Cosmopolitan Homes - Liquidator appointed

Hi 4Corners,

We weren't building with Cosmo Homes, we were building with WM, but were keeping a close eye as both builders went down within a few weeks of each other.
Just wanted to say that it took about 2 and a half months to settle our claim with QBE. On their website, it encouraged homeowners to get 2 to 3 quotes for them,which we did, very difficult at the time as the house was only 25% constructed & no one wanted to touch it, but in the end we got the three quotes. Qbe don't actually show or share with the homeowners any details of quotes they get in terms of who is doing the quote, for how much or if there is any defective work that needs to be done. They only tell you if you're going to be out of pocket & for how much if they pay out your claim. The settlement we got was for the 20% of the WM contract amount, which in our case was not enough even for the cheapest quote we got, however, the stress of what was happening & the treatment we got from WM was so overwhelming that we just wanted to take charge of our own situation for once, & not place our fate into someone else's hands again. Also, the question that kept coming back to our minds was who were they intending on gettting to finish these houses, when was building going to resume & if they got what they call a " Panel " builder, was the WM builds going to take priority over their other customers, or were we going to enter into another 35 week contract ?
4Corners, the spotlight really needs to be also shined not only on the insurance companies & how they settle the claims, but also at the HIA contracts that all homeowners & builders sign before building starts. I say this because the homeowner is basically powerless during the duration of the contract. The builder has so many loopholes to use as an excuse for not doing work, & the homweowner is powerless to do anything until the contract period has expired. Even then, the builder can claim the weather or trades not being available ( in our case WM kept us waiting for a bricklayer for 6 months claiming they can't get hold of any brickies as they were all busy & had gone to Qld because of the floods & in the meantime their sister's house was being built ) . We even went to the DoFT, but because we were 6 weeks away from the end of the contract, they gave them a specific period to finish the house which WM knew meant nothing. The inpspector even told us that our house was the 6th WM house he saw that day & even was on first name basis with the WM rep present at the meeting . We even went as far as getting a liscenced bricklayer ourselves & giving WM their details so that they could contact them, but to no avail . It was such a desperate situation that was taking its toll on us & there was no end in site . In conclusion I would like to say that there were many many warning signs that WM was in deep financial trouble & the DoFT etc did not do anything about it, while the poor homeowners were bound by a worthless contract that they couldn't get out of . There has to be someone or something setup up to assist homeowners should something like this god forbid ever come up again.
Apologies everyone for the long post.

Hi 4corners,

Thanks, we were very happy to finally be done with QBE.

I removed it because I didn't want to dissappoint anyone in case only some claims were eligable or if they flipped on their decision and kept it at 20%. Basically to save potential dissappointment.

a) Lock up.
b) We submitted our claim shortly after liquidation on Nov 4.
c) We submitted quotes from 2 builders of our choice.
d) Mark Batger (Managing Director at HWIS) handled our claim as we were in the nearing completion group. He told us if we provide 2 of our own quotes, we won't need comparison quotes from QBE. I'm not sure if this applies to the rest. I think what happens is Mark will go through and value every single house's remaining work. If your quotes are under Mark's report, QBE will be happy to use your builders.
e) We didn't get quotes from QBE selected builders, they were happy with ours.
f) Without calculating, I would say we were paid roughly 38%?
g) We are proceeding with our own builders. Our builder happens to be a QBE preffered builder, however we didn't know this when we got them to quote our remaining work.

Our new builder basically offered to buy the materials the companies that Cosmo had bought as long as the price was reasonable. If any companies tried to charge a lot, they would use their own supplier. They did use our old specs, but asked if we wanted to change anything before we signed a new contract with them. I haven't needed a lawyer. If you're still waiting on your money, I suggest you call Mark Batger as he will be the one submitting a report to QBE telling them how much work your house has left and what a reasonable quote is.

Mark Batger - 02 9541 0111 (Managing Director at HWIS)

Hi Chaio,

I feel so sorry for you, this is terrible!
I guess the good thing is you didn't sign with them then find out that they've gone belly up!
My advice to you is before you sign with anyone, do a little research....always check their liscence details on the ASIC website, it's amazing what that site can tell you , and if they are having any problems, you'll find out too.

Oh Chiao. I am so sorry to hear this. After everything you don't deserve this. But like springtime said, at least you found out before you signed. Which company was it (you can PM me if you prefer not to write publicly)?

Congratulations tintin, well done !

*