Nicheliving customers reveal emotional, financial toll of stalled home projects

A Perth residential builder with tax debts totalling almost $4 million has caused heartache for hundreds of customers waiting as long as four years for work on their homes to progress.

Nicheliving, which has publicly announced it will not be responding to media enquiries, is now facing legal action from three subcontractors, including a flooring company owed $41,844, and two site security firms owed $26,063 and $3,652.

But as well as the financial damage, there is an emotional toll that is mounting on the company’s many distressed customers.

API Magazine spoke to four Nicheliving clients who are facing immense financial and personal challenges as a result of the builder’s failure to deliver their new homes. As reported earlier this month, scores of formal complaints have been filed against the recalcitrant builder.

Three of the property owners have stalled projects in south-of-the-river Willetton, with another in outer suburban Alkimos to the north of Perth city.

All were facing extreme stress and trying to cope with the ramifications stemming from projects years overdue.

The company’s most visible efforts to address customer concerns appears to have been its placing of an advertisement on a job search website seeking a Marketing and Communications Manager to counter the negative publicity that has inundated the business.

That will offer limited solace to Alastair and Margaret Martin, who signed a contract in November 2020 with completion inked as happening by Christmas 2021. The family is still waiting.

“We are now paying $3,375 a month on rent while also paying $2,730 a month on mortgage repayments, which we cannot fix due to it being a construction loan, on the unfinished house, not to mention additional costs such as strata fees, utilities and rates,” Mr Martin said.

“We calculate that we have lost out on more than $70,000 by having to pay additional rent from the initial date we assumed the house would be completed.”

The emotional toll is arguably as costly.

“This is affecting our mental health considerably.

“We also have a seven-year old son and we are worried what affect this is having on his wellbeing, as he constantly sees his parents in stress.

“Nicheliving are completely oblivious to the plight of their clients.

“The managing director (Ronnie Michel-Elhaj) has continually mentioned the supposed equity we have made on our properties, however, we have lost a lot with the additional rent we have paid.”

The couple said the only time of late that any sporadic work had taken place was soon before the four State Administrative Tribunal hearings they had initiated.

“Nicheliving have said completion could be anywhere between three to six months away but we don’t trust anything they say.”

Living with mum with no completion date in sight

Moulina Sahai said her Alkimos build was initially due for completion by November 2022 but is currently stuck with a roofless two storey shell that hasn’t progressed for a year and has now been damaged by the elements.

“I have been stuck at the first floor plate height for a year and now the timber framework has decayed and needs replacement.

“Aside from an assurance that an onsite meeting will take place on 2 August and a claim the timber would be inspected, there has been no movement otherwise.”

Ms Sahai said the first sense things had gone awry was when the slab went down in August 2021 and then the brickwork took eight months to complete on a 7.5 m frontage ground floor.

“Even then, it was all wrong and not up to coastal grade.”

“I’m now living with my mum, paying building inspectors, legal and utility bills on a property I can’t use, with no completion date in sight - how long does this go on?”

Build is two years overdue and counting

Another Willetton victim of Nicheliving’s woes and lack of communication is Arnold Cho, whose new home project has stalled for 14 months.

He is now forking out $700 a week in rent and more money on storage, water, strata and other bills on the hapless project.

Mr Cho said communication from the company was scarce and no completion date had been proffered.

“I’m really struggling and every time I stop by my unfinished house I am extremely stressed about the absence of any progress and further pained by the unanswered calls to the builder.

“I just want to know when they will complete the house and what compensation will be paid for the ridiculous delay.”

With an incomplete home close to Mr Cho’s, Shan Paris says he has waited three years, seen numerous build completion deadline promises come and go and has now gone two years without any communication from the company.

“I feel nothing but desperation, tension and disappointment.

“Like others stung by Nicheliving, I have mortgage costs and rent doubling my expenses.

“There is supposedly a regulator but nobody takes any action against the builder for reasons I don’t understand.

“Even the Premier, Roger Cook, says he is angry about the situation but there is no visible government action that is doing anyone any good.”

Mr Cook last week said the WA Government was still hoping to work with the company to get the homes finished, without having to step in directly to rescue the company and complete the building projects.

“We have a range of measures at our disposal that we can continue to look at in terms of alleviating this situation,” he said.

“We need to continue to look at all those measures.

“My fervent hope is that Nicheliving get on and finish those properties, and we’re working with them to see if that is at all possible.”

High building costs have taken a toll on builders around the nation but signs are emerging that rampant building material inflation is easing.

After years of unprecedented accelerated growth, residential construction costs have stabilised, growing at the slowest annual rate in 22 years, CoreLogic’s Cordell Construction Cost Index (CCCI).