Melissa Bryant and Robert Fraser built their dream home six years ago for $229,000, anticipating a quality family life.
Instead, the Melton West family claims to have spent thousands of dollars repairing cracked walls, ceilings and floors.
“We went to an engineer to get an independent assessment done before we went back to the builder,” Ms Bryant said.
“He identified the problem as slab heave, caused by the drainage on the property and some faults with the trusses.”
The engineer told the family of five their slab didn’t have “any chance” to set because it was surrounded by “lots of water” and allegedly exacerbated by faulty truss connections.
“Our house is getting worse and worse,” Ms Bryant said. “I regret buying it. I wish we hadn’t built.
“The walls are lifting off the floor, a lot of the doors don’t shut properly, most of the windows leak and they don’t work.”
But the problems don’t stop with this family. A Victorian Building Authority investigation last year found 5.3 per cent of homes in the western suburbs built between 2003 and 2011 had faults, such as cracks in the floor and walls.
“Building industry sources suggested that the breaking of the long drought in 2011 may have been a factor in these problems,” a VBA spokesman said. “However, the high number of dwellings with no cracks
– almost 95 per cent – suggests weather was not the main cause.”
The VBA research found faults in the west’s stormwater drainage that caused slabs to heave, and found drainage standards were not well known or understood by builders, with some not complying.
Ms Bryant and Mr Fraser have taken their builders, Nostra Homes, to VCAT, claiming compensation for thousands of dollars allegedly spent on repairs and independent assessments.
Nostra has denied responsibility for the drainage issues leading to slab heave at the Melton West home. A VCAT directions hearing has been scheduled for next month.
