Family-of-6 lose $300k house deposit

PHOTO: The family say they are financially ruined because their building company went bust.

A Western Australian family have been left destitute after the construction company meant to be making their dream house went into liquidation.

Tiarna Nouwland and her husband, in their mid-30s, are wondering how they are going to keep a roof over the heads of their four daughters, aged 16, 11, eight and five respectively.

They shelled out a total of $509,000 to buy land and build a sprawling home on a plot of land at Gabbadah, near Guilderton, north of Perth, but this week their plans came crumbling down.

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The building company they were with, Home Innovation Builders, lodged documents with the financial watchdog ASIC on Friday which showed the company had been placed into the hands of liquidators, GTS Advisory.

The Perth-based firm joins a growing list of construction companies to bite the dust in recent months as soaring material and labour costs are exacerbated by Covid-19 delays, eating into builders’ profits and leaving them unable to complete their jobs.

“We’d always wanted to build our dream home, then we found the perfect block and signed the contracts,” Ms Nouwland told news.com.au.

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“Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. Financially we are facing being ruined.”

The family stand to lose $300,000 and have been left with “just a shell of a house” with brick walls but nothing else on the barren property.

Only a ‘shell of a house’ has been built so far.

The Nouwlands were looking for a tree change and purchased a $180,000 hectare plot of land at the beginning of last year.

They spent an additional $50,000 on land clearing as well as $70,000 for a shed with running water, where the family planned to stay temporarily until the building works finished.

They then signed a contract with Home Innovation Builders to construct a “typical acreage house”, with five bedrooms, two bathrooms, an activity room, a study, a theatre, a kitchen and a scullery.

The entire project was supposed to cost them $410,000, of which they have already given $209,212 in progress payments.

But the rising cost of building materials means that it will now cost way more to complete.

Ms Nouwland got several other quotes for the home and the lowest figure was $570,000 to finish the house “which is more than the original cost,” she pointed out.

Western Australia has one of the lowest thresholds for building insurance in the country, with the current WA regulated QBE Builders Indemnity insurance capped at $99,500.

“After what’s left to draw on our progress payments plus the $99,500 max insurance payout we are facing an additional $300,000 on top of that to finish the house,” she explained.

“There’s no way we can come up with” that kind of money, according to the mum.

“We’re going to be nearly $300,000 out of pocket,” she added, saying this made the family “absolutely crushed”.

If the Nouwlands can’t cover the cost of finishing their home themselves, they will have to sell it at a loss.