I lost more than $500,000 to a build that went wrong.

It didn't happen in one day. It happened the way it usually happens: missed timelines, explanations that kept shifting, paperwork that never quite added up. Each step on its own looked survivable. Together they cost my family more than half a million dollars.

The part that still stings is not the money. It's what I found afterwards. The warning signs were sitting on record the whole time. Not hidden, not secret. Spread across registers and notices and filings I didn't know existed, in language built for lawyers rather than for a person about to hand over a deposit. If I had known where to look, one evening of reading would have changed everything.

I went looking for the tool I wished I'd had. It didn't exist in New Zealand. So I built it.

CheckMyBuilder does one thing: it gathers what is on record about a building company, or about a house, and puts it in front of you in plain English before you commit. It doesn't score anyone. It doesn't take sides. It doesn't accept payment from anyone to look better. It shows you what is there, with sources, and lets you decide.

The mission is plain: no New Zealander should sign a building contract, pay a deposit, or commit to a house without being able to see what is already on record. Builders with nothing to hide have nothing to fear from that. The good ones tell us they want this too, because they lose work to people who quote low and collapse later.

If this page saves one family from the year we had, it has done its job.