A Sydney builder has “disappeared” and left homeowners “distressed” as they poured hundreds of thousands into unfinished homes and face never being able to complete them.
However, Ajit Constructions owner Amarjit Khakh said he is currently on a family holiday in Europe and is doing his best to try not to go into liquidation.
Neeraj Sikka and his family are one of the affected homeowners, who have been building an $885,000 home in the suburb of North Kellyville, which was due for completion in June this year.
Instead, the 46-year-old has been left with a half-built house that has no roof and has been exposed to months of rain that has left the floorboards moldy and black, Sikka said.
The NSW public servant said no work had been done at his home for the past eight weeks and the scaffolding had recently been dismantled, the toilet removed and a trade had also collected all the materials.
He said he has been going to the Ajit Constructions office every week, but the staff and owner seem to have “disappeared” with the office closed, he said.
Meanwhile, the owner of the construction company can be seen traveling around Europe with photos uploaded to his private Facebook page, while his voicemail also indicates that he is abroad.
Calls to the number listed on the Ajit Constructions website are not connecting, with a message saying it is currently unavailable.
Ajit Constructions’ emails to buyers in recent months have also talked about “the cash crunch” and being “tight on cash flow”.
Empty offices
News.com.au visited the offices of Ajit Constructions in Bella Vista during business hours and found the door locked and the shutters closed, while no one answered knocks on the door.
But builder Mr Khahk said his family’s European holiday was “booked almost five years ago using savings from my wife’s job” and is their first holiday in that time.
“We’re trying to keep the business alive as that’s all I’ve got,” he said.
“We have stopped our own mortgage payments to pay for the increase in material prices since Covid and have made many personal financial sacrifices.
“We also didn’t plan for our three key management members to leave a week after going overseas”
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Sikka said he has paid $387,000 to Ajit Construction (40 percent of the project price) but has no idea what is happening to his house and his health has suffered as a result.
“I’m very distressed. I can’t sleep at night. I’m talking to a psychiatrist and I’m on blood pressure medication right now,” she told news.com.au.
“I write emails at three in the morning non-stop and I’m so in debt that I borrowed $800 from someone to pay the bills.
“I can hardly breathe, sometimes I feel so anxious from anxiety attacks. My family is very distressed. I have constant fights at home.
“I’ve got no money and had to borrow money from friends and my wife feels it’s quite insulting – we both work and I’ve got her into this mess and it’s not my fault.”
Sikka, who has two sons aged 12 and 14, signed a contract for Ajit Constructions to build her two-storey, five-bedroom house in June 2021 and is unsure what to do with the incomplete house.
“I tried to ask someone if I can sell the land, but it’s not a land or a house, it’s half done. So we would have to tear it down and lose $387,000, so we’re stuck to a point where we have nowhere to go,” he said.
“I wonder how we’re going to get out of this thing. There’s no one I can go talk to because the builder is gone.”
There is no way out
The father of two pays $1,500 a week in interest on his home loan and rent, but he fears losing the house halfway through without any communication from the builder, he said.
“I’m not going to be able to build because I don’t have any money right now and I’ve been talking to friends, family just to see what I can do or if I can sell this place and see how I can move out of this whole mess,” he said.
“I could end up with nothing as I owe money to the bank, I can’t pay every week, I can’t keep the $1,500 a week and for the last so many months nothing is happening on the site.
“I don’t really have any money. I’m really embarrassed. I never thought in my entire life that this would happen to me while I was living in Australia. I’ve been here almost 17 years.”
Sikka said he is not the only one in a “serious situation”, adding that he knows 11 families who have been affected.
An email from Ajit Construction on July 1 to Mr Sikka said they were unable to pay for his appliance order and said: “At the moment we are very tight on cash flow due to advance payments to vendors for various projects. We can’t pay right now.”
Sikka said he had been trying to contact Ajit Constructions since July 4 and there was no response to emails or calls.
News.com.au has called, emailed and texted Ajit Constructions but received no response.
Wasted life savings
Another family that had been saving all their lives for their first home was that of Manish Agrawal.
They signed up to build a two-storey duplex, with four bedrooms each, for $698,700 with Ajit Constructions in July last year in the suburb of Schofields, which was renamed Nirimba Fields.
But the married man said that despite paying $152,000 for the build, including $12,000 directly to the suppliers of the window frames and bricks, he only has a flagstone and a dividing wall on his property.
Earlier this month, the father of two sons, aged 16 and 10, terminated his contract with Ajit Constructions, but it remains in limbo.
He has not heard back from Ajit Constructions since July 14 after requesting various certificates of compliance that he needs for another builder to take up the work and complete his home, he said.
However, Ajit Constructions owner Khakh said he wants “nothing more” to build clients their dream home and still has “every intention of making sure they are not left in limbo “.
“I’ve been in touch with our customers as much as I can and have a small but hard-working construction team,” he said.
The bank worker describes the experience as “horrendous” and quotes seen by news.com.au show he will be forced to pay a large sum of money for a new builder.
“I’m so badly stuck. No one is working at my place and we can’t go to another builder until I have the certificates and they cooperate with me,” he said.
“I’m looking for another builder and I’m in contact with a couple of builders who are asking $150,000 to $260,000 more to complete the project.
“It’s such a large amount of money that I don’t know how I’m going to arrange it, as the bank is unlikely to fund the difference.”
Financial stress
Mr. Agrawal said he should borrow money from friends and family to complete the duplex and sell the second one immediately to pay them back, rather than using it as rent.
The 43-year-old said he is also experiencing financial stress as he spends $520 a week on rent, $2,100 on the mortgage on his land and $300 a month in interest on his construction loan, all and that this will increase with the established principal amount. to start from September.
The father-of-two added that the stressful experience had also affected his mental health.
“There is so much mental stress and trauma, me and my whole family are going through and this builder is enjoying a holiday,” she said.
“He called me from Europe three or four weeks ago.”
Then there is Reza Thebuwana, who has already paid $297,000 to Ajit Constructions for a single-storey, four-bedroom house in Nirimba Fields.
The IT worker, who has three children, registered with the company in March 2021 to build his $330,000 home.
The 39-year-old said he had paid to seal off the stage, but part of the ceiling is not complete, meaning water is seeping into the internal walls and there is mold in the gyprock.
There are no kitchen fittings and the electrical and plumbing work has not even started, while the bathroom is also missing tiles, he added.
‘Living a nightmare’
Thebuwana describes her situation as a “living nightmare”.
“This builder told us that they would deliver the house in April 2022, so given the short period we moved into a two-bedroom apartment and have been living in this temporary place for almost two years now with two fully grown children and a newborn.” he revealed.
“It’s very difficult, it’s a big toll on the kids, I feel really bad for them. Not ideal living conditions to stay for so long.
“In terms of health, I have type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure which only came after this. I was totally healthy and fit and now my health is seriously deteriorating.”
He said he has been left in serious “limbo” while also taking a financial hit as he pays $700 a month in interest on the construction loan, as well as council rates and $490 a week in rent.
“The builder is not doing anything, and even though they told me they don’t have the money to do this work, they’re not filing for bankruptcy either, and I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” he said.
But Ajit Constructions owner Khahk said “many construction companies are in a similar boat”.
“We are doing our best not to go into liquidation/bankruptcy as we understand that this will only put more pressure on the community,” he said.
“Our plan is to have face-to-face meetings with clients as soon as we get back, who said they understand. I’m still talking to clients, but we’ve also missed calls because of the time difference.”
no man’s land
Mr Thebuwana is asking Ajit Constructions to finish his house or go into liquidation so he can move on, even if it means paying an extra $70,000 to complete the house.
“We need to move forward instead of being stuck in no man’s land,” he added. “We feel…