BUDDING new homeowners have been left with newbuilds missing rooves and are in thousands of pounds of debt after being told they can’t move in.
Josh Curmi, 29, shelled out £6,000 in a deposit for a three-bedroom house in the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia.
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He and his wife also missed out on a large government grant worth thousands and are now left with an empty plot of land after their builders, Snowdon Developments Pty Ltd, refused to start construction.
According to news.com.au, Snowdon is facing financial difficulty due to rising costs and has 15 creditors chasing them down for debts totalling £1.4m.
Josh, like hundreds of Aussie stuck in the same situation, are worried about what till happen to their cash if Snowdon goes under.
“$10,500 (£6k) is a big chunk of money and we’re going to lose the $15,000 government grant, so it’s a big chunk of money to lose,” he told the publication.
“Covid has been blamed for a lot of things, their whole office has had Covid five times even though they’ve been working from home,” he added sarcastically.
Josh has connections to the construction industry and what he’s found out has caused him to grow concerned about Snowdon.
“I know some people that are people who are in the building industry who are owed money from Snowdon,” he said.
“From what I hear a lot of site supervisors have walked out.”
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Aussie high school teacher Rebecca Cook bought a plot of land in May 2020 and forked out £25,000 to move into her new home by March.
But only a slab and frame have been completed and she’s still living with her parents.
“I want them to finish my house,” she told news.com.au.
“The prices are skyrocketing, I don’t have the funds to fork out another $50,000 for a build.”
She said she was fed up with the “excuses” her builder Snowdon has given for the delays.
“There’s always an excuse, every time there’s a natural disaster they’re piggybacking off that,” she said.
“They told me last year that my timber was ordered in September, they said it’s stuck at the waterfront, the waterfront doesn’t have enough space to store all that timber.”
Rebecca, like the others, bought a land and home package through a developer who then contracted construction out to Snowdon.
But when they noticed the builder kept delaying and requested payments when construction hadn’t even begun, concerns began to rise.
Primary school teacher Mira Vose and her husband Antony, both 40, have spent more than £17,000 on progress payments for a partially-built home.
“It’s either they (Snowdon) go broke or they build the house, the more they delay the more they bleed, and the more we bleed,” she told news.com.au.
“We’re paying two mortgages.”
She said Snowdon had asked for payment before they began building the house, which made Mira worry they had hit solvency problems.
Customer services worker Saurabh Mittal paid a £6,200 deposit for a £125k home in Tareit meant to be built by November this year after the developer he bought a plot of land off chose Snowdon as their builder.
“They have screwed me in all ways, I am crying day and night,” he said.
Saurabh saved for six years to buy the land to build his first home and regularly visited the site.
“Every week I went (to the site) with excitement. They cleaned the plot, they put some outline in the block,” he said.
But then nothing happened and Saurabh was given the cold shoulder.
“For years and years I saved this money and now I am at a big zero.”
Creditors are said to be demanding the state’s Supreme Court impose a winding up order on Snowdon to force the company into liquidation “on the grounds of insolvency”.
One of the creditors is the Office of State Revenue for £150k and the largest amount owed is for a roofing company waiting on a £530k payment.
It’s understood some of the money Snowdon owes creditors has already been paid off after they were taken to court, including to the State Revenue Office and Casabene Plumbing.
The builders claim other expenses can be paid after July 4 once they have sold a property.
But experts fear selling an asset to pay back debt is worrying.
Association of Professional Builders (APB) co-founder Russ Stephens said: “It simply shows they don’t have sufficient working capital in the building company to continue its operations.”
Mr Stephens warned this was the first signs of a company about to go bust.
Australia’s building industry has been hit hard and dozens of companies have had to shut up shop amid rising costs for construction materials and the ongoing supply chain crisis.
The Sun Online had contacted Snowdon for comment.
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