SHAE Munro and her husband Brentan only heard about the collapse of their homebuilder, Oracle Building Corporation this week through a Facebook posting.
But Mrs Munro said "the writing was on the wall" months ago when the company refused to return any of their calls.
"My husband and I would call them and we kept a record of our calls because he called our site supervisor 75 times and we never once heard back from them," she said.
"Not a text, not a call, not an email, nothing.
"For a few months, we have known something was not right but we couldn't do anything because we were locked into a contract."
The couple is just one of close to 300 homeowners who have been left with uncompleted homes since Oracle Building Corporation entered liquidation on Wednesday.
The company trades as Oracle Platinum Homes and Oracle Hunter Homes and builds in the NSW Central Coast, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle and Hunter regions, as well as Queensland.
The Munros signed a contract with Oracle in June 2020 to build a home at Greta for their family, including their two young children.
Construction on the build began in February this year, despite the company promising that it would begin at least one year earlier, Mrs Munro said.
She said that the company has not worked on the site since the beginning of May.
"We paid our first amount of money to Oracle in June 2020. Our house hasn't even got a front door. At the moment there is a slab, frame, roof and bricks," Mrs Munro said.
"They were blaming it on COVID delays and then asking for money to cover price increases.
"There was a bit of back and forth there about that and then they said they had delays on materials and couldn't get anything in and that went on for months and months."
The family is currently out of pocket around $135,000 for the build with Oracle and has also had to make mortgage repayments for the past two years and pay for storage fees.
They have been been living at Gillieston Heights with Mrs Munro's parents for more than two years waiting for the new build to be completed.
"Our living situation is pretty dire," she said.
"We expected to be in our home two years ago and we are living with my parents and our two young children.
"It's quite a full house. My eldest child starts primary school next year and we obviously enrolled her to where we are moving so I am pretty upset about that."
Mrs Munro said they had contacted their insurance company and hoped to find a new builder to complete the project, adding that they would "have to go through legal hoops to get there".
"It has caused so much anguish for people and it is really upsetting," she said.
"I am sure there are people worse off than us. We are fortunate enough to have our family to stay with but the toll that it has taken on us has been quite severe on all levels.
"It has been the most stressful time of my life and it should have been one of the happiest.
"They took something from us that should have been a dream come true and turned it into a nightmare."
It's understood Queensland-based Oracle owes creditors about $14 million.
Records from the Queensland Building and Construction Commission show that Oracle experienced a surge in projects during the 2020-2021 financial year, with the company taking on 316 jobs compared to 76 the year prior.
NSW Fair Trading has advised people impacted by the Oracle situation to contact NSW Fair Trading or icare for guidance.
NSW Fair Trading will work with impacted parties to help them understand their contractual rights.
"As the company is now under liquidation, questions about the financial affairs of the company should be directed to the liquidator or ASIC," a spokesperson for NSW Fair Trading said.
NSW Fair Trading will investigate if there has been a breach of the Home Building Act 1989 related to the company's obligations to provide insurance under the NSW Home Building Compensation Fund.
"NSW Fair Trading, icare and the State Insurance Regulatory Authority are working to ensure impacted homeowners are aware of their entitlements and can access guidance about assistance," the spokesperson said.
