We commenced our renovations with Expand Renovate in May 2021, we were really happy with the initial dealings of the project, professional with organising the design, contract etc. however once the contract was signed and initial deposit paid we’ve experienced nothing but poor management, set backs and serious lack of communication.

There was red flags from the beginning; the communication of the building approval, Expand Renovate knew we wanted to commence building at the end of April 2021 however this merged into May, everytime we seeked an update we were advised “it was in motion” however I ended up calling the council myself to find out progress and was given more informative information, this lack of communication set the tone of the project.

We tried to address this by advising Expand Renovate that we were unhappy with the level of communication however this never improved and just got worse as the project continued.

There were instances where we had been told that products had been purchased however when calling the companies directly we were told on several occasions they had not been paid. Two particular instances was a major milestone in our build and that was windows which secured fixing stage and the kitchen which secured fit out. The fact these two items weren’t paid for delayed us by circa 14-18 weeks. To add to this, tiles weren’t paid for when I was told they were paid, plumbing fit out products weren’t paid and I had an embarrassing conversation with a supplier thinking they were going to be delivered on a certain day as per wording from the owner of the business in a message and they hadn’t even been paid for. At this point We had been advised by trades that payment hasn’t been made on services completed on our project (months prior) so was careful in following up with items

We are now 12 months in to a six month renovation and still have no certainty on the finishing date (painting, cleaner, building approval still to come) to add to this we requested on several occasions a formal extension of time in which the owner of the business has struggled to understand what this is even though it’s a common occurrence for master builders

Their attitude in communications is really unprofessional to the point where we seeked legal advice because they wouldn’t respond in a professional manner so we had no idea when things were going to be completed (and still don’t), ignoring phone calls, being unprofessional on text messages and just ignoring us in general when seeking project updates.

That aside, the finishing of the house is great, however this is down to the individual trades who I couldn’t fault and I truly believe we got to where we are because I had a good rapport with most of the guys who came on-site.