Buyer Beware!

Has your builder recently changed their name..?

If a builder has been the subject of bad social media reviews and strong criticism online, they can quite easily change their trading name and appear as a different company. We have experienced this first hand, read below for the full story.

Bestwest Building recently had a client (referred to us by another satisfied customer) who enquired and booked us for Construction Progress Inspections for their new home. We attempted to make contact with the builder to arrange access however the builder sent our mutual customer an email stating that Bestwest Building were not permitted on their sites as we had “caused unnecessary stress, delays and costs” to their previous customers.

We were initially confused as we had no records of this builder and did not know who they were… after some research we uncovered that they had recently changed their name and appeared as a new company.

We then searched our records for this builders previous name and found that in 2016 we did a Practical Completion Inspection & report for a lady that had built with them. We listed multiple Building Code non-compliance items, poor building standards and minor defects at this inspection.

At this point we decided to call this 2016 customer to clarify what stress, costs and delays we had caused and to apologise if necessary! She laughed and instantly pointed out that using Bestwest Building was the best thing they ever did! She then revealed that after a long dispute with the builder which she posted all over the internet, the Building Commission and Tribunal ruled in their favour and a large monetary figure was ordered to be paid by the builder to the client.

Since all of the bad social media exposure the builder changed their trading name and is once again operating throughout Perth!

Please be aware that where your contract value is under $500k, the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 gives you the consumer right to engage an Independent Building Inspector of your choice. Clearly many builders do not want you to engage a known industry leading service such as Bestwest Building and prefer one of the many generic box ticking alternatives.

You can use the ABN Lookup to check the Business/Trading name history of your builder: https://abr.business.gov.au/