By Sumeyya Ilanbey
It was meant to be their dream house – double storey with four bedrooms in the coveted suburb of Taylors Hill.
But not long after moving into their Simonds Homes-built house in 2005, the Murugesu family said they started noticing cracks appearing on the interior walls.
Then the ceiling started to crack, tiles began to lift and the exterior walls cracked. The foundation of the house has now moved to such an extent, the family is unable to open some windows and doors, and close others.
The cracking on the outside walls has caused rain to seep inside the cladding, rusting some metal beams, as well as inside the house.
Viswanathan Murugesu took Star Weekly on a tour of the family home, revealing the extent of the damage, which includes curved walls and architraves.
“It was going to be our dream house, my wife was so happy,” Mr Murugesu says. “A few months later all the cracks started appearing.”
Mr Murugesu said he has contacted Simonds Homes several times over the years. He says the building company “patched up” the problems, without addressing the root cause of the issue or agreeing to rebuild the house.
But the building giant denies it’s not trying to resolve the issue.
Simonds Homes chief executive Kelvin Ryan said the company offered to fix the house in line with a report by an engineer engaged by Mr Murugesu.
“However, upon this offer by Simonds, the owner alleged that their engineer did not consider all issues with the home. Simonds suggested the owners re-engage their independent engineer at Simonds’ sole cost, to investigate issues in the home and produce a revised expert report, which identified the expert’s investigations, findings and approved rectification method,” Mr Ryan said.
“Then Simonds would again visit the owners to go through the report with them and agree to the approved rectification scope of work proposed in the report.
“To date, the owners are refusing to engage an expert to carry out these investigations because they want Simonds to agree upfront to demolish the home without seeing any detailed evidence.”
Mr Murugesu said he wants the soil tested, and the house demolished and rebuilt. He also wants a national inquiry into building and design guidelines.
