Steve Bridgman’s dream home has cracks throughout and irregularities including mismatched built-in doors, a leaking shower and bath and unsealed tiles. 

The new home owner said he has been unable to contact his builder since mid-June. He said at least one tradesperson who worked on his home was owed tens of thousands of dollars by the business. 

The Courier has chosen not to name the builder for legal reasons. 

Ballarat tiler Hayden Bladier will repair the flaws in Mr Bridgman’s bathroom for free. A Ballarat business will also provide materials free of charge. 

Mr Bladier will manage the repairs and has also recruited a builder and painter to do repairs for free.

He will reseal the shower but may have to rip out the tiles and start again, he said.

Mr Bladier said he had jobs every month fixing poor tradesmanship or defects unpaid tradespeople had refused to come back on site to repair. 

He recommended homeowners get a second opinion on work they were concerned about. 

Read more: Ballarat homeowners left in the lurch

“To the untrained eye when houses are handed over some people don’t know the defects whereas when you’ve got an eye to it you know the defects. A lot of builders get away with it, I just wanted to do it to pay it forward.”

Mr Bridgman said he was inundated by offers to help fix his home within hours of the family-of-three’s story going live.

He said the repairs would make their house feel more like a home.

“​It was just overwhelming. I was a bit gobsmacked, I didn't know what to think, what to say,” he said.

“I just hope this goes some way to getting other clients of this builder getting their houses finished.”

A Ballarat builder has left dozens of debts in his wake. 

Multiple tradespeople told The Courier they were waiting on bills worth tends of thousands of dollars or took legal action against the builder. 

One sub-contractor, who asked to remain anonymous, said the thousands owed to them almost sunk their new business in 2008. 

They are still owed $10,000 after parting ways in 2013. The business owners said they had seen the builder change names three times, and seen clients in tears trying to get their money’s worth. 

“At times my partner had come home extremely upset that his customers were physically in tears describing their heartache to their experience building with these companies,” she said.

Painter Kai McPhee has been owed $12,500 since November last year. Mr McPhee was initially owed $25,000 and with “a lot of time and effort” got half back, but said the builder was now uncontactable. 

“The reason we took the work on was because it was a quiet time and as I have over 12 employees didn't want to lay anyone off,” Mr McPhee said. 

“We feel sorry for the clients as they also can't get jobs finished due to them (the builder) not paying the trades.”

Cabinet maker Brad Lockyer said he was also owed $12,500 after fitting out three homes. 

Homeowners The Courier spoke to saw a revolving door of tradespeople. In one case a homeowner had three different bricklayers work on his house, in two different batches of brick. Multiple homeowners said their houses were built with a hotch-potch of up to four different batches of brick, in different colours. 

Another client said three plumbers were sub-contracted to work on his build, which took almost four years to complete. 

“People like this can’t keep getting away with this,” Mr Lockyer said.

“The problem is when he (the builder) doesn’t pay the tradies and ends up having three or four different company do the one job. Things are bound to be missed which causes issues down the line which he never bothers to get fixed.”