Wade Hunt in QBCC battle with Rockhampton builder over fence

‘We just want what we paid for’: A couple says a feature point of their dream home is in tatters, as QBCC orders a Rockhampton contractor to remedy ‘defective’ work.

It’s the great Australian dream, to own your own home.

For Wade Hunt, it finally came true in 2020 after he and his wife Lesley saved for more than 20 years to build their dream home at Rockyview.

“We have lived in a fairly small house for the last 21 years and we had our two boys there,: he said.

“We just saved and saved and saved while we were growing our business.

“We finally put enough together to buy the block of land, and we kept saving, and got the money together to put a deposit down to build the house.”

However, their dreams deflated 10 months after they moved in when they noticed some of their fence pillars failing.

The engineers report identified multiple fence pillars along the fence have failed.

After contacting their builder to rectify the matter and not able to come to an agreeable solution, the couple decided to take matter further and lodge a complaint with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission.

In documents published by QBCC and viewed by this publication, the complaint, lodged on May 11, 2022, said the following:

“The front fence pillars are shearing off the foundations. Out of nine pillars, four have failed and one is leaning. The pillars are shearing at different levels of the brickwork eg some are bottom, some are second course.”

The fence pillar at the end has come away from the adjoining fence line.

The engineer’s report, used as evidence in the QBCC report, states “piers 2, 6 and 7 could be rocked back and forth with a hand push”.

The engineer’s report concludes by stating “the movement of the piers independent of the footing indicates, we believe, a lack of connection from the pier to the footing by reinforcing ties or similar”.

“As the piers can be rocked by hand we suggest that the robustness expectations of accepted building practices and building codes have not been satisfied.

“As the piers can be rocked independently of the footings, we believe the piers would not have the capacity to resist lateral loads due to wind and earthquake events.”

The gate does not sit flush with the latch.

Mr Hunt isn’t alone in his building issues.

QBCC is a statutory body aimed to “ensure the maintenance of proper building standards and remedies for defective building work”.

In the financial year 2021-2022, QBCC officers inspected more than 1300 active projects suspected of defective work and risky or dangerous products.

Between May 2022 and January 2023, 18 building owners, body corporates and individuals pleaded guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court in separate prosecutions brought by the QBCC.

The fines imposed ranged between $2000 to $8000 for companies, $2000 to $5500 for body corporates and $1500 for individuals.

Mr Hunt estimates he has spent at least $6000-$7000 on the fence matter, with legal fees and for a third party engineer’s reports plus lost time at work.

While dealing with the QBCC process and emails from lawyers, Mr Hunt’s wife has been undergoing cancer treatments in Brisbane for a brain tumour.

The stress has also affected Mr Hunt so much he says, he has developed a blood condition caused by stress.

“I really feel hopeless in this situation, I’ve got a sick family member, I’ve got a business we are trying to run and the stress of this is just making me sick, physically and having to outlay money,” he said.

“I really want this put behind me so I can focus on my wife.”

After going back and forth for the last 18 months over this fence, Mr Hunt is feeling exhausted as it still has not been rectified.

“I understand mistakes are made … that’s not really my concern, we just want what we paid for … a like-for-like repair,” he said.

“We’re paying for a fence to act as a fence but it’s really a feature point out of our home too, (with) electric gates, the lights.

“We paid a lot of money to finish it off properly, otherwise we could have put a timber fence all the way around.

“But the fact we spent $30,000, we really wanted to have that feature point of the house.”

The engineers report identified multiple fence pillars along the fence have failed.

In a decision notice on October 7, 2022, QBCC ordered the “contractor” to rectify the “defective building work”.

This work has not yet been completed and Mr Hunt is concerned about what the repair will look like, as it will not be a like-for-like repair.

The builder who completed the fencing work was contacted by this publication and declined to comment due to the ongoing legal action.

There are more than 200 licensed contractors registered with QBCC in Rockhampton.

There‘s no suggestion the builder involved in the dispute with Mr Hunt has been fined or prosecuted for any wrongdoing.