Darwin builder leaves clients in 'nightmare' scenarios

Multiple Darwin families have been left in financial difficulty after Kassiou Constructions abandoned their home builds.

Transcript

00:00Walking into a nightmare, what was meant to be a dream home, now an abandoned construction site.

00:09I feel angry about everything.

00:11After signing a contract to build a four-bedroom house in October 2021,

00:17Darwin builder Cassiou Constructions, owned by Lewis and Elias Cassiou, abandoned it in March

00:242023, the frame unfinished, even though payment had been made.

00:29I was promised that it will be done in six months' time,

00:32and it's over two years now and it's still the same.

00:37The saga has left her single income family paying both a mortgage on their unbuilt house,

00:43plus the rent at their current home.

00:45Considering its derelict state, she believes her only option is to knock down what's been built,

00:52despite having paid Cassiou Constructions, altogether, more than $134,000.

01:00Jessica and Ryan Fuss have been stuck in a similar situation.

01:04The stress, I can't even begin to tell you.

01:07They signed a contract with the company in March 2022,

01:11and were promised their house would be built by Christmas that year.

01:15After several delays, in April the following year,

01:18they were invoiced for work which hadn't been completed.

01:22We looked around and there's no way. We still had no ceilings, little wires hanging out.

01:27After Jessica and Ryan refused to pay,

01:29they say Cassiou Constructions illegally terminated their contract,

01:34leaving them to engage another builder to finish it, at a huge cost.

01:38Probably close to $200,000.

01:40Despite abandoning the home builds in early 2023,

01:44Cassiou Constructions' company registration was renewed by the NT government in December,

01:50with some conditions, leaving homeowners unable to access the NT Fidelity Fund,

01:55a scheme designed to protect them from financial loss.

02:00Although the company's registration was eventually suspended in June this year,

02:05people like Supreet Kaur are still waiting for the fund to pay out.

02:09We, you know, work hard to build our houses. There's no support for us.

02:14Subcontractors, suppliers and clients like Jessica and Ryan

02:18have decided to pursue the company in court, with 14 separate cases filed since 2020.

02:25A warning for people pursuing the Australian dream.