A Current Affair occupies a unique niche in Australian broadcast media. An outpost for the slightly aggrieved. A warning bollard for shithouse neighbours. An exploration of the minutiae of local government over-regulation. But even by ACA‘s standards, this is an absolute barnburner: A Sydney man is taking on a construction company after purchasing a home off-the-plan that wound up being ah… quite literally half of what he expected.
The story, that will go to air on tonight’s ACA, goes that Bishnu Aryal dropped somewhere around $700,000 for a house and land deal that not only took three years to complete construction, but came in a little bit short of expectations.
Aryal, a father of two, purchased the land in Edmondson Park on the back of 10 years of savings. The home was initially supposed to be a free-standing dwelling, but at some point during the process was changed to a literal half house.
As in, the house is one half of a bigger house.
And the second half hasn’t been built yet.
It’s like my mans volunteered his abode for a magic show and some David Copperfield-like freak ran a buzzsaw through it and yeeted the other bit off into oblivion.
Like, that’s not a duplex, is it. That’s just a plex. One plex, by itself, waiting for the other bit to make it du.
According to statements made by constructing company Zac Homes, the terms of Mr Aryal’s agreement changed over time. Chiefly, Liverpool Council’s agreement with the developers of the area required dwellings to be a mixture of freestanding and multi-occupant buildings. And hence, what was initially a dream free-standing house became the first half of a MAD fold-in with a giant, ungamely concrete sheet wall running down one entire side.
While Aryal and his family, including his then-pregnant wife, were forced to move into the house last year due to a lack of options thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the building still doesn’t have its crucial occupancy certificate.
The council, get this, is seeking a guarantee that the other half of the duplex is actually going to get built before it issues that document to the existing structure.
In a lengthy statement posted by A Current Affair, Zac Homes asserts that the Aryal and his family were informed of all updates and changes to the design of his home, and were given several opportunities to pull out of the land contract, but instead proceeded after securing a $20,000 discount.
“Zac Homes appreciates the frustrations of Mr & Mrs Aryal surrounding the delay in the issue of the Occupation Certificate, these delays are not caused by Zac Homes,” the company stated.
Aryal admits he did not check on progress of construction throughout the build, however with English being his second language he asserts he merely put his trust in “the process” as things progressed.
Ultimately though, the end result could not be clearer: That’s one half of a house that was built. And that’s just a little bit weird.
