‘Master Builders let us down big-time’

A homeowner who learned his new property had numerous defects turned to a Master Builders Guarantee. And there, he found more trouble, writes Rob Stock.

Rushad Irani says his family is living in a partially-finished Auckland home because the Master Builders Association had dragged its feet on paying out on its faulty building repair guarantee.

The company building Irani’s home, KB Projects, was a Master Builder when it started the $750,000 Beachlands build in 2018, and Irani paid for a Master Builders Guarantee.

The guarantee was marketed to him as providing ‘‘peace of mind’’ as it would pay to finish his home, should the builder fail to, and fix any faulty workmanship.

But nearly a year and a half after Irani raised red flags in June last year over the standard of workmanship on his home, it remains incomplete and faults unfixed.

Master Builders chief executive David Kelly said he understood the stress which Irani and has family had suffered, but said the Covid-19 pandemic had hampered Master Builders’ ability to get quotes to fix the problems with Irani’s house.

‘‘Master Builders has always accepted that the Iranis have a valid claim,’’ Kelly said.

‘‘[But] before we can accept and settle the claim, we need to establish the loss suffered by the homeowner. We are in the process of reaching a settlement with them now.’’

On Friday morning, two days after being contacted by the Sunday Star-Times with questions about the delays, Master Builders made a settlement offer to Irani, but a confidentiality clause in the agreement meant Irani was not allowed to say how much he was offered.

Irani estimated the delays in settling the claim have caused him six-figure losses, because the Master Builders guarantee was limited in its cover, and would not cover the entire cost of fixing his home.

Already, Irani said Master Builders had accepted the costs to fix the home would exceed $150,000, which he had been told was the cap on the guarantee for a home that had not been completed.

During the delay in settling the claim, the price of building materials and labour had spiked.

A bricklayer had quoted $90,000 just to get brickwork redone, Irani said.

The roofing material used was not safe for collecting water for use in the home, despite the build including water tanks to catch rainwater from the roof to use in the house.

‘‘That was to be our drinking water for the house, so we will have to get the whole roof redone.’’

The elevated deck was not aligned with the house, and would have to be pulled down and rebuilt, he said.

‘‘The driveway is designed in such a way that water doesn’t flow away from the house, but towards the house.’’

Exactly how much it will cost to fix their home is still not known, Irani said.

The Iranis pushed Master Builders to agree to help pay for a building defects report from building consultancy August Millard, which revealed 104 defects, but the report was based only on a visual inspection, and the family feared there were interior structural defects.

‘‘There’s something underneath, but what it is, we don’t know for now,’’ Irani said.

Irani said Master Builders also allowed KB Projects to continue working on the house late last year after he raised red flags, and that resulted in more poor workmanship that needed to be remedied.

‘‘We have a bigger loss because Master Builders gave him more time.’’

He was only allowed by Master Builders to cancel the contract with KB Projects in November last year, after Master Builders issued two notices to KB Projects to complete the home.

That meant KB Projects could continue working after Master Builders had deregistered it as a member, Irani said.

Master Builders said KB Projects was a member of the Registered Master Builders Association from May 2016 to the end of July 2019 when it was deregistered following a code of conduct investigation.

KB Projects owner Ankit Budhiraja said, in a statement prepared by his lawyer, that the company denied any allegations of defective work or property defects.

KB Projects at all times carried out its work on the project in a professional and compliant manner, he said.

The company ‘‘disputes the validity of the owner’s termination of its engagement, which it considers to have been unfounded and in clear breach of the parties’ contract’’, Budhiraja said.

Irani said the stress of trying to get his home fixed had been appalling.

Just as repair costs were mounting he was made redundant in October, and did not find work for two months. This week his father, who lived with the family, had a heart attack. Irani believed it was caused by the stress of trying to get the house repaired.

‘‘Master Builders has really let us down big-time.

‘‘We were hoping they would step up and own up to their builders’ issues and get us through and make sure everything gets done right.’’

Kelly said no guarantee product could take that stress away, but it did provide a process to resolve the issues.

‘‘This is a legal process, and so there are steps and timeframes that must apply, and these do take time. We appreciate that in this particular case this process has been prolonged. This is due to the ongoing pressures caused by Covid-19.

‘‘We have worked hard to find alternative builders, but there have been delays as builders have simply not been available. We have also had to wait on other sub-contractors, such as the bricklayers to provide quotes to complete the work.’’

‘‘Master Builders has really let us down big-time.’’ Rushad Irani