Todays News Mail Story:
SEVERAL customers have come forward with complaints that they have not received kit homes bought from Steelsmart Homes, a company linked with troubled building company Coral Coast Homes.
SSM Products Pty Ltd, which trades as Steelsmart Homes, was being wound up yesterday after the builders licence for Coral Coast Homes director John Biles was cancelled on Monday.
Steelsmart Homes customers now face an anxious wait to hear if they would receive their kits.
Rosedale couple Peter Thompson and Claudia Richardson say they are living in a shack with no running water, next to their unfinished home, nearly two years after signing a contract with Coral Coast Homes.
“We still don't have a roof, which had been promised to us since March 13,” Mr Thompson said.
He said he paid in advance for the kit itself, and for the building to be completed to lock-up stage, after their previous home was destroyed in a fire.
“We were underinsured, so we've put every last bit into building this place,” Mr Thompson said.
He said volunteers had helped piece together parts of the home after a lengthy wait for the company's builders to get to work.
“Steve Sansom and his family came up, and without them, we wouldn't even have the plumbing,” Mr Thompson said.
“The kids say, 'we're never going to live in that house, it will never be finished'.”
Pensioner Shane McMullen said he has been left paying a mortgage on the frame of a house, after the rest of the kit was not delivered by Steelsmart Homes.
The kit home was meant to be delivered to his land in Apple Tree Creek by the second week in January.
But to date, only the frame has been received, and the single father is living with his teenage daughter in rented accommodation.
“My insurance company says I have no claim because I haven't received the kit, and the BSA say they do not cover kit homes - what do I do?” Mr McMullen said.
Representatives from SV Partners, who are receivers for Bundaberg Master Homes, were reportedly at the joint office of Coral Coast Homes and Steelsmart Homes yesterday.
But Building Services Authority general manager Ian Jennings denied the company had gone into administration.
“The Building Services Authority understands that no action has been taken to appoint administrators or liquidators to Coral Coast Homes Pty Ltd,” Mr Jennings said.
The Office of Fair Trading has urged customers who have concerns about Steelsmart Homes to telephone them on 13 13 04.
Steelsmart Homes could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Were Peter Thompson and Claudia Richardson owner builders that bought a framed house to build or did they have contractual arrangements with CCH to build their home. Whose fault is it they were underinsured? That is something that cant be blamed on CCH.
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