In the Huang household it's the little
things that count. They have a good collection and they they
really enjoy playing with them. Playtime, small talk. Which
one's that from? Is that from Harry Potter. No, that's Ariel! And
often it's those small things that make the biggest
difference. Don't know what happened but after all this
money we spent it's still you know empty. He's talking about
what was meant to go here. Last year Jonah paid for a cabin to
be built. Just smaller than a tiny home. We look at other
options like extending the house but it was just out of
budget and it's quite time consuming as well. That tiny
project caused the Huangs major loss. It was meant to be
a sleep out for his daughters. We put a lot of trust in the
the whole process and we thought we were in good hands but ah it's
it's very heartbreaking. House prices in Aotearoa have dipped recently
on average you'd still be forking out just over a million
closer to 1.5 in Tamaki Makaurau. So we're seeing some
creative alternatives. I've lived in and out of tiny houses
for the last nine years. Shaye Boddington a Commonwealth Games
diver just quietly now runs her own tiny homes business. It's
got everything a big home would have in a compact space. It's
less about having space and more about how you use it. If
you design it properly it doesn't feel like a compromise
and it works so well. Service please Jonah's a designer of sorts
too. I'm a head chef of Odette's eatery at Auckland City Works
Depot. He's used to building menus and picking the best
ingredients so he was particular about designing his
own cabin too. A lot of tiny homes were prefabbed and they
were kind of come in a set and you know it's not much you can
change around the structure of the things. We look about four
or five companies and and Refab's the one that kind of goes
yeah nothing's too hard for us and we'll we'll we'll make this
work. Jonah's talking about rehab cabins in Auckland owned by
Andrew Sorensen. You may have heard of him before. A former
film and television producer his production company is
responsible for these music videos. You know supporting local
supporting Kiwi small business is kind of things that I like to do. There
was four reviews posted on online. They were all five
stars and we thought oh this this fine. Plus Refab
cabins are advertised as being built with materials from
Auckland's construction waste. So that scored points with
Jonah too. They were saying we was once you pay the deposit we
will get your cabin built within three months. The total
price for the cabin was just under $75,000 dollars. This
was for a two bedroom bathroom open plan 20 square meter
cabin. In June last year Jonah paid a 30% deposit of around $22,500.
It was too good to be true. Eventually the sales rep just
stopped replying my emails. And then in August 2021 lockdown
meant tools down. Between the lockdown and the time we paid
deposit it was seven weeks of time and nothing was done. I
think there's a lot of people using COVID as an excuse but as
somebody in construction I so appreciate a little bit of
flexibility from our clients and a little bit of
understanding. Shaye says it all comes down to communication.
I'm not perfect. I'm constantly learning. We had some clients
recently that expressed that they they'd wanted more
communication from me and that kept me up at night but I think
that's the thing is you you hear feedback you make a
change. After failed attempts to try to get hold of Refab and
Andrew. Jonah found he wasn't the only one who'd been having
issues with the company. We'd start getting a bit panicked.
Then this Google review from Vincent came out. Last year
Vincent Heeringa paid just over $22,000 for his cabin
after a period of confusing communication from Andrew and
then lockdown he visited the site to find this and if it
wasn't already obvious a building report confirmed the
cabin was poorly built non compliant with the building
code and needed a lot more time and money to repair and another
customer Peter Grylls eventually got his $26,000
cabin completed but he says it took 10 months of back and
forth with Andrew. He says his cabin was also the product of
shoddy workmanship but Peter was able to get the Refab team
to complete it to standard. Fair Go got in touch with
Andrew to ask about the delays. Andrew Sorensen said his lawyer
would be in touch but he hasn't told us who that is and no
one's called us yet. We do know that his Grey Lynn office is
permanently closed and a look at the Refab Cabin's website
tells us it's under construction. And just when we
thought we weren't going to hear from him Andrew Sorensen
emailed Fair Go saying that he disagreed with some of the
complaints in the story. Like many fledgling enterprises
we've encountered teething problems as we've grown. We
were significantly impacted by the lockdown in Auckland. We
are always striving to improve our customers' experience
regardless of the circumstances. We unreservedly
apologise for poor communications. We're actively
focusing on improving in this area. Vincent is pursuing legal
action. That's how Jonah at least got some of his money back
they settled out of court after a lot of chasing from his lawyer.
Out of the twenty-two five hundred we got back about nine
thousand so there's a loss about thirteen point five. To
protect yourself Shaye says make sure you know who you're
getting into a contract with before you agree to anything.
What I would suggest looking out for is look into that
person's history, the director's history. Have they
liquidated a lot of companies? Have they had a lot of
companies? How long have they been operating for? Do they have
qualified builders that they work with and do they have a
workshop that they're happy for you to come and view? She says
pay attention to the images the company uses on their websites
and brochures too. If there's no real pictures of what you're
getting for your money if there's only digital renders
that's a big red flag. Ask them can I bring a builder around to
to check out what you're doing. Jonah's content that at least
it wasn't a total loss but has a message for Andrew. Are you
going to keep on doing this? Get your act together.