Braemar Building Ltd — formerly Stonewood Homes Dunedin Ltd — was placed into liquidation in November by shareholder resolution.
The liquidator’s first report estimated the total shortfall to all creditors was $850,000.
Master Builders had commenced liquidation proceedings against the company, the report said.
The Otago Daily Times has since received several complaints regarding the company’s co-director Graeme Sneddon.
Contacted by the ODT, Mr Sneddon disputed the allegations saying the fault lay with the customers.
Gerard Vallely said he felt "absolute delight" upon learning Braemar Building had been put into liquidation.
He felt there was nothing wrong with Stonewood, but Graeme Sneddon "shouldn’t be allowed to be anywhere near somebody else’s property".
He and his wife hired Mr Sneddon through Stonewood Homes Dunedin to build their then two-storey Karitane holiday home in 2015.
Building started around August that year and the couple took possession by Easter 2016, unaware the house was yet to receive a code compliance certificate.
For the better part of a decade, Mr Vallely said they pushed Mr Sneddon to get the certificate — taking matters into their own hands in 2025.
He estimated it cost them an additional $4000-$5000 to get sign-off from both an engineer and the Dunedin City Council.
The house was ultimately deemed compliant in September last year.
"It’s taken us 10 years to get compliance on the house."
The couple also got a nasty surprise when a maintenance check revealed the lift they had been using for three years was unsafe, Mr Vallely said.
"Nothing had been finished and it was actually dangerous to use. The guy that came and fixed it in the end said we weren’t to use it until it had been done.
"And that was after we’d been using it for three years."
They would not be working with Mr Sneddon again as they believed they had ended up with "the worst builder in Dunedin".
"We’ve asked this question for so long, how can he be allowed to be operating when he does this?".
They moved in in 2021 but started noticing issues with the quality of the build from "the day that we got the keys".
An outside light switch still needed to be installed, the paint touched up and they could feel the concrete underneath the vinyl when walking through the kitchen.
At the end of last year, Mr Klimeck said they discovered by accident their induction heat pump was not installed correctly.
"I was wondering why there was moisture coming out of the bricks one hot day when we had the air-con on.
"Luckily it hadn’t done any damage, but if we hadn’t have noticed that it could have been half the wall gone."
While some issues had since been fixed — most of them not — Mr Klimeck said the whole building experience had put him off building a house again.
"We want to call it home, but at the same time it feels like it’s not, because it’s not finished."
Friends of his had a positive experience with a different Stonewood Homes branch, Mr Klimeck said.
"You mention Stonewood and quite a few people around Dunedin go, ‘Oh’ — they sort of take a step back and ask you, ‘Well, how did you get on?’ and that’s how the story comes out."
"It’s obviously been something that’s been going on for quite a few years with him . . . since he was owning it."
Mr Klimeck felt Mr Sneddon had made "a very bad name" for Stonewood Homes in Dunedin.
"I still hear stories about it.
"He has sort of let Stonewood Homes down for Dunedin, I think."
In a response sent over text, Graeme and Judith Sneddon said the council signed off on all the building work for Mr Vallely’s house that Braemar Building was contractually responsible for.
"Code compliance certificate did not issue until 2025 due to customer’s delay in completing works he was responsible for, namely driveway formation and stormwater drainage."
That work was not included in the building contract.
The lift was installed by a subcontractor.
"Braemar received no notice from customer of any defects of the lift.
"How can Braemar remedy defects if not informed of them?"
Mr Klimeck, on the other hand, still owed them $5000.
Moving into the house without paying the full amount was in breach of the building contract, they said.
"Braemar presumes that they were not informed of defective light switch because customer was in payment default."
Mr Vallely acknowledged he was responsible for the driveway formation and stormwater drainage, but said this work was completed within the first two years.
He also said they told Mr Sneddon about the lift when the issues were revealed during a maintenance check by the outlet that supplied it.
Mr Sneddon had not got the work on the lift signed off, Mr Vallely said.
Mr Klimeck admitted they were still holding back $5000 from their final payment to Mr Sneddon because there were still issues that needed to be fixed.
In 2015, the ODT reported that Mosgiel sisters Rachel and Nadine Dickson had been living in a friend’s sleepout for more than a year after extensive repairs were required on their newly built Stonewood Home.
And in 2023, Fair Go reported that Dunedin couple Dave and Gemma O’Neill’s luxury $900,000 Stonewood Home failed multiple inspections and required significant deconstruction.
After Mr Sneddon guaranteed all necessary work would be done, the couple sold their existing house to move into a motel with their then month-old baby — the house was still not ready by the time their son had turned 2.
