“I’ll Punch Your Teeth Out”: Adrian Portelli’s $39 Million Penthouse Blew Up on Camera
This is not a story about wealthy people whinging over expensive finishes. This is about ironclad contracts, untouchable builders and a client who says he was left with a rubbish penthouse and then threatened on top of it. The video has already gone viral, and what it shows is hard to ignore while the whole industry watches. This is exactly the kind of yarn that gets passed around on smoko, coffee in hand.
This is not a story about wealthy people whinging over expensive finishes. This is about ironclad contracts, untouchable builders and a client who says he was left with a rubbish penthouse and then threatened on top of it. The video has already gone viral, and what it shows is hard to ignore while the whole industry watches. This is exactly the kind of yarn that gets passed around on smoko, coffee in hand.
A luxury penthouse, a locked up contract / Youtube: @Siteinspections
What started as a routine inspection quickly turned into a public blow up. Adrian Portelli, a billionaire businessman and media figure, allowed one of the most well known construction inspection channels on YouTube, Site Inspections run by inspector Zeher Khalil, to walk through his thirty nine million dollar Melbourne penthouse.
The footage did not take long to spread. In the video, viewers see water leaks, missing water stops, cracked stone benchtops and finishes that simply should not be up for debate at that price point. These are not nitpicky aesthetic issues. They are basic functional problems that any tradie would pick up within minutes on site.
The Contract That Locked Him In
The penthouse sits inside Sapphire by the Gardens, one of Melbourne CBD’s most exclusive residential developments. Portelli bought the property in 2023 for thirty nine million dollars, expecting a top tier fit out. According to him, what he got fell well short. During the inspection, Khalil points out water running from the shower into areas that should have been fully protected, something normally solved with standard site practice.
The video also shows stone installation issues and mismatched finishes, a serious red flag on any high end job. Portelli says it was only after tearing through the contract that he realised how little leverage he actually had. In his view, the agreement heavily favoured the builder, leaving him with very few real options to force rectification once the problems came to light.
“If this happens in a 39M dollar penthouse, imagine what happens when no one is watching.”
“I’ll jump on a plane and punch your fucking teeth out”
This is where things really boiled over. Portelli claims that when he contacted the builder to raise the defects, he was met with a direct and aggressive threat. No filters at all. According to him, the response was, “I’ll jump on a fucking plane and punch your fucking teeth out.”
At that point, this stopped being a commercial dispute. The situation spiralled as the inspection continued, exposing just how rough the workmanship looked. A billionaire client, a luxury build, and a builder allegedly threatening violence after being called out.
It raises an uncomfortable question. If this is how disputes play out when cameras are rolling and millions are watching, what happens on jobs where no one is filming and no one has a platform to push back.
Every Tradie Knows This Feeling
This isn’t about defending wealthy clients or piling onto builders. It’s about power on site. Locked-down contracts. Blurred responsibility. Pressure flowing downhill. And when it all blows up, the loudest voice usually wins.
This case rattles people because it kills a comforting myth: that big money guarantees quality and protection. Here there was serious cash, legal muscle and massive public exposure, and the owner still ended up pointing out basic defects in front of millions.
For tradies, the takeaway isn’t gossip for the sake of it. It’s a warning. If someone with resources can get boxed in by contracts and process, the margin for tradies, subbies and smaller operators is even thinner.
On site, paperwork matters. Power matters. And once a job turns sour, things can get ugly fast.
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This is not a story about wealthy people whinging over expensive finishes. This is about ironclad contracts, untouchable builders and a client who says he was left with a rubbish penthouse and then threatened on top of it. The video has already gone viral, and what it shows is hard to ignore while the whole industry watches. This is exactly the kind of yarn that gets passed around on smoko, coffee in hand.