Troubled Oracle Building Corp boss lives in $5 million Gold Coast mansion

While his customers languish in rental properties waiting for their dream homes to be completed – with some being slugged with extra charges of up to $122,000 – the boss of this struggling Queensland construction company is living the high life in a Gold Coast mansion.

Inside the Gold Coast property.

Building boss Tom Orel’s increasingly angry customers are being slugged with extra charges of up to $122,000 before they can move into their homes.

However, the boss of financially-troubled Oracle Building Corp does not appear to have any accommodation problems himself.

Mr Orel’s registered address is a $5m canal front mansion at Benowa on the Gold Coast complete with six bedrooms, five bathrooms, pool and home theatre.

The ritzy double storey home in Sir Bruce Small Boulevard is home to Mr Orel, 71, and wife Elia, 54, who is the registered owner of the property.

Mr Orel’s company, Oracle Building Corp is now locked in increasingly bitter disputes with many of his customers over hefty price increases demanded by the company to complete their homes. Oracle is blaming unprecedented increases in building material to justify the price increases despite the fact most customers have fixed-price contracts.

However, disgruntled Oracle customers say they are being given demands of large sums of money with no breakdown of the costs. “The amounts being demanded are all round figures.” says one customer, given a demand of $40,000.

Several customers of Oracle have told The Courier Mail that Oracle is refusing to hand over homes nearing completion until demands for additional payment are made. “People have paid for their properties but are still being denied what is rightly theirs,” says one customer.

Oracle Homes founder Tom Orel

Established in 2009, Oracle Building Corp, which trades under the names of Oracle Platinum Homes and Oracle Property Group, was established in 2009 to market home and land packages.

Prior to that Mr Orel was a director of another building group called Alchemy Property Group. According to financial documents lodged with ASIC, Oracle Building Corp posted a profit of $1.3m last year on a 35 per cent increase in revenue of $67m.

The company paid a dividend of a quarter of a million dollars to its shareholder, a company controlled by Elia Orel.

Mr Orel is also a director of another company with Elia that owns more than $2m worth of commercial property at Underwood. Oracle meanwhile is also shown as the registered owner of land in Queensland and New South Wales.

Mr Orel’s registered address on the Gold Coast.

According to Queensland Building and Construction Commission data, Oracle Building Corp has been accrued a total of 20 demerit points since last August relating to failure to rectify or remedy defective work. If the company accrues 10 more demerit points it will lose its licence.

Mr Orel sad Oracle continues to comply with the financial and all other requirements for its building license. “We will continue to support 105 staff and their families along with 350 independent contractors with ongoing work and employment,” said Mr Orel.

He said Oracle along with all building companies are operating in an unprecedented construction environment where the costs and availability of materials and trades has increased, and continues to increase at never before seen rates.

“This has been reflected in the number of builders and developers going into administration or liquidation and the number of licensed trades operators having their licenses suspended for failing to meet minimum financial requirements,” said Mr Orel.

An Oracle Platinum Homes property under construction.

“The regulatory environment does not assist and neither owners or builders are receiving any support from the regulatory body to help deal with this situation. We are trying to minimise the impact to our clients as much as possible, however where contracts do allow for price variations and changes this is something that does become unavoidable.

“While we can certainly understand that some of our clients are upset and frustrated with the situation, we remain committed to working with them to ensure that they can enjoy their new homes. If any client does have any questions or concerns we are more than happy to discuss that, along with any costs breakdown at their request.”

It comes as QBCC Commissioner Anissa Levy is warning homeowners that there may not be

any contractual basis for contractors to demand payment for increased labour and material costs as ‘contract variations’ under a fixed price contract.
“The QBCC urges home and property owners to seek their own legal advice before agreeing to or paying an increase in the contract price for a fixed price contract,” Ms Levy says.

She says that as a contractual issue, this matter would usually be considered a civil matter and the QBCC would not be able to become involved.

“However, it could be a breach of a contract, which could potentially allow the contract to be terminated and a claim lodged by the homeowner through the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme.”

Know more? Contact Glen Norris at [e-mail]