fear that new homes these days will decrease in value as a result of rapid deterioration with the use of cheap materials and shoddy workmanship.
This is easy $500k to finish not $300k
How has Australia ended up like this?
Corrupt, useless politicians who are in bed with the construction industry.
Can’t believe they can do this with no accountability
Yes its very sad and used to unaustralian but those days are gone
Lack of oversight.
Labor shortage, they hired anyone with limbs
As a landscaper I suggest the owner gets the block slashed and sprayed and stays on top of it otherwise it will just become a nightmare for him.
Welcome to Australia, where all of our resources are channeled into development, because there is nothing else left
100% this is a Metricon builder & house !!
Its just unbelievable the quality of work, the only explanation I can come up with is the tradie just supervised the apprentice the whole time and didn't stop him.
Hope the owner has money to take them to court to get some of his money back.
Roof plumbers are lazy, dodgy, dumb or all of the above but people trust their work cos it's a licensed trade so it falls back onto them.
I recognised the street in the video, pass these houses all the time for over a year and wondered what happened, I feel sorry for the owner and to think they are building a duplex home down the other end, their work site is an absolute disgrace rubbish everywhere. Trades sitting on the roof have a great social time.
Good on ya WU.
Scary to build a house, almost no protection and seeing metricon on the rocks is so bad for so many people
After seeing the quality of homes these days, I’d rather live in a tent
26:41 - ROFLMCFO 🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣💀
I like this guy that makes the videos, Dam he must piss off alot of people but good on him for standing up for the innocent and trying to keep some integrity in the world.
Batman
I love this channel. Learning heaps. Thanks! 👍🏻👍🏻
Good from far, far from good. lol
this is a horror show!
how is this legal ???
It’s quantity over quality. Its all about $$.
Yep. Pump out as many as you can using the cheapest materials and the cheapest labour. Bugger what the plans and engineering drawings say just put in a good enough replacement.
Great video. I've only been watching for a short time, but one of the best I've seen. Great educational content. So sorry for the owner...
If you pause the video around the 13 min mark you get the quickest glimpse of some work that is actually compliant.
Edit: ...Sorry that's the neighbouring property
🤣 love it.
U need to put a stop to this cowboys mate!!
Don't know the rules there but in the UK a builder will go bankrupt and just start again under a different name when they get in the shite.
Same deal here
They're supposedly trying to stop it here. We'll see if it works.
If im ever wealthy, im not buying a private jet. Im flying out a building team from japan to build me a house
Hey mate. I hope doing well. I love your passion and sense of fun. Thanks for sharing your work. All the best.
Melbourne
Glad you enjoy it!
Thank you for your kind feedback 🥰👍🏼
Maybe the builder is reading Australia’s favourite book, Bob the Builder and the Order of the Phoenix.
Perhaps we need to get back to a situation where we treat houses as somewhere to live, not investment opportunities!
I feel badly for this man - I can see and feel his pain. I hope that he gets justice.
Very sad im very sorry
The inspector who took pic of front door and bathroom… should also loose his license and PAY for everything that has to be fixed …because he/she said … ALL GOOD 😡😡😡
Paid off obviously to produce a report like that...
We need a new key chain with all the booboos..."Too many Booboos" "another booboo" "I can see a booboo"
And..."the inspection from Gumtree"
This case is horrific, beyond horrific
Just when I thought the videos couldnt get any worse, you come up with this abomination. Bonus points for the scary lady next door lol.
That is shameful, feel awful for the homeowner
The old steal from Peter to pay Paul routine, it’s pretty obvious.. it’s happened to my dad, my dad being the tightass wog he is only paid him drips, we were left with half a build, and only like 15k out of pocket, BUT in saying that, he (dodgy builder) did want 250k up front in cash "to start" and my dad was like no fn way.....I think we are going to hear a lot of “this is non compliant” is this scenario. Poor guy he looks fn stressed as….
I'm sad to say this but I look forward to your videos feel sorry for the homeowner hopefully he gets it all fixed correctly.
What suburb you in??
wow this inspector is great! i love watching this stuff!
There should be a public online site that names and shames these rip off artists and shoddy licensed builders.
It is shameful that there is not further oversight.
Why hasn't the governing bodies intervened to stem such terrible building practices?
$$$$$
Keep it up mate.
To many beers 😂...
Keep them honest.. to many dodgy inexpreienced builders around trying to get rich atm.
Truly a great channel
Awesome video 🫶🏻👍🏻
I hear they're building the new ikea between those bricks.
Some of those ceilings are so wet, I swear I felt water trickle down my back just watching...
That brickwork is cooked
when i become builder i will make sure he is the building inspector..
What needs to happen is that contracts need to be written in the favour of the owners, not the builders! Progress payments are not to be made unless the work has been signed off by a third party building inspector, and all faults found are rectified prior to payment being made. Further to that, only 90% of the payment is to be made; balance is to be held in trust for warranty period to keep the builders honest.
Or, should the builders have done to them what some of them were doing (and maybe still are doing) to their sub contractors - job needs to be finished in full for your work before you receive payment. Several builders were doing this through the 70's and 80's. They would employ subbies that were on the edge, and when they fell over, they would not be paid for what they had done. The builder would get another subbie in to finish the work, and only pay for what the second subbie had done, and pocket the difference.
Brother channel 9 or channel 7 need to give you your own Prime time TV show. Your videos are so good
⏳
Name and shame is the only way to go.
26:42 : That was creepy.
To put a positive on it atleast the builder did a reasonable job so far on it, But yea it is a sad situation
I feel for the owners here its not their fault most have no idea of building regulations ..These cowboys are a disgrace, I fume while watching terrible workmanship, probably a complete knock down and rebuild....The creepy nosy neighbour through the window was a shock...Keep up the great work exposing these cowboys.
Man, when you come across a good/professional builder can you name them plz ?!?! Surely there are some pro builders around ,somewhere …
You use the same notification sound as me and it trips me up whenever I hear it lol
also if I was to have a guess. The bottom of the board was cut because the board was installed before the flashing so it has been cut to install the flashing. Ideally should be UPVC corner beads not metal as they are probably not SS
I admire this fella for still having a sense of humor after all that mistreatment. Good bloke
Australia
1st world country ?
3rd world mentality 👍🏽
Australia🦘
Good country👍
Shit people💩
Yes roofers need to be inspected
when only the plasterers are the ones not on gear this is the house you get.
Wow, there are some dodgie tradies in Victoria it seems!
Not surprise, seems a lot of builders are like that nowadays
Kudos to the owner who still able to put up a smile... the industry has way too many cow boys.
😮😮😮
The old bat outside gave me a shiver 🤣