Fighting for Subbies Rights
10.04.2018
Creditors wanted a change of liquidator from the one the builder appointed to a "creditor friendly" liquidator.
Creditors wanted someone who will not take a backward step when it comes to investigating the disgraceful behaviour of the director and the shadow director of Future Urban Residential who used subbies and suppliers right up until the first liquidator was appointed.
What were they thinking?
Why did they think they could get away with this fraudulent behaviour?
The idea was obviously to wring every last cent out of the clients they were building for with last minute claims to top up the coffers and they didn't care at whose expense they did it.
They would have been getting pre insolvency advice for quite some time as they knew they would not survive, yet they continued to use subcontractors. That is reprehensible behaviour and that is part of the reason creditors wanted to change the liquidator.
The Process of Changing a Liquidator
Under the Corporations Act 2001, A "directions by creditors to convene a creditors meeting to consider replacing the current liquidator" was sent to the incumbent liquidator Matthew Bookless from SV Partners. This is not a reflection on Mr Bookless, creditors simply don't want liquidators appointed by the people who have made their money disappear into thin air.
- They want to know where it went
- They want the chance to get some of it back and
- They want the people who did this held to account.
None of that is a big ask but for some liquidators it is not high on the list of priorities, especially if there is no low hanging fruit (easy money) to be found.
SV Partners called a creditors meeting on Friday 6th April where a resolution was moved to replace the liquidator with Menzies Advisories Mr Michael Caspaney.
The vote to change the liquidator was 15 for, none against with a dollar value of $463,504.
The new liquidator Michael Caspaney has assured SubbiesUnited that he will work hard to investigate what has caused this catastrophic company failure in such a short time.
A representative from Future Urbans pre insolvency advisor De Jonge Read attended the meeting by phone as an observer.
Systematic Failure
We cannot trust builders with huge amounts of unsecured credit. The banks won't lend money without security, why should subcontractors?
The injustice of this massive risk is what motivates SubbiesUnited to fight it at every opportunity.
The system which allows this to happen has completely failed subcontractors and suppliers.
Last week I sent out an article about Senator Murray Watt speaking in the Australian Parliament in support of the plight of subbies. I also took a swipe at the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for completely ignoring subbies and being the vain, lazy and selfish politician he is. If he had an ounce of self respect he would have resigned yesterday and given the job back to the person he knifed because he set the bar at 30 losing news polls in a row. Turnbull as of yesterday has now lost 30 news polls in a row and will soon break Julia Gillard's Olympic mark of 33. In my opinion they are dumb and dumber but not sure which one has done the most damage to the nation.
I copped some flack for being a left leaning supporter for Labor.
That is not the case, I have always been right to the point where one of my mates (who is a builder believe it or not) jokingly says "you are so far right you are almost Klu Klux Klan".
Thats not correct either, I tell it like it is and if someone is actively doing something for subcontractors they deserve to have it publicised.
The Qld Labor Government has introduced security of payments with Project Bank Accounts and are funding a public examination of the directors and other key people involved with Queensland One Homes and Cullen Group so they deserve that being publicised.
Senator Watt has taken the time to have meetings with Subcontractors Alliance and Subbies and has spoken in Parliament on our behalf so that support should also be publicised.
When someone from the the LNP or the Federal Coalition gets off their arse and does something for subcontractors, they too will get a wrap but I won't be holding my breath waiting.
This liquidator change is another victory for creditors who are so sick of the abuse and theft of their hard earned money, they are fighting back at every opportunity.
28.02.2018
One of the reasons SubbiesUnited exists is because of my experience over the years with arrogant narcissistic builders who have no principles and are morally corrupt. That's the glue that binds them together so they can bleed out the subcontractors who put their faith in them.
Andrew Thew is one of those builders, through his recent actions, he has sunk as low as anyone could go.
It's hard to surprise me when it comes to the dregs of the industry but these people have.
A Future Urban client caught up with Thew on Monday 26th Feb and put a few questions to him and in typical fashion, Thew felt he was the victim when he waved his hand round to show case his extensively renovated property and a long carport full of vehicles and said plaintively "I have to live with it, the liquidator is going to be taking all this".
The client put it to him that many people had lost a lot more than he has.
- Thew said "we were not trading insolvent and have only had problems for 4 to 6 weeks".
- Later he said "things fell apart 2 weeks before Christmas".
- In an email to a subcontractor last week he said "we have not had a good run since November".
I have news for Andrew Thew, November was 4 months ago or 16 weeks but I am sure if the liquidator does his job, he will find problems a lot further back than November because I have seen evidence of uncontested and unpaid invoices going back to August 2017 and beyond, and for very large sums of money.
One creditor owed hundreds of thousands of dollars told me Future Urban have been "trading insolvent for at least 9 months, that they were arrogant and would not accept help or advice when offered".
Andrew Thew admitted that "the QBCC is cancelling our licence".
He was asked "Future Urbans or yours personally"?
His answer was "Future Urban's" which confirms that while his wife Kirsty is the director, he is a shadow director and as such, should not be allowed to keep his personal licence.
There are many victims of this 20 month old building company run by a pair of amateurs who it is alleged, late last year under quoted homes to get as many deposits in as possible to stem the cash flow crisis.
While they will all have their story to tell, one client victim and one subcontractor deserve a special mention here.
Client Victim
A young guy (I have his name) paid a deposit of $15,000 for his first home in May 2016 but Future Urban did not lodge the forms with the Home Owners Warranty Insurance scheme. The young man didn't even get an excavation for his money. This young guy's first home owner experience with a builder will never be forgotten.
One Last Subbie, Two Claims
One of their final acts rang alarm bells and are of great concern to me and should be a concern to any subcontractor or home owner.
The Thews coerced a subcontractor to pour two slabs on Friday the 16th of February 2018 but they knew they would never pay him. They wanted 3 done but for some reason only two were done so one of their clients dodged a bullet.
The purpose of this was to get 2 claims paid to them from their home owner clients.
They put special clearances on those claims to top up the coffers before liquidating the company this week. In the email they told another subcontractor that they "hoped to pay at least $20,000 to $30,000 out of this amount".
Andrew Thew;
- lied to the first subcontractor to get him to lay the slabs,
- he lied to the 2nd subcontractor that he would pay them 20 to 30k out of the proceeds of the first lie,
- he made claims on his clients,
- he hastily had their payment claims cleared.
It was potentially a "free" $137,626 as they knew they would not be paying either of the subcontractors.
They have known for months that their company would not survive, they were given advice by a well known pre insolvency advisor who no doubt discussed asset protection and walked them through the process, yet the Thews still used the services of subbies and accepted payment from their clients to wring every last cent out of them, right up to the bitter end. What happened to that money?
This type of behaviour gives all builder a bad name and is reprehensible conduct. This is why we fight for subbies to change the industry.
As Les Williams said today, it's just too easy for anyone, in this case a makeup saleswoman, to get a builders licence with a 12 million dollar turnover and it's just too east to keep the license long enough to cost not just subcontractors, but all creditors millions of dollars.
Andrew you said you told your new employer you were winding up your company.
Please note, there is a vast difference between winding up a company and liquidating millions of dollars of creditors money away.
Governments listen up, its time to drain the pond scum from the swamp before there are no subbies left to build your mansions.