The Star: October 26, 2023

Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday October 26 2023 The Star
NEWS 5
Builder refuses to return $7k deposit
• From page 1
He had visited their property
several times midway through
2022 before providing them
with quotes. They paid a $7000
deposit and expected the work to
be completed before Christmas
the same year.
However, come November the
man informed them he couldn’t
complete the work and they
asked for their money back.
Esmail Fathi told the board
that he attempted to contact
the builder via phone, text and
email over the course of several
months attempting to get his
deposit back with no success.
“I couldn’t understand why he
could not pay back a $7000 debt
for such a big business,” he said.
“It’s not a big amount of
money for a builder with 10
years’ experience.”
Then on November 29 the
builder emailed Fathi saying;
“I’m sending you a bill for pissing
me around. I’m not paying
anything until next year. Don’t
call me anymore piss off. And
don’t try coming to my home or
I’ll f**k you up.”
From there Fathi took the
matter to the Disputes Tribunal
to get his deposit back and won.
But their builder still wouldn’t
pay up until March 2023 after
Fathi hired a lawyer to file a debt
enforcement order and make a
complaint to the Building Practitioners
Board.
The builder then paid the
principal debt but refused to pay
outstanding fees of roughly $300
which encompassed filing fees
to the tribunal and interest on
Fathi’s deposit.
After becoming aware of the
complaint against him, despite
having repaid the deposit, the
builder sent a flurry of emails
to the city council claiming the
Fathi-Loshanis had engaged
another builder to carry out unconsented
works on their garage,
another to Immigration NZ
where he alleged they might be
in the country illegally, a complaint
to the Law Society about
the couple’s lawyer and a further
complaint to MBIE.
The council investigated
Fathi’s property and issued them
a warning for potentially unconsented
insulation in their garage.
No action was taken by Immigration
as the couple are New
Zealand citizens and it is unclear
about what stage the Law Society
complaint is currently at.
The following few mornings
the builder emailed Fathi outlining
what he was going to do to
him day by day, in apparent retaliation
for the complaint made
against him.
“I was receiving heaps of
LASH OUT:
The builder,
who has name
suppression,
contacted the
city council,
Immigration, the
Law Society and
MBIE to complain
about the couple.
emails from him. Every morning
I wake up and see an email in my
inbox from him,” Fathi told the
board.
“Any time he was busy with his
work I was okay, but any time he
had some time in the evening he
would email me.”
Fathi filed a complaint to
police about the threats, which
ceased shortly after.
By way of explanation, the
builder said it had been a bad
year for business and his company
had been stung with an
unexpected tax bill shortly after
Fathi paid him a deposit and
didn’t have the finances available
to pay them back.
“I think the alcohol didn’t stop
me . . . I was upset more than
angry . . . I’m not sure what I was
thinking,” he told the board at
his hearing last month.
Board chair Mel Orange asked
how he’d deal with a similar
situation in the future.
“I’d pay it,” the builder said,
before accepting that he knew
his conduct was unprofessional.
However, he denied that contacting
Immigration was racially
motivated.
“I don’t know why I said it but
it was nothing to do with racism,”
he said.
“I’m just so sorry . . . It’s out of
character for me. I’ve never done
this ever before. I was just highly
stressed at the time.”
Ultimately the board chose
to suspend the man’s building
licence until he could complete
several training modules that
focused on time management
and conflict resolution.
The builder sought permanent
name suppression and said that
he could likely lose contracts
if his name was published and
in that event his six Filipino
employees who were on work
visas might have to go home.
This report was produced by Open
Justice – Te Pātītī, a Public
Interest Journalism initiative
funded by NZ on Air
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