Sydney builder in spotlight after customer’s new house needs significant repairs

A family’s $128,000 renovation has gone terribly wrong, and what this mum later found out left her “horrified”.

EXCLUSIVE

A simple renovation has turned into a nightmare for a family after it went horribly wrong, leaving the house in need of a complete demolition and costing more than $340,000 to fix.

Alexandra Forwood, 36, bought a former housing commission home for her family in March last year in the suburb of Airds, in south west Sydney, for $550,000, planning to extend the master bedroom and add an extra bathroom.

Two months later the mum-of-two signed a contract agreeing to pay $128,000 to a licensed builder called Adel Keir, of Building Renovation Centre, to complete the works.

But what she’s been left with is a house that contains a whopping 28 defects, according to an independent building report, which recommended she would be better off tearing the whole structure down and starting from scratch.

Forwood was then horrified to discover that Keir had owned multiple failed companies with 39 insurance claims taken out against them for defective works.

Keir denies that he is involved in a phoenix operation, which is when a company collapses and then avoids its debts when it restarts under a different name.

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Forwood is furious about what happened.

More than a year later, the renovation is still causing her grief.

Phoenix activities directly cost the economy between $2.85 billion and $5.13 billion annually, according to a report commissioned by the Australian Taxation Office in 2018.

Despite that, an independent analysis economist John Adams released about the financial regulator on October 6 found that less than one per cent of reports of financial misconduct are investigated.

Partly in response, several weeks later, on October 27, the senate passed a motion to hold a parliamentary inquiry into the regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), to get to the bottom of it.

News.com.au is calling on impacted Australians to lodge a submission with the inquiry to share their horror stories about their dealings with ASIC.

Australians have three months until submissions close, until February 3 next year.

ASIC has not acted in this particular case.

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One of the many defects in Forwood’s home identified in the independent building report involved stairs of “varying widths” which Forwood alleges caused her to trip and aggravated a pre-existing spinal cord injury.

“It was at night, the lights were on, I was trying to get down the stairs and I slipped (because) one stair is higher than the other one,” Forwood told news.com.au. “I ended up in hospital.”

Forwood was also outraged to learn that in March, the same time she allegedly exacerbated her pre-existing spinal injury from the fall, Keir’s building licence was up for review and NSW Fair Trading renewed it.

The property had 28 defects all together.

Mr Keir’s company has since been deregistered.

The stairs that Forwood says she tripped down. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

ASIC documents obtained by news.com.au reveal that Keir, 66, directed Galaxy Construction and Development Group, which went into liquidation in 2012.

The NSW Public Register shows Galaxy Construction had 21 compensation fund claims — insurance payouts — taken out from September 2011 until June 2017, long after the company had been wound up.

Those compensation payments ranged from $5000 to $199,000, with overall claims worth $1.06 million.

The company collapsed owing $640,000 to creditors, according to the liquidator’s report obtained by news.com.au.

Appointed liquidator Roderick Sutherland, of insolvency firm Jirsch Sutherland, lodged a report with ASIC where he said there were “possible voidable transactions” six months before his appointment.

A voidable transaction is when assets are transferred out of an insolvent company, making it difficult for creditors to recover their money after liquidation. However ASIC directed Sutherland to close the case.

“We note that while we have been provided with ASIC clearance to finalise this matter we are in the process of investigating possible voidable transactions made by the company in the six months preceding our appointment,” Sutherland wrote.

With only $5000 worth of assets, Sutherland concluded he could not fund further investigations.

Forwood learned that her builder had run other companies with multiple insurance claims taken against them. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

An example of one of the defects, where Forwood put up a piece of thin wood to plug a hole between the roof and the outer wall. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

In 2014, another company that Keir directed, Sydney Homes, was court-ordered to go into liquidation.

This time around there were 18 insurance claims against the company as well as a $2000 fine for breaching the Home Building Act and also a NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) order to pay $45,000 back to an aggrieved homeowner.

The 18 compensation claims from 2015 to April 2021 ranged from $10,000 to $209,000, and came to a total of $1.27 million, according to the NSW Public Register.

Between those two failed building companies run by Keir, there were 39 insurance claims that added up to $2.33 million worth of costs to cover defective construction.

Since March this year, Keir has registered another building company in Southport, Queensland, called Aroma Developments.

He also runs another NSW-based building company that has been operating since 2016 called NSW Building Renovations Group.

Adel Keir has denied the accusations.

Bricks dumped underneath Forwood’s home Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Keir denied that he had phoenixed his companies although he did admit to starting his new company, Aroma Developments, to escape bad reviews including from Forwood.

He also told news.com.au that his previous two companies, Sydney Homes and Galaxy Construction and Development Group, had collapsed because of “bad management”.

However, facing joblessness and with no other skillset, Keir said he had to start a new building business to put food on the table.

The 66-year-old builder denied that Forwood’s house had 28 defects.

“It’s just a little bit defective. They can be fixed,” he told news.com.au.

Keir has also denied that any of the problems could have led to Forwood injuring herself.

“I didn’t do nothing,” he added.

Forwood has two kids who she says have been helping her with her sore back and neck.

The building of Forwood’s home was plagued with problems from the outset.

She paid 15 per cent of the renovation cost to Keir in May. But from June to September he received payments that amounted to more than $100,000, at his request, when no work had been done on the property.

In some cases, he asked for cash, and some payments were deposited directly into his personal account, according to Forwood’s NCAT affidavit.

Concerned, she contacted her insurer and realised that she had been given a contract with the name of a different building company, NSW Building Renovations Group, another construction firm he directed.

However, the iCare certificate was for Building Renovation Centre, where he acted as the company’s licence supervisor.

iCare also received the incorrect contract with the wrong contract price and the wrong name and contact details.

One of the many defects.

The building of Forwood’s supposed dream home finished in October last year.

She paid $18,000 for an independent report on her new home, prepared by Sedgwick Building Consultancy Division, just two months after the renovations finished.

Sedgwick found there were five areas of noncompliance and 28 major and minor defects, including incorrect plumbing, incomplete flooring, incomplete kitchen and a leaking roof. The report also found inadequate ventilation systems and gaps between the wall and the cladding.

The building report also determined that the “extension is to be demolished and reconstructed”.

An occupier’s certificate has not been issued because the house is deemed unliveable.

The rear laundry steps were considered a minor defect but this is what Ms Forwood claims caused her injury just months later.

In March this year, the mum-of-two fell down those stairs and was taken to hospital.

Medical records shared with news.com.au state that the fall “exacerbated” her pre-existing degenerative spine condition and that the new injury caused “acute pain” in her upper and lower back.

Natasha Mann, Minister of Fair Trading, speaks about Forwood’s case in parliament.

Furious, Forwood started legal proceedings against Keir.

She took him to NCAT seeking payment for the alleged defects and compensation for her ongoing medical costs.

The woman also raised the case with NSW Fair Trading wanting action to be taken in relation to Keir’s building licence.

NSW Fair Trading escalated the case, which resulted in Building Renovation Centre being deregistered in July this year, and triggered her iCare insurance payout under the Home Builder’s Compensation Fund.

However, as the company had been deregistered, there was no way to pursue the NCAT case.

Although she received the maximum insurance payout of $340,000, it’s not enough to rebuild her house and pay medical fees.

“They’ve given me this money making me go away. We’re stuck now, it’s better to demolish the house and rebuild. We don’t have enough money to do that,” she said.

Forwood has applied for an act of grace payment, which is when a minister decides a payment is “appropriate because of special circumstances”.

NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello is currently considering her application. She is hoping for a further $200,000.

Greens NSW MP Abigail Boyd questioned why Keir’s licence was renewed.

Late in September, Keir’s building licence was suspended after Forwood’s case reached the desk of the NSW Fair Trading commissioner, Natasha Mann.

“I am pleased to advise you that the decision in relation to Keir and the disciplinary action recommended against him resulting from our investigation, has been made,” the notice read.

Keir is now disqualified for five years from holding a building licence or from being the officer of a company. News.com.au understands he plans to appeal the decision.

At a parliamentary committe in August, Mann said she was “was quite horrified” to hear about Forwood’s defective home.

Abigail Boyd, Greens member of the NSW Legislative Council, questioned why Keir had his building licence renewed initially, despite his long track record of failed companies.

“But how did that happen in the first place?,” Boyd asked. “Is there a breakdown in the communication? This is a very serious case that’s resulted in serious harm. This is something that he’s (Keir) actually been fined for.

“His company was deregistered … and yet he was able to renew his individual building licence. How is that the case? Is there some systemic issue here?” Boyd asked the parliamentary committee.

In response, Mann said: “His application, ironically, came in the very same day that I was first meeting with her, so it was processed, I suppose, as these investigations were ongoing.”

She said their online systems were not always updated instantly and could take a few days to process, which was why it was not flagged until Forwood brought this case to her attention.

In conversation with news.com.au, Boyd said: “There are significant systematic issues... ASIC is not a consumer watchdog, they’re a markets watchdog.”

Her office has been pushing for new legislation that would see a builder automatically lose their licence if their company’s licence was suspended or revoked, which was not previously in place.

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Originally published as Sydney builder in spotlight after customer’s new house needs significant repairs