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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-08-31 Daily Xml
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Felmeri Group

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs. How is the Malinauskas government assisting my constituents regarding the Felmeri developer?

The Hon. A. MICHAELS (Enfield—Minister for Small and Family Business, Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, Minister for Arts) (15:04): I thank the member for Davenport for the last question of the sitting week. I also thank her for her very strong advocacy for her constituents in O'Halloran Hill. As I have previously advised the house, I really feel for these customers of Felmeri, particularly in the O'Halloran Hill development. They have gone through a very stressful time over a number of years with building their homes. Most of these are first-home buyers who have struggled through the last couple of years.

You might recall that Felmeri Homes, which is Felmeri Builders and Development Pty Ltd, went into liquidation on 17 July this year. Consumer and Business Services (CBS) has been helping consumers in the lead-up to the liquidation and continues to help consumers going through the process of getting their houses finished. CBS is investigating Felmeri; I can confirm that to the house.

There have been very serious allegations made against Felmeri and its directors. CBS acted promptly to stop Felmeri Homes taking on new contracts that would have put those new customers at risk in the lead-up to them going into liquidation by imposing a condition on their building work contractor's licence.

As members are aware, builders do need to take out building indemnity insurance (BII) before commencing a major domestic building work in South Australia. Most of the projects commenced by Felmeri did have that required insurance cover, and QBE is now taking claims and processing those claims so that these home owners can finish their homes or have any defects rectified under their warranties.

I can also advise the house that earlier this year the Treasurer and I commenced a review of the building indemnity insurance scheme and related consumer protections. It is important to me that consumers receive as much protection as is practicable, and this will be taken into account in the review. Of course, BII doesn't cover roads. As members might recall, there was a major issue with the O'Halloran Hill development, with 20 homes that can't be completed or occupied until that access road for the subdivision has been completed.

The companies responsible are two development companies that are related to Felmeri Homes. Arguably, the City of Marion has some responsibility as well, given that the original development approval by the City of Marion in 2015 contained a condition that required the road to be constructed before issuing a certificate from the Planning Commission. It turns out that condition was subsequently varied by the council in 2020, simply requiring that road to be constructed within 24 months. Clearly, that has not occurred.

There were discussions with CBS, with the developer and with the City of Marion to attempt to resolve the road dispute issue. It became obvious that neither the developer nor the council were going to complete that road, which is why the Minister for Infrastructure, the Treasurer and I, with the support of the Premier, worked on solutions regarding the road. Quite frankly, regardless of who is legally responsible, the fact remains that this road needs to be finished so that these people can get in their homes. As the Premier said, they have been left in a dire position through no fault of their own.

Thanks for the very strong advocacy by the member for Davenport for her constituents. She worked hard to ensure that the special circumstances of those 20 families were understood, resulting in the Premier announcing earlier this month that the government would step in to finish that road. I understand work is underway.

In relation to the City of Marion, that raised a planning issue which caused me some concern in terms of when those ancillary works would be completed. I have raised that issue with the Minister for Planning, and I understand he and his department are doing some work on that and hopefully will have something to announce on that shortly.

I would like to thank Commissioner Soulio and the CBS team for working with DIT, DTF and PLUS on this issue to try to resolve it for those home owners.

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