Hi We are in the same boat and we cannot get calls or emails returned. Have you had any luck since your post?

After calling them 3 times a day (to find people are always in 'meetings') and emailing 5 times a day, they are finally returning our calls. Apparently they are without tilers at the moment, which has caused a large back log of jobs.
If they could keep their customers better informed, they would not be swamped with phone calls and complaints right now. Where is your job stalled at?

I hate to tell you this, but Lazaway has gone under as of 3rd Jan 2017

Samm340 where did you find this news out. There phone message says they are open from monday

I know, the phone msg won't be changed because all staff have been sacked and the owner after 19 yrs has officially resigned at managing director.....aka they have gone bankrupt.
It's not official yet but i can imagine shit will hit the fan on Monday when everyone calls and there is no response.
You could call spasa to verify?
Or call your warranty insurance and ask them (found in the contract)

I'm pretty sure, you could call spasa to verify or even the warranty insurance company (details found in contract)
Let me guess your pool only has interior to go? Which is pretty much were everyone is at the moment.
From what I hear I'd put money on it

Thanks Sam. At least a its some closure on a very stressful experience.

You're welcome, it suck but you could come out on top, the key is contacting your warranty insurance company and getting them to finish your pool off.
So at least you won't be out of pocket

Hello Samm340, do you mind telling us your source of information?

Sure, x staff members who no longer have a job, trade who are all owed in the thousands and manafactures who are owed over the hundred thousand mark.
The whole industry knows n is talking about it

And magically they are no longer on the spasa website as a member. Agree with Sam check your contract you should have a QBE insurance letter which covers for insolvency to a max of 20% of contract value for incomplete works

The problem now is you will get every pool builder quoting/charging more than 20% of contract value to finish pools off which will ultimately leave the owner out of pocket, I would be sourcing own trade to pay directly to avoid hevty pool builders fees

But then how do you get your pool permit finally signed off

Good question not 100% sure although it's normally a third party that does the pool fence inspection and give you a certificate for that as with the permit sign off you could call the permit ppl (should be found in your contract) nickolas and wright??

Sam340 please contact me.

How?

0411583252

Hi samm340
Can you please contact me also. 0413 735 635

If you just called me samm340 can you please call again. Voicemail didn't work

Seven news 6:28pm tonight is the night they get exposed..

Can't wait to watch that. Thanks for letting us know

Had any one had any luck with the insurance? I was told as they are not yet insolvent they can't legally do anything !!

Another disgruntled customer here. I am going to bet this man opens up another business under a different name! He has run off with all our money and obviously that of his trades that he didn't pay as well. We paid all but the $2000 handover payment and they even tried to get us to pay $1800 of that to 'escalate' our project that was over 6 months overdue. This was mid december and I can guarantee they knew they would be shutting up shop, to me that is just flat out theft! I told them to stick it. I am also very glad I have all conversations recorded as well.
I spoke to DBI VMIA about insurance and they told me that we are within our rights to go ahead and have someone else complete our pool but to make sure that we take photographic evidence of the state our pools are in prior to new contractors beginning. We will need to provide them with contracts, variations etc and if there are any defects which get dealt with separately. They will only cover 20% of the contract cost - which for many of us means we will be out of pocket in getting new contractors in, but right now I just want my pool finished!!!!
I cannot describe the disgust I feel for this company! I actioned legal proceedings against them and contacted Consumer Affairs, A Current Affair, SPASA and VCAT as well. I was determined not to let this company do to any other family what they had done to us.
The Insurance company has said that our insurance will be covered for all the works completed by Lazaway, but we do have to wait until the insolvency papers had been filed in order to make a claim. Whats the bet the paperwork will be delayed just like everything else!

My only question to the insurers and I'm gonna ask tomorrow is incomplete works also list a reason to claim as 'disappeared'. So has the business just done that? They are closed we can't contact anyone. The director has resigned

Dirty and filthy dogs like Craig and John will always get their day guys... it's called KARMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i worked for lazaway last year, did quite a bit of tiling for them, best thing was leaving them for another company, they never paid there tradies and it was nothing but negativity from customers when i would turn up to site to try salvage the shit concretes they do

Stevenm1312 They did our concrete without even getting an inspection on the steel work! It took my hubby to deal directly with the inspector and provide photos we took and to chase up a stat dec from the arrogant site supervisor to get the inspection passed because Lazaway wouldn't do it!!

Angry mum, the concrete shells they did were atrocious, i would get to a site and not even be able to square a pool off to tile cause it would be out 30-80mm which when tiling, is a damn lot, another reason i stopped working for them, would expect me to just "make it look good" instead of making it right.

Doesn't surprise me one bit Stevenm1312!! I sat down with John White in his office and experienced his attitude to not only the work but also to his customers! Absolute pig of a man! I have it all recorded too. And as for Pares... don't even get me started on her!

One of their workers was on our site and told us about how much they owed him! It was that moment 6 months ago that I knew where it was all heading! People like Craig and John need to be held accountable! I can't believe that people like them can be protected by bankruptcy and walk away with everyone's money probably stashed somewhere and all the rest of us are left unprotected from people like them!

yeah the entire office had no idea what they were doing, i never did a pool for them where they had enough tiles ordered.
and the industry has always been like that unfortunately, bankrupt the company and start up a new one. the markup they do on the work the tradies do is insane. when i would tile a job for $5000 they would charge over $25000. i never did a job for them where the concrete shell hadnt been sitting for less than 8 months.

Well I hope you walked away having been paid up to date Steven!
I thought SPASA were supposed to keep them accountable? I know they were promoting their cheap deals at a SPASA run expo and this seems to be where they made a lot of deals! I wrote a very detailed complaint to SPASA and they really weren't interested in hearing it!

na never did get paid in the end, was a hopeless cause when it came to craig, i feel more sorry for the people left with an empty concrete shell.

i wonder how many of the staff were involved in the scam..stevenm1312 maybe you could finish off all of our jobs with holes in the ground...do you contract?

johnw525, i could, i do mostly fully tiled pools, but my father did interiors for 30 years, infact he is the one who did the interiors at lazaways display centre.

Staff (except John white) were not involved
They have walked away with nothing no holiday pay nothing

I can help anyone with quotes to finish call Andrew on 0426209037

hi stevenm1312, do you have a phone number or email address?

Johnw525. You can contact me on [email protected]

AngryMum, caseyv752, kdub777, furiousv, and everyone else - You are horrible people . This is someones life and you are violating their privacy let alone the human decency to explain themselves. You should be ashamed of yourself for going to the media and for speaking behind people backs and being so rude, so that you can reach some tiny bit of achievement because your too much of a pig head to realise that your messing with peoples lives.

Everyone should also be ashamed for the disgusting behaviour that you have shown. Be Adults and stop acting like children. While it might be a business, people actually run it, and its those people you are hurting, without having all the true facts. Don't believe everything you see on the news or in social media.

I hope that this comes back to bite you in the bum, and that Karma sees who the bad guy is and turns around and faces you and all the shit and fucked up things you have said, accused, and portrayed come back to show you how much of an imbosil you all are.

You should be ashamed, and I hope you mind your own business next time until you know all thats going on.

This is forum to share information to assist others. If asking questions or sharing advice on what to do next or at very minimum to confirm what has gone on and share personal experience with said company is offensive then don't be part of this forum. We all understand it's bigger than getting some pools finished there are other suppliers and trades that haven't been paid and staff that no longer have a job and that's sad and a huge impact. We all get that. But at the same time most of us are sharing the same terrible experience. I personally am ticking into 13 months of a backyard that's unusable, a pool I can't afford to finish with waiting an undefined period of time to wait for insolvency and an insurance claim a brand new home damaged by the excavators that also has to wait for a claim and at least 6 months of not being able to contact the owner or GM of which 2 months was spent on emails and calls that were never returned. There are many affected here but this is a site to provide word of mouth. I don't agree with posting the directors address or number as there is a legal way to handle this and the site had removed this but at the end of the day all associated customer staff and trades have all been badly treated. So if you can't handle reading the reviews don't be part of this forum. Everyone is just trying to find a solution

Jadey - it is those people who RAN that business that created all this in the first place! They had a choice on how to behave and they chose it! They only have themselves to blame! Don't try and lay the blame on anyone else! Yes we are angry, actually probably beyond angry! Don't you dare come in and try and demoralise us!

Oh Jadey give us a break its not your money and lives they have messed with I have never been so stressed in my entire life I thought building a pool would be a wonderful experience biggest bloody nightmare!!!!! I work too hard to have a bunch of crooks take from me and my family. I will not let this rest !!!!

Hi everyone, if you need your pool completed and would like a quote to complete the works, we specialise in finishing swimming pools. Please email me at [email protected] or call me on 0415354634 if you would like to deal with us direct and get your pool finished.

AngryMum if Render is all you need on your pool, please contact me asap. We can have your pool finished on Monday and water going in on Tuesday. I can send you a quote asap for the works. A lot of upset people on this forum and rightly so. Happy to provide you with a quote and get the work done!

We just completed a pool yesterday for an upset ex-Lazaway customer that was fed up and just wanted their pool finished. Pool is filling now and she will be swimming in it tomorrow. Is there anyway I can put some photos up so you can see the pool and our work?

I signed a contract with Lazaway in November 2016 and paid a $2000 deposit. I'm not sure how they could still be signing up new customers in November when you consider the Directors knew without doubt they would never start let alone complete my project. After reading all your stories I feel as though I'm one of the lucky ones, I 'only' lost $2000 and don't have a big hole in my backyard. Good luck to you all. I will certainly be doing better due dilligence on the next company I engage to build our pool.

there is a "Lazaway pool and Spas group liquidation" page on Facebook...only 5 members so far, im guessing it will grow significantly

This has turned into an ad for ppl in the pool industry, just remember folks do your home work this time, only go with recommendations

stevenm1312 did u say that your dad Omar and Michael worked for lazaway doing interiors and did the displays

Sb562. That is correct.

So when was the last lazaway interior the actually did then stevenm1312 if u don't mind me asking

Ooo. Last interior for lazaway. 2 years maybe. Cant remember off the top of my head, but we mainly did waterline tiling for them since they already had another crew doing them. Was just an odd job. Since then a few interiors for some builders. But i myself prefer tiling. Its my father who does any interiors that come our way.

Naomi-24 you do know that technically all ex Lazaway customers are under contract still, ex clients and pool builders and trades can face legal action if works are done before contract has been terminated, only thing we actually know is directing manager has resigned.

Samm340 is completely correct

Sam340 and sb562 - The insurance company has told me that it is ok for us to go ahead and get someone else to complete our pool and our insurance claim will still be covered. We are to take photos of the pool as it was left by lazaway prior to any works being completed though.

Mmm but insurance company isn't paying until they go under officially, and contract still stands until they go under...I would get those instructions in writing then at least

Sam340 please contact me

Sam call me 0411583242

Caseyv I think you meant to post on the post above. Sam340 hasn't commented on this one so may not see it

Sam call 0411583242

Is anyone interested in class action lawsuit?

The problem is closing th business points to insolvency. If you check the asic website he lodged his resignation as director on the 4th of Jan. So if they have little to no valuable assets and staff suppliers and contractors are priority creditors we are liable to get zilch.

We too have been messed around by the Bs just heard the news WTF what do we do now???????

thanks kdub

I hear 2-3 days until he's officially bankrupt!!

Till He's bankrupt or the business files for insolvency. We all need the later to happen asap!

John and Sam, we have a concrete shell that just needs its quartz render done. We have all our filters and pumps connected, solar done, fence done, waterline tiles done but couldn't get them
Back to do the render. My hubby is a builder and did a bit himself and is also doing own coping tiles so we only need render done! 1 days work and that's what angered us! They haven't been on site since July! It started end of March.
I have contacted A current Affair previously and I just sent them another message linking in with Channel 7 News report last night! Hopefully they will get on to it and hunt them down!

AngryMum - You are a horrible person. This is someones life and you are violating their privacy let alone the human decency to explain themselves. You should be ashamed of yourself for going to the media so that you can reach some tiny bit of achievement because your too much of a pig head to realise that your messing with peoples lives.

Everyone else should also be ashamed for the disgusting behaviour that you have shown. Be Adults and stop acting like children. While it might be a business, people actually run it, and its those people you are hurting, without having all the true facts. Don't believe everything you see on the news or in social media.

I hope that this comes back to bite you in the bum and instead that you are "HUNTED" down.

Jadey - Um excuse me! This company has STOLEN hundreds of thousands of dollars from innocent, hard working trades people and every day Aussie families! When I say stolen, yes they have done that. They have demanded money from people for a product they have not provided so in my book that is theft! I'm sorry if you think that we should be protecting their right to walk away scott free! It seems to me that you must be very close to these people to write such a statement! I understand that these are 'people' we are talking about, however did those 'people' you speak of have a care in the world when they demanded money from hundreds of families, tradespeople and contractors, only to close their doors and walk away without completing their contracts without having to be made accountable for their actions.

As for talking facts! I AM talking facts because I was one of those innocent families who were taken for a ride, stolen from, cheated, lied to and not to mention the blatant slander of my name by members of that company! I was belittled and degraded by these people who worked at this company. All of these conversations have been recorded and my lawyers are already aware of the situation! Those 'people I am hurting' as you say should have thought about all of this before they treated innocent people with such disdain in the first place! It is not hard to treat people with respect regardless of what other members of the company are doing... they had a choice and they chose to behave in the way that they did. What about the hundreds of people that THEY hurt in the process? Or don't you think they matter?

Don't you dare call me a horrible person! How I am violating their privacy? Channel 7 did that last night! And no it wasn't me who set all that in motion, at that stage I had no idea that they had closed their doors leaving hundreds of families tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket, but as it seems I am not the only one who is angry with being left with an absolute mess in our backyard that we now need to pay thousands more to someone else to finish all while these people walk away with our money!

When I say that I hope the media 'hunts them down' - I believe that these people have every right to be made accountable for what THEY have done to innocent families! They need to be made to face the consequences of their actions and all the contractors, trades people and families deserve the right to be able to claim back the money we have all had taken from us!

What right do these people have to walk away without having to face ANY consequences while all of the innocent families have to pick up the pieces???

Jadey, you are obviously related to either that fat fuck Craig Wright, or that lying piece of shit, John White. I am happy to stop posting if you will cover the losses i incur from dealing with the worse company to have ever operated in Australia.
I am sure you are in someway enjoying the proceeds of the stolen money generated by Lazaway, i hope you sleep well at night.

I don't think you have all the true facts. and I'm not saying that they should walk away Scott free, I'm saying that this is issue has been stretched so far beyond the truth. Yes they have every right to be held accountable and to share their side, but going straight to the media is not the best way nor is it efficient.

Jadey, do you think I went straight to the media??? I think you need to find out the facts first! I went through every possible avenue to deal respectfully with this company and the members that RAN it! I followed every angle to come to an agreement where both parties were happy... This company and its members are the ones who refused to allow that to happen! They are the ones who pushed me to go to the media and they are the ones who pushed me to follow MY LEGAL RIGHTS with my lawyers! I gave them every possible chance month after month to sort out the issues at their end, I was MORE than patient - until I could be patient no more. If they had have followed up on their promises and opened communication respectfully then they wouldn't be in this situation!
So maybe look into your own facts before going off on your high horse and writing posts like you have above!

And Jadey, for what its worth, I hope the director of this company ends up in prison for a very long time!

we have been waiting since the start of december 2013 for them to complete the final stage of our pool. Its now been pushed back yet again to the start of MAY. Thats 6 months of an empty pool, with complete landscaping, fencing etc done. UNIMPRESSED and completely over it!

we have been waiting since the start of december 2013 for them to complete the final stage of our pool. Its now been pushed back yet again to the start of MAY. Thats 6 months of an empty pool, with complete landscaping, fencing etc done. UNIMPRESSED and completely over it!

I feel your pain. They are the most money hungry disgusting company I have ever dealth with and I have run a business for over 20 years. Good luck to you with regard to completion. The sooner you can be rid of them from your life the better off you will be.

I understand what you are going through, we are experiencing similar issues with delays. Being given excuses, with other jobs taking longer then expected, then weather, and unable to get hold of contractors. Regarding quality, I will update in due cause.

Hi,do any of you know how I could get some more reviews and info on this company and its director?

The main director is Criag Wright but he hides behind John White

Last post in dec 14. Still waiting, each time I called, i have been told 8-9weeks away. And on each occasion I had to contact them on the progress. In Feb I was told April, then June and now coming up to the last promises date mid sept. Still waiting. For a well known business name to conduct in this way, it is very disappointing. I am patient but it is really testing my limit. Hope my next comment will have a happier theme.

We started our pool in march 2016 still not finished we have a $45k hole in the ground I want to find Craig wright.pick the wrong person to rip off..

Caseyv752 we are in the same boat just waiting interior completion. Find your builders insurance document. Ours is QBE VMIA. Call them and they will tell you what you need to do to make a claim. You should be covered for 20% of your contract price but may not yet be able to make a claim just yet but at least have everything you need ready to go

I would be very interested to know just how many of us are left with concrete holes in our backyard!

i too want to approach Craig Wright and have a discussion with him. I spoke with a staff member today who says he is owed over 100K and cannot believe the bankruptcy as there have been many jobs in the last 12 months.. he too believes that Craig and John will start up another pool company under a different name.

AngryMum, i too have an empty concrete shell. The question is, does this empty shell represent 60% of the total cost of the pool project???
Maybe all of us with an empty shell, should try to get our pools complete by the same pool company to try and get a discount based on the number of incomplete Lazaway jobs..
Craig Wright and John White will no doubt be all over the news in the coming days and months...this story is only starting

John525 concrete shell )depending on your contract) represents roughly half way, I'm assuming you will need plumbing solar tiling coping interior handover, it sounds like to me u will be out of pocket once insurance kicks in.
As for discounted pools no builder will do that, most see this as a good opportunity

John are you saying an employee is owed 100k or contractor?