Fighting for subbies rights
It's all about the almighty dollar, some developers don't give a second thought to the human damage caused by their actions when a builder liquidates. In some cases, it's the developer who causes the liquidation.
Obviously, not all developers are crooks, nor are all builders crooks, far from it, but the dishonest and unethical ones are causing untold financial and mental hardship to thousands of Queensland families.
SubbiesUnited and Subcontractors Alliance intend to investigate developers in the QLD Construction Industry and target those who are involved in liquidations.
Our intention is to keep a running score on their performance in regard to how they behave, commercially and morally.
Profit
It has become obvious that some developers see the liquidation of a builder as an opportunity to make some serious profit at the expense of subcontractors and suppliers. They keep the liquidated builders unpaid claims which should be paid to the subcontractors. They use excuses such as holding costs, increased costs to complete or they say the claims were illegal. Often the claim of illegality is only because the builder could not sign a statutory declaration.
Some "cry poor" about their holding costs and the cost to complete.There is no doubt those costs are a factor in a drawn out process but would it really hurt them if they made 7 million profit instead of 8 million?
We have been taking note of those who make an effort to look after subbies and those who don't in the recent onslaught of builder liquidations and builders novating contracts due to financial duress.
Developers live and die by the sales of their developments. They spend a fortune on Social Media marketing and "selling the dream".
Abysmal Developer Behaviour
We have evidence of a developer liquidating their development company owing a builder $700,000. Just before they liquidated, they compounded their abysmal behaviour by cashing in a $200,000 bank guarantee.
Essentially the job was finished so they liquidated to avoid paying the builder a judgement awarded by the court.
The net result of that liquidation and the cashing of the bank guarantee caused the builder to appoint an Administrator 2 months later. As usual, the big losers will be the subcontractors and suppliers who are owed in the vicinity of 1 million dollars.
Another developer who the builder was working for owed him $600,000 but has written that down to $0, questions will be asked here.
We know of another developer who has liquidated 5 companies, is permanently excluded by the QBCC but has his wife at the helm of his development company. They sell properties to retirees and is now heading rapidly towards his 6th building company liquidation.
Allegedly he runs up debts, liquidates and starts over the next day with his new Phoenix company without missing a beat. He is not the only excluded person, allegedly his construction manager also fits that mould. They thumb their noses at the law and subbies. Before the dust has settled on the last liquidation, they are working on the next subbie ripoff.
Endorse or Expose
We have significant social media platforms and we will highlight these developments and developers in one way or another.We will be guided by legal advice but we will:
- Endorse the developers who do the right thing by builders and subcontractors.
- Expose the developers who rip off builders and subcontractors.
Upon termination or completion - We will ask the developer for their details as we are going to publish it on our media platforms and keep a scorecard.
We intend creating a public profile of the developers either way, based on public documents for example, an RATA, 439a report.
We will identify who the developers are and how much they owe the liquidated builder. We will keep a running account of settlements to creditors (subbies) for complying developers.
For non complying developers we will expose them to the industry so that builders, subcontractors and suppliers know their form and know they should not work for them in the future. It might also have the effect of buyers shunning their developments. If they hurt us, we will hurt them, within the law of course.
We will create forum threads on SubbiesUnited for subbies who work on the various projects. The threads will cover:
- Who hasn't been paid.
- Who has been paid.
- We will detail the games Developers play when they think nobody is watching them.
We will contact their marketing people and inform them of debts to subcontractors from those developments.
Our aim is to make the Queensland building Industry a financially safer, more viable place to do business. The industry needs strong builders and honest developers but at the moment, there is an element of dishonesty and deceit that is sucking the lifeblood out of the industry.