Builder leaves work unfinished
A rogue builder allegedly swindled thousands of dollars from homeowners before cutting off contact, leaving a ‘‘big mess’’.
Two residents of Papatoetoe, south Auckland, said Sanjay Kumar from One Call Renovation left their families with unfinished homes.
One homeowner said Kumar had left him $10,000 out of pocket and had become ‘‘impossible to contact’’. The man paid Kumar for painting and bathroom renovations after seeing an ad he posted online. The homeowner said the builder seemed ‘‘very confident’’ and claimed to have years of experience.
However, ‘‘he made a big mess of my home and charged me $10,000 for it’’, the man said.
‘‘He told me the house would be finished in four weeks and then kept dragging it out and eventually I realised it was never going to get done.’’
The man and his family had been staying with other family members as another builder was still fixing the damage, he said. ‘‘It has been horrible – so stressful and we have lost so much money, it was a struggle to even pay the new builder.’’
The man said Kumar had refused to give him any sort of refund and had now stopped answering his calls.
A Disputes Tribunal order seen by Stuff showed Kumar had been told to pay the man $15,000 for breaching their contract. However, that had not happened, the man said.
The man said he planned to take the court action further.
Bianca, who did not want her last name used, said Kumar had also left her new home in a state of disrepair. Like the other complainant, she hired Kumar after seeing an advertisement he had placed online.
Kumar had been ‘‘very convincing’’, Bianca said. ‘‘He gave me a quote for the work and said he needed a 50 per cent deposit of $1300 which I paid.
‘‘Over the next few weeks he just kept putting the work off, saying he was busy or sick and would constantly postpone.
‘‘Eventually he turned up and did one room and left all these weird gaps in the flooring but he just kept reassuring me that everything was fine.’’
After a few weeks, Bianca decided she had had enough. She told Kumar she wanted a refund and would find someone else to do the job, she said. ‘‘He refused to give me a refund and I had to get someone else to come in and have the flooring pulled up and relaid. I still want my money back but he is avoiding me, [he] won’t answer any of my calls or texts.’’
Kumar has not responded to requests for comment from Stuff.