Metricon Homes

Friday 20th May 2020

10.15am

I am not going to hedge my bets here and say they might go under and they might not because I sincerely hope they don't, it would be a travesty if they do.

What I am going to say is if they do go into administration it will be a self full-filling prophecy caused mainly by bad publicity.

They haven't shown any of the usual signs of insolvency such as non payment of subcontractors and they have repeatedly said they are in a strong financial position.

A phenomenon of the times is building companies out there rattling the tin. They are not presently insolvent but looking down the road they see rough times ahead but does this relate to Metricon? I have seen no evidence of that.

There has been no whispers of them getting pre insolvency advice from an Insolvency Practitioner and that usually leaks out.

There are subbies all down the East Coast of Australia relying on Metricon. The last thing they want to see is for them to go down through no fault of their own so I would say to them, do your due diligence then support Metricon.

All the gossip swirling around them will have very serious repercussions for their cash flow.

People will be very hesitant to pay a deposit and those owing progress claims will be undecided to pay them and that is wrong.

I have not heard of one subcontractor who has not been paid on time by Metricon. Not one.

I have been told many times that they are very loyal to their subbies so the worst that could happen to them if Metricon did fold would be the loss of a months work and after many years of working for them, it would be a small percentage of what they have earned from continuous work for Metricon.

Last week I was talking to a couple who had a home built by Metricon last year and they are very happy with the result.

15 years ago my business partner had a home built by Metricon and it was a beautiful home.

If a builder fails, home owners in Qld are covered by the QBCC Home owners warranty insurance scheme so they are ok and similar insurance is taken out by the builder in other states.

I find it incredible that builders like Condev who were insolvent while claiming they weren't, were treated with kid gloves by the media but Metricon is copping a barrage of bad media publicity without any real substance to drive it other than the unfortunate passing of its founder.

I hope they survive, they deserve to after 40 years and the building of many thousands of homes on the East Coast of Australia and in the process, they made the Great Australian Dream come true for all those home owners.

Media, back off and let them get on with business in a very tough environment. If they fail, don't make it your doing.

Another phenomenon of the times is cancelling people, in this case its cancelling Australia's biggest builder.

There is a lot to lose if Metricon go down but there is even more to gain by keeping Australia's biggest home builder alive such as another 40 years of continuous work for subcontractors and suppliers.

Disclaimer; I have never worked for Metricon, know anyone from Metricon or had a home built by them, I just hate injustice of what I see here.

Subbies add a level of protection to your business and join SubbiesUnited and make use of our private members forum for up to date information but a warning, do not join if you are NOT a subcontractor, we will weed you out, you are not welcome.