Homeowner down $170k after five-year home build nightmare

David Hawkins has an important message for Aussies thinking about building a home after enduring a five-year nightmare.

Five years ago, David Hawkins thought he was signing off on what would be his ticket to a blissful retirement with his wife in their soon-to-be dream home.

What really followed for the now 73-year-old, however, was years of extreme stress that left him not only an extra $170,000 out of pocket but, he believes, contributed to his prostate cancer diagnosis.

“I spent 48 years as an air traffic controller, and the stress of that was nothing compared to what we’ve been through,” Mr Hawkins told news.com.au.

In 2019 he signed a contract for a new house in Ashfield, northeast of Perth in Western Australia, and all was well when the company began work in February of 2020.

Things took a turn, however, when workers discovered groundwater while completing earthworks, an issue that meant the house couldn’t be built on ground level due to the threat of flooding.

The builder proposed the house be raised by about a metre, which with council approval, was a plan Mr Hawkins said he was happy to sign off on.

As he later discovered though, council approval was never sought.

Despite the hiccup, work continued on the house, albeit “very slowly”, until a major storm rolled through in May of 2021.

“With all the rain, the undercroft area all flooded, and there was about 500mls of water trapped behind the garage walls,” Mr Hawkins said.

David Hawkins just wanted a home to retire in, and instead received a five-year headache. Picture: Supplied/David Hawkins

Still, the builder assured him it wasn’t a big issue, and he would “take care of it”.

“So I didn’t really think much more about it,” Mr Hawkins said.

After four months however, when he noticed work on his home had completely halted, Mr Hawkins contacted the council for peace of mind on the alteration approval.

“They hadn’t heard from the builder at all,” he said.

When Mr Hawkins confronted the builder and threatened to report him to the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT), he claimed the builder threatened him right back.

“If you do that, the place will never get finished,” the builder said, according to Mr Hawkins.

Mr Hawkins pressed ahead with a complaint and in the meantime, had core drilling done on the property which determined the reason it flooded during the storm.

“The builder had cut into the slope and intersected the water table and when it rained, the water got trapped and couldn’t get out,” he said.

A geotech report seen by news.com.au, conducted by a technician hired by Mr Hawkins, found the water level was above where the garage floor had been laid.

The report also found there had been an over-excavation of clay and which had been replaced by sand, causing more water to accumulate above the clay layer.

Mr Hawkins has to sweep water from his home every second day. Picture: Supplied

There is nowhere for the water to go, so it floods the house. Picture: Supplied

While a drainage “soakwell” system had been installed, the report found that it was “ineffective” and was actually exacerbating the drainage issue.

Fed up with waiting on the builder to finish and losing more money by the day, Mr Hawkins, in mid-2022, sought to reclaim the build. With the help of a lawyer, he was successful by later that year.

At that stage, he was morbidly out of pocket and still had at least 20 per cent of the build to complete before he and his wife could move in.

Mr Hawkins managed to source his own contractors, who he said ran into several issues with the home, but finally moved in by early 2023.

His only wish following the ordeal was to warn others to be extremely selective with who they built with, and to meticulously read reviews and seek references before signing a contract.

Reflecting on the extremely difficult years, Mr Hawkins said he suffered through a lot of “mental problems” and “anger”.

Fighting back tears, he said he had also “ended up with prostate cancer”.

“All I wanted was a house in retirement, and it fell apart.

“I’m not seeking compensation or anything, I’m just putting this out there as a warning.”

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Originally published as Homeowner down $170k after five-year home build nightmare