Couple estimate Hotondo collapse has cost them $200,000

Tales of delays, problems and tens of thousands of dollars in lost savings continues to surface after building company Hotondo entered liquidation.

NATHAN Meyers feels physically ill when he looks at the land where his dream home was to be built and counts the future costs from the collapse of Hotondo builders at New Town.

Mr Meyers and partner Jayne Dillon, both public servants, know they have lost the $26,000 they paid upfront to Hotondo for a house that was never built but say losing the $45,000 first home builders’ grant, paying rent, and capital gains tax on the land they had to sell quickly to buy a home with a bigger mortgage has cost them dearly.

“I’m 44 and I will be paying off our mortgage until I am 75 now,” Mr Meyers said.

“I reckon this has cost us an extra $200,000.

“I look at the block or hear the word Hotondo and I feel physically sick.

“This house would have set us up for life.”

Mr Meyers is one of several people who have contacted the Mercury about their delays, problems and lost savings since Hotondo entered liquidation.

He signed a contract in December 2020 for Hotondo to build one of their homes on land at Berriedale.

After lengthy delays, Hotondo cancelled the build last September and Mr Meyers had to make a fire sale of his block and find a home for three children, two cats and a dog.

“We bought a place on the Eastern Shore but instead of a $500,000 mortgage, prices have gone up 25 per cent in the time we were waiting for our home to be built, so our mortgage is now $650,000.”

Nathan Meyers and Jayne Dillon estimate the Hotondo collapse has cost them $200,000. Picture: Chris Kidd

A Brighton family moved into their Hotondo home in 2020 only to find an unlicensed plumber had performed work that had to be repaired, including water leaking down walls onto the carpet.

“There are still so many things unfinished and our heat pump didn’t work in the middle of winter when I had a four-month baby,” the mother-of-three said.

“The finish inside is disgusting, they’ve touched up paint work with a different colour.”

A Hobart painter now living on the Gold Coast told how he lost $15,000 when a previous Hotondo collapsed eight years ago.

“I went to court, won the case, but they went bankrupt so we got nothing back,” he said.

All three support Labor’s push for a parliamentary inquiry into the building sector.

Labor building spokeswoman Jen Butler said she was worried that while the government had promised to reintroduce a home builder warranty scheme, it would not come up with a suitable scheme.

“A parliamentary inquiry will provide expert advice and experience from around Australia to inform a gold stamp scheme,” Ms Butler said..

“The collapse of Hotondo Hobart further exposes the vulnerabilities of the Tasmanian building sector, which needs urgent reform.”