Opinion
Divine intervention hasn’t saved Nicheliving, it was divine pragmatism
Hamish Hastie
ReporterIt wasn’t divine intervention that pulled Nicheliving out of the home-building mess it created – it was divine pragmatism.
Speaking to long-suffering Nicheliving customers on Friday after the backroom deal the Cook government struck with the company following a fortnight of negotiations, their mood is a mix of jubilation and frustration.
The Nicheliving debacle has left Kathy Ellis still with no build after three years. Ellis says she has been ruined financially, and is now living in a campervan with her two teenagers.Credit: Getty / Jesinta Burton (composite image)
Jubilation because they are finally free from a company that greedily bit off far more than it could chew when $45,000 worth of state and federal COVID-19 stimulus grants turbocharged the housing market.
Frustration because the company that promised them the world and delivered them devastation gets to wash its hands of the mess.
The state government made the right call in preferencing a quicker deal for Nicheliving customers and wearing the home indemnity insurance costs over waiting for the company to do the right thing itself and abandon its SAT fight to retain its building licence.
Some customers were on the brink of homelessness. Most were paying Perth’s sky-high rents while also paying interest rate-inflated mortgages on their unbuilt homes.
Some moved overseas while some have been forced to live wherever they can – like Kathy Ellis whose teenage children have finished their remaining years at school living in a caravan.
All this while their half-built houses sat idle for years, growing mould and collecting rubbish. It’s been torture, and they deserve to move into their homes as soon as possible.
It is galling that Nicheliving director Ronnie Michel-Elhaj claimed to this masthead last week that his company had $100 million in assets to draw on and yet the state still decided to slug taxpayers.
With about 200 unfinished homes each eligible for a payout of up to $200,000, this deal could cost taxpayers up to $40 million.
It is unlikely every customer will need the entire $200,000, but the figure will end up in the tens of millions. It’s enough for any mild-mannered taxpayer to take the Lord’s name in vain.
Commerce Minister Sue Ellery repeatedly batted away questions about Nicheliving’s financial liability on Friday, saying a Building Services Board investigation into its finances suggested chasing it for money would be for naught.
The true state of Nicheliving’s finances will likely never be exposed now with the SAT hearing abandoned.
Ellery has talked up the bar on Michel-Elhaj and Nicheliving’s other director Paul Bitdorf and their families from applying for builder’s licences for the next decade as a form of consequence for the mess.
However, their reputation has already taken a massive hit in WA over the past year and it is unlikely anyone would identify them as their preferred builder anyway.
Michel-Elhaj told me last week the company wanted to focus on being a land developer anyway, so a ban will have little effect.
He blames the government for overstimulating the market during COVID which left his company and other builders exposed during COVID.
There is some blame to share.
This sorry debacle should never happen again and that will require the government to confess to its COVID sins.
Any grants in the future need to be capped much lower overall and builders themselves should only be allowed to take on a certain number.
Health checks of company finances before grants are issued are also no-brainers.
A by-product of the government’s announcement could be that other struggling builders adopt Nicheliving’s modus operandi and seek government intervention as well.
If that’s the case, God help us all.