Chelsie and Samantha Dale picked a Sentinel Homes franchise to build their Feilding home because they felt more secure using a nationwide builder, but when the franchise owner was ousted they were told the contract went with him.
The original building contract was signed in June last year, with construction scheduled to start in September.
Over a year later, and the Dales are still waiting on pricing to build a scaled-down version of their home, and at least a couple of months before any work begins.
When the Dales signed up with Sentinel Homes Manawatū it was owned by Whanganui-based builder Tawhiri Pohio, but he was stood down by Sentinel in November.
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The new owner of the franchise was able to pass on the contract because while Pohio had been trading under the Sentinel brand, the building contract itself was between the Dales and Pohio’s own company, Pohio Homes Ltd.
Chelsie Dale said the family had been under the impression Pohio Homes was a Sentinel builder, and the larger company would step in if something went wrong.
She said the trust was broken, and the family wanted their deposit back – which Pohio said he would return, even if some of the money came out of his pocket.
Dale said the couple sold their first home to build somewhere their seven-year-old daughter would have a larger garden to run around.
The delays have meant the family had to put plans for another child on hold.
“We were hoping that we could get into our house, get our mortgage sorted, so we could start paying it off and start saving for IVF, and that’s on hold until we have any resemblance of a resolution,” she said.
“That’s pretty gutting because we’re in our thirties now, so time is sort of ticking away.”
The new owner of Sentinel Homes Manawatū, Nigel Higgison, said Pohio was stood down because he was not following the company’s systems or processes, which had resulted in delays and underquoting on builds.
Higgison said he took over 11 of the 15 contracts the franchise had on its books, but four (including the Dales’) were priced too low to take on.
“Chelsie and Sam are lovely people, I sort of feel for them a little bit.I tried to help them out when I took over the franchise.
“But it was priced so poorly. You just can’t build a price for what he had priced it at.”
Higgison said the Dales had known their contract was with Pohio Homes, not Sentinel.
“They knew right from the start it was with Pohio, they’ve signed a contract under Pohio, they’ve signed and initialled every page of a Master Build agreement which is to Pohio.”
He said like many other large building companies, Sentintel was a franchisor, and the actual builders were separate.
Building Industry Federation chief executive Julien Leys said the corporate structure of Sentinel Homes was common in the industry, but not universal.
He said it was “quite a hard-nosed approach” to say the homeowner should have checked the fine print, and the company might have a moral obligation to stand behind their brand.
“It behoves everyone to read fine print in contacts, but sometimes people have a reasonable expectation or belief that they are buying or dealing with someone who is under a banner or brand,” he said.
“With times getting tougher, we are starting to see some companies not prepared to necessarily honour or stand behind their agreements if they can find a technicality that the homeowner might not be entitled to something.”
Sentinel managing director Stuart Shutt said the client entered into a building contract with Pohio Homes.
“The contract remains with Pohio Homes Ltd, absolutely nothing has changed,” he said.
“No new contracts have been passed anywhere and additionally, there is an independent warranty in place on this home and no claim has been made against it.”
Higgison said issues lay with Pohio, not Sentinel, and it should be remembered the builder was working during a time when builds quickly jumped from costing about $1900 a square metres to about $3500.
“He (Pohio) wasn’t functioning under the Sentinel regime and when that became apparent they got rid of him.”
“There are $150 million worth of houses we are building at any one time, and it was really just one guy who dropped the ball.”
Pohio said he would refund the full deposit of about $51,000, apologised for the delays, and admitted he had mishandled the build.
He said before he received a letter from the Dales’ lawyer mid-week he wasn’t aware the couple wanted their deposit returned, and that he was still working to deliver the home.
Pohio said he would try and recover their deposit via the Master Build Guarantee, but if that failed, he would be willing to pay them out of his own pocket.
He took responsibility for the situation, said it was not the fault of Sentinel Homes, and that he had failed to adopt the company’s corporate mindset.
Chelsie Dale said she and her partner had contacted a few different builders, and there was availability to take on the project.
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