Home Projectz Gone Broke!?

[MF35]

Hi All,

Home Projectz run by Kade Hancock seems to have gone under. We signed up with them recently for design work with a view to building work being completed. Quotes were very good, perhaps to good with the benefit of hindsight.

Over the last month we've had increasing difficulties getting in contact with anyone and were told large numbers of staff had left more recently. This escalated to the point where we were unable to get anyone by phone at either their office or mobiles or get a response by email. So we drove to their office to find it had been cleaned out and they had vanished without contacting anyone.

The landlord did not look to happy and told us to get in line when we mentioned we had paid for services not yet fully provided.

I have heard from other sources that the business expanded very aggressively, so perhaps it's that rather than their workmanship etc that is the reason for their failure.

Anyway, just thought I'd let everyone know in case others were wondering what happened to them.

MF35

 

[Chelle]

Waiting on payments

Just wondering if anyone has heard anything from Home Projectz.
We have been trying to get in contact with them since December 2011 and every time there sick away from there desk or they just simply hang up on me, now it's shut down and message bank is full.
I have tried calling the melb office but all the same..

What are other people doing about it, is it worth seeking legal advice seem he has gone bust or is it just a waste of time ??

We are only a small country business contracted to a job for "commerical projectz".

Some advice would be much appreicated.

 

[Jake D]

I think your first mistake was decided to engage the work of someone who's company name replaced 's' with 'z'.

 

[lizzie]

hahaha - Jake - that was my first thought too.

Chelle - read the post above yours. It explains a lot.

 

[Ausprop]

submit your claim to the liquidator, you may get 5c in the dollar back, who knows??

 

[Smoralee]

The Home Projectz situation has caused a large number of people some serious grief. We were lucky in that they stopped talking to us after we made our final payment, but we still have a big list of defects to complete. Fair Trading are in the process of deregistering them, however Kade Hancock is still moving around trying to convince people to continue with some of his projects.

An obvious warning to all: stay well away from him or anyone associated with his work. Our renovation was a nightmare in terms of mismanagement, threats and intimidation, and we are lucky compared to what we know other people are experiencing.

Anyone with financial or building structure issues with Home Projectz is being encouraged to contact Fair Trading and/or the warranty insurer immediately.

 

[Ideo]

I think your first mistake was decided to engage the work of someone who's company name replaced 's' with 'z'.

I was going to say that

 

[Peter 14.7]

The Home Projectz situation has caused a large number of people some serious grief. We were lucky in that they stopped talking to us after we made our final payment, but we still have a big list of defects to complete. Fair Trading are in the process of deregistering them, however Kade Hancock is still moving around trying to convince people to continue with some of his projects.

An obvious warning to all: stay well away from him or anyone associated with his work. Our renovation was a nightmare in terms of mismanagement, threats and intimidation, and we are lucky compared to what we know other people are experiencing.

Anyone with financial or building structure issues with Home Projectz is being encouraged to contact Fair Trading and/or the warranty insurer immediately.

Thanks for joining us and providing feedback. Stay here and learn a bit and at least you can mitigate your losses.

Peter 14.7

 

[hpsuckz]

I am an ex employee who 'left' as said by Kade.
On March 24 he called all staff into a meeting and announced liquidation and for everyone to leave and not come back. It was fake and there was no appointed liquidator.
He has since moved to another office in Bondi Junction then again in Parramatta.
He is trading under another name now. It could be Ilocate Properties, AHM Collaboration or something completely different.
He had as it seemed no intention to complete works for clients, but to claim progress payments and then flea.
He hasnt paid subcontractors since last year and has quite alot of debt.
I hope you seek help with fair trading and asic and such, majority of his ex employees are doing the same.

 

[Peter 14.7]

I am an ex employee who 'left' as said by Kade.
On March 24 he called all staff into a meeting and announced liquidation and for everyone to leave and not come back. It was fake and there was no appointed liquidator.
He has since moved to another office in Bondi Junction then again in Parramatta.
He is trading under another name now. It could be Ilocate Properties, AHM Collaboration or something completely different.
He had as it seemed no intention to complete works for clients, but to claim progress payments and then flea.
He hasnt paid subcontractors since last year and has quite alot of debt.
I hope you seek help with fair trading and asic and such, majority of his ex employees are doing the same.

Thanks, I worked for Guy like this once. Absolute *******. Would sell an orphan for 2 cents.

Peter 14.7

 

[KenR09]

It’s an absolute disgrace that the current system can allow such an incompetent person to just wind up; change company name and then continue business. I made the mistake of believing Kade could complete our renovation within time and budget. Unfortunately, after signing up and making the first payment the whole experience with Home Projectz went from bad to worse. The simple job took 6 months extra to complete and the costs escalated to over 100% what was originally quoted. The worst thing is we are still paying for defects and structural issues. Kade is an absolute disgrace, has absolutely no communication or management skills and is nothing but a con man. I really hope Fair Trading and other governing bodies crack down on this idiot. How many more people and families does this guy have to effect?

 

[boomtown]

It happens a lot.

A good way to protect yourself is not to pay any money upfront for anything or limit it to what you can easily afford to lose.

If someone does insist on a large up front payment make them give you a matching bank guarantee.

 

[NBS]

There are rules set down in QLD for how much you can put down as a deposit. 10% under $20000 and 5% over. Naturally there are ways around this. You will need to have ALL your documents in order, dates when monies were paid etc and best to engage a solisitor to at least provide some advice. Have you contected the building advisory in your state.

As for deposits I always ask for it and if the person is not willing to give a deposit I walk away and will not do the job even if a deposit is offered later.

Mind you Its all laid out in the contract the payment schedule.

I feel things would a be a bit easier if the people that are doing the ripping off do a long stint in jail. The system needs a major overhaul to provide better safegaurds and a cheaper process for clients, builders, contractors etc.

Never happen in my lifetime I dare say.

Hope all works out.

Brian

 

[Sunfish]

In Qld we have compulsory builder's insurance. The OP might not have been covered if there was no contract, but I assumed all states would have such insurance by now. This is nothing new.

 

[Sunfish]

I think your first mistake was decided to engage the work of someone who's company name replaced 's' with 'z'.

For the same reason I would NEVER own a Mercedes "Kompressor" car.

 

[Aaron_C]

For the same reason I would NEVER own a Mercedes "Kompressor" car.

But Kompressor is Deutsche for 'Compressor'...

 

[cmox]

We had the misfortune of engaging Home Projectz to do a job for us - we entered into the contract in May last year and it soon became clear that things were very wrong. A job that should have taken 2 months was still not finished in March, and a lot of the work was sub-standard. This caused us a lot of grief and stress. The final straw was when Mr Hancock lodged a claim under the Security of Payments Act for his last progress claim - we had refused to pay this claim because it was based on nothing. However we had to do a formal response to that claim or we would have been automatically liable for the amount which was $12,000 (we are a strata which for some reason are liable under that Act).

We are fortunate in that we have not lost any money. The same laws apply in NSW as in other states - for contracts over $20,000 HWI applies and the contractor cannot ask for a deposit of more than 5%. Alarm bells started to ring when they asked for a deposit of 75% at the time of signing the contract. We refused, gave them 5%, and insisted they provide the certificate of insurance. Every single one of their progress claims was wrong - they charged for things they had not done and we also deducted money for defects. I kept a very tight rein on them because I didn't trust them.

I have been told of one client who signed for a $300,000 job who gave them an 85% deposit, and will likely lose all of it. A friend of mine gave them 100% upfront and was very lucky that they finished that job, if HP had gone under then, the money would have been gone. Another client has been locked out of part of his house by the liquidator and does not have a bathroom.

While I have sympathy for people who lose money this way it is important that you understand how the law works and the limitations of protections. Check the contract - HP's was riddled with mistakes and I insisted on a number of amendments. You should not pay more than 5% at the time of signing the contract (20K+), you must insist on a HWI certificate and check that it is valid, you should check progress claims in detail, and you should not pay for anything in advance. HWI will only cover you for a certain amount if something goes wrong.

I feel very sorry for the subcontractors who did work for Home Projectz and will not see any money, they will rank as unsecured creditors.

 

[MF35]

UPDATE RE KADE HANCOCK AND HOME PROJECTZ - NOW WORKING FOR "CONSTRUCT NSW".

Sad to hear so many got caught out by this bloke. I had hear good things about his work early on (a few years back although I had never used him), wonder what caused him to go down hill. Greed maybe?

We started using them on the basis that they provided a low cost design service with no obligation to use them for the building work (design fee refunded if used them for building work). So we did lose some money (about $1200) but it could have been worse. There initial quote was much cheaper than everyone else so we were trying to get a fixed price building contract out of them that we could have reviewed externally for credibility & recent projects to check on quality of work.

Their services were far from timely and HP went under before we got what we needed to properly assess them. From what people have said here no doubt we wouldn't have found much good news.

After HP went broke I chased them on prior contacts I had for them. They eventually called me back operating under a new business name "Construct NSW" and offered to complete the design process for "free" (not exactly free given we'd already paid some money to HP) so that we would consider them for the building work (no obligation). They indicated that HP had gone broke due to aggressive expansion into Commercial Construction work which they lost money on and that they were now abandoning all Commercial work by winding up HP and seeking to return to "what they did best, residential building and renovation work".

Given we'd already coughed up some money we didn't see the harm in allowing them to finish the design work at not cost to us and present a Fixed Price Building Contract for consideration (along with others we intended to get).

So we engaged in a drawn out process of trying to get the completed designs and coughed up more money to other businesses for related Site Surveys, Structural & Stormwater Plans (that we hope to be able to use elsewhere now as we paid other independent professionals directly for these services). Before even paying for any of the supporting plans we sort confirmation of their Price Estimate which they provided. We also indicated we would not pay anything up front for any of their services and that if they wanted to even be considered they'd have to agree to a Fixed Price Building Contract that involved payment on completion of each stage and subject to independent review re quality before being paid.

Upon eventually completing the designs we pressed for a Fixed Price Building Contract (as earlier described) and they then DOUBLED the Cost Estimate! Perhaps when the risk of under quoting was transferred to them they decided the'd better come clean with the real cost. Their margins were never disclosed in any of their paperwork and this made me somewhat suspicious.

Suffice to say we won't be using them but at least we got our designs out of them. IF they turn out to be done to sufficient standard to build from.

Kade and his Architect Santiago now work under the business name "Construct NSW" from business address, "101 Grafton Street, Bondi Junction, in Tower 2 above the Bondi Junction Westfield on level 22". My understanding is that Kade and Santiago now work under the on paper head of Construct who is "Andrew". The office set up seems to be one of those joint office spaces with a common reception / secretary where businesses just pay to use offices within it.

I have other contact details (phone & email) should any Fair Trading Investigators wish to speak with them (good luck!). Tell them to PM me. We won't actively be pursuing our $1200 as we'll never get it back anyway & it's not worth the effort.

 

[MF35]

Further Update:

I have lodged complaints with ASIC and Fair Trading regarding Home Projectz & Kade Hancock. As well as their practices under their new business affiliation with Construct NSW.

I found out that their building licence (for Kade Hancock & Home Projectz) was cancelled on the 2nd March 2012. They took payment of $1900 (not $1200 as stated earlier) from us on the 5th March 2012. They have also been telling people they went into voluntary liquidation. This is not correct it was court ordered.

The administrator for their liquidation is;

Andrew BREWIN
Moore Stephens
952
Locked bag 5071
Parramatta NSW 2124
Level 6,
460 Church St
Parramatta NSW 2150
Tel: 02 9890 1111

Anyone who has lost money can make inquiries with him. Chances of getting anything are slim I know but might be worth putting it on the record at least. Any dodgy practices can be reported to Fair Trading and/or ASIC. Might at least prevent him getting another business started up in his own name.

Good luck.

 

[renov8]

We did a bit of work for this bloke when he first started a few years ago. He was looking for someones builders licence to licence his company Homeprojectz. some of my guys were a bit wary once they saw how the jobs were run and going. Once we saw young Andrew talk about Kade and be invited in to the company with his brand new builders licence I did warn him. Poor kid is liable now for any CTTT ruled incomplete work. if he doesn't complete it he'll have a hard time renewing his personal licnece despite the company being seperate.
Anyway, these guys never obeyed the rules, when they sent us a sub contractors contract authored by their own lawyer I started crossing lines out of it. by the end there wasn't much contract left and I was advised it would never hold up in court anyway. They wanted to accept no liability.
So once one of their clients said to me they had to pay a large deposit that was almost 30% alarm bells were really ringing louder than they had been.
Young Kade had admitted to me they lost a fair sum in one of their early years, and then they had to make arrangements to pay our last invoice.
See ya Homeprojectz!! We were out of there. I warned a few of the trades cause we could see what was going to happen at some stage. and guess what 2 or so years later we were dead right.
Be very careful of this bloke. just look at how much he wanted to be in the media... enough said i'd say!!
And to Kade when you read this... as we all know you check up occasionally.
Be very carefull around town sunshine, both sydney and Tamworth. your pretty easy to spot and I've had some very nasty people asking where to find you. I don't think they're carrying flowers and a card either. you've clearly stepped on some toes that are now very unhappy and I would suggest laying very low for your own safety.

As for those of you who paid such huge deposits, why? i do feel very sorry but please check what your paying for, how much your paying and should be paying. the internets a wonderful tool, use it.