State Demolition review

Just would like to share my experience with state demolition.

The quote was for 14k include asbestos removal (been told driveway contain asbestos)

Signed up and near completion of the removal got a call from the onsite supervisor from state demo said they've found "large amount" of asbestos which will cost additional 6k, on top of that the comments were along the line of "you need to tell me now to remove it or not, otherwise the removal truck will be gone and to remove these asbestos will needs to be inspected will cost you over 15k".

Thoughts at that time were "I will agree to it and I can be onsite within 15 minutes to inspect how much asbestos are actually there".

Surprising, arrived in less than 15 minutes everything was all gone.

Saw the photos taken which at most would be 1sqm worth of asbestos.

I then called the company spoken to the "boss" whom then threaten to take all the rubbish back and dump at the site if the payments are not received with 24 hours.

Please, if you decided to go with state demo, think twice. I'm not discounting they do a good job and probably most customers won't have the problems with asbestos.

Yes this seems to be a State Demolition scam. I signed up for a $12k demo. On the day of demolition got told that asbestos is in the slab and will cost $5k to remove. I was asked to inspect. I was far off so sent my neighbour to inspect. He was told the asbestos was already removed.

HI, we are just going through with them now. They are very hard to deal with. To start with, you can only talk to the office girls and cannot get to others who really will do the job. Questions like segment
You can not move anything out of your house once you accept the quote. It is like the house it is theirs. We moved the front windows by our self because it can remind us part of good life and our old house. They charged us extra $2500. We got a free stand bar in the garage and would like to keep it and told them to leave it anywhere which it is out their way. They said they can not.
You go ahead with them because Masterton reaccommodate them. We trusted them only because of this. It is very bad mistake.

Am very worried. Just booked them because my builder also recommended them

Make sure you are on site or nearby on the day of demolition.

This is scary, even if you are around they will find a way I guess

This is an old post but worthy of a bump
Basically what we are seeing is specialist sales and marketing techniques that are employed by some large project builders creeping into large subcontacting firms.
Ive noticed it recently amongst our larger plumbers and electricial firms as well ,where I had to get a quote on HWS
this is what happened, cheap quote salesman comes around and upsells. What i thought would cost $1500 was a "from price"
I was getting revised quotes for $3-4k and pressured to sign then to get a special discount.. LOL car salesman techniques.
They soon lost interest when I told them I was getting 3 other quotes and one was from a local smaller operator and not a salesman.BTW he (local operator) was the cheapest..bang on $1500

Just been through same issue with same company ... low quote which was fine but then get the call that they found hidden asbestos under the balcony ... another $5k thanks.

Me : "Ok, show me a picture"
SD : "sorry, we couldn't get in contact with you so had to remove it asap, we will send someone around to collect the cash today". (there were only two calls one after the other and no email until after these calls)

So I ask for evidence and receipts etc ..

SD : "oh we haven't tipped it yet, still in the truck"
Me : " Ok, so how do you know its 5k if you haven't tipped it yet
SD : "That's the price .. pay up !

I appreciate the fact that they don't tip until payment is made and I don't doubt there was hidden asbestos, just the lack of transparency on their part puts them in the drivers seat. But apart from this little scam, they did a good job and all the guys onsite were polite and easy to talk to and adhered to my requests and instructions ... i can't fault them for that.

My recommendation is get it all written down as to what the steps will be if they find "unexpected" asbestos. If they don't follow that process then you are not liable.

Oh isn't this a familiar story. Didn't go with this company but same thing- two days into demo and 'there's hidden asbestos'. My quote included 'asbestos to external perimeter walls of house' explicitly- now it was a brick veneer house and this bloke did a walk through and spent nearly an hour with me explaining stuff. All of the internal walls were asbestos sheeting. How else would I interpret 'perimeter of external walls' other than outside the framework. It was clear to me it was only a brick veneer house. I was told two days in that it would cost an extra 9k on top of the $17k quote to 'manually dismantle' the brick work... Basically long story short, one wall was manually dismantled and the rest were pulled wth a machine in minutes. Lots of pressure put on before signing variation... Never again! And I did my research, quote was most expensive and I ensured it was all itemised! Environmental protection agency said this is common and also common to find asbestos just dumped on your block if you dispute anything.

I am glad that i decided noy to go with them at the last minute.

I'm sadden to learnt that this is a scam that State uses. We're having exactly the same problem with these mobs. They called us to say they found hidden asbestos and asked for a very obscene amount of money - a lot more than the number I saw on this site. We have refused to pay so far. This threat and that threat.

I am wondering whether anyone knows the best way to deal with them. Did anyone try not to pay them? Did anyone try to go to fair trading? What dirty tricks can they do? Are there things that we have to be careful about?

Any suggestion is welcome. Thanks.

This also happened to me with a different company. Initial quote was $15K, 2 days after works began we got a call saying they found asbestos everywhere (apparently initial quote only included external walls) and was charged an additional $3K. I'm kicking myself because I didn't ask for a photo or go down there to have a look.

Welcome to our new Metricon Henderson

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If you have engaged State Demolition or Site Demolition Services, contact Warren from Department of Fair Trading on 4925 7000 as State Demolition went into receivership on 8/8/16 due to their dishonest business dealings. You can be added to the claim against them - we were just informed of this as they blackmailed us on our job with hidden asbestos back in April 2016.

is this claim still active/pending?.. i would love to add my name to the list. Don't care too much about the $$, just want to see them held accountable. Our job was also back in April 2016