Sunshine Coast pool builder closes with jobs left incomplete

Noosa Cooloola Pools has been placed in voluntary administration, and according to the Sunshine Coast Daily, a number of clients have been left with unfinished pools.

One such client is Chris Fuller of Pelican Waters who says instead of having a swimming pool, he has a concrete pond with incomplete plumbing and no filtration, coping, fencing, lights or covers.

He told the Sunshine Coast Daily he chose the builder based on the company’s 25 years’ experience in the industry, despite the fact it was the most expensive quote.

Administrator Dane Hammond of Worrells Maroochydore told the Sunshine Coast Daily that it was too early to tell the full extent of the company’s debt. However, he says that the company has had its Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) licence suspended, and that there is no capacity for the administrator to complete the work.

The builder was not a member of SPASA and its work was not covered by the Watertight warranty scheme.

Changes to home warranty in Queensland

SPASA Queensland’s Adrian Hart says that had the state government’s Home Warranty Scheme been modified to include swimming pools according to plans, the home owner would have been covered.

“We did expect the scheme to apply to new contracts signed up from either July 2014 or Jan 2015,” he says.

“For the benefit of all pool construction clients we expect the government to move forward on their initiative and get this started sooner rather than later. It now looks as if they may make July 2016 but they may not.”

Hart says that with an offering exclusive to his members (Watertight) he could have been screaming from the rafters that the government’s move to effectively make the SPASA scheme redundant was highly detrimental to SPASA and its members.

“However we have chosen to recognise the push from the old BSA insurance sub-committee and the government’s parliamentary review to provide protection to consumers, for what is likely to be their second largest building purchase, after their personal place of residence.”

He says that with all the talk of the government taking over Watertight, he has seen a significant downturn in the number of pools being covered.

“This will have a serious impact on the fund moving forward, especially when we get to a stage where there will be no new revenue but we will still have to cover claims as they arise.”

Hart says that if the pool builder’s clients had done some research they could have covered themselves for contract completion and defect rectification.

“Once they paid the excess they would not have paid any more than they would have otherwise paid to have the job finished by the builder, with Watertight covering all the additional expenses. Also, there does not appear to be anything in the QBCC or ASIC records that indicates this business has been operating for 25 years.”

Hart says SPASA is amending its code of conduct to cover issues such as this, and are lobbying the QBCC for recognition of truth in advertising.

SPLASH! has attempted to contact the builder but at the time of publication had received no reply.