Monday, June 30, 2014

Bust building firm partners trade blame for homeowners’ woes

The sole director of a Christchurch building firm that went bust owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to homeowners has laid a complaint with police about his business partners.
Steve Hicks is at odds with his Tectonic Construction Ltd business partners Levi and Asher Davey over who is responsible for the company’s downfall. Police are investigating. The Press previously reported that Erica McLachlan paid Tectonic Construction more than $220,000 in advances for a land and house package in Kaiapoi’s Silverstream development.
However, construction of the house stalled earlier this year and Silverstream Estate said it was never paid for the land.
At least three other homeowners have lost their deposit.
Several sub- contractors were never paid for their work, according to a former employee. Subcontractors have also come forward saying they are owed tens of thousands by the company.
One had to call in a debt collector to settle his bill. Hicks, the company’s sole director, yesterday apologised for the mess.
‘‘I am very sorry . . . for the stress, disappointment and financial loss this has caused them [creditors] and their families.’’
Hicks said he had left the financial side of the business to Levi Davey, which ‘‘has been to my detriment’’.
Hicks said he asked for full disclosure of the financials but these were not made available.
Davey blamed the company’s situation on Hicks, who removed almost $40,000 from the company accounts.
‘‘We were told it [the money] was going to come back and it didn’t . . . and it just dragged on and on and on and the company couldn’t survive.’’
He said he had lost ‘‘everything I had, down to the last cent’’.
Davey said yesterday that he and Hicks shared the financial duties.
‘‘Asher and I have nothing to hide. The accounts are all 100 per cent correct. I would love [the police] to come in as then maybe they might do something about Steve taking the company’s money.
‘‘I want him to be held accountable for what he has done. Plus to make sure he won’t do it again to anyone else.’’
Hicks said the removal of money was because he noticed a large sum of company money had been transferred to a personal credit card account.
‘‘Due to these concerns, I withdrew the remainder of funds in the company account, being $38,000, and put this into a lawyer’s trust account so we could resolve the issues.’’
The money had been used to pay suppliers and workers, he said.
‘‘I have been trying to do the right thing.’’
Hicks said the company was no longer trading and had been insolvent for ‘‘some time’’.
Two landowners paid tens of thousands to the company in deposits to build houses on their section, but construction work never started.
Kent Allison paid Tectonic Construction over $47,000 as a deposit to build a house on a section in Canterbury six months ago. Completion was due mid-May, but Tectonic Construction had not even started work.
‘‘All they managed to do over six months was lodge an error-ridden and incomplete building consent,’’ he said.
Allison said Levi Davey and Steve Hicks had been blaming each other.
The Press understands that another landowner lost a $50,000 deposit to the company to build a house on a section, but no work has been done.
Erica Mclachlan said she did not accept Hicks’ apologies.
‘‘It’s a whole crock of b . . . s . . . . All they do is blame each other.
‘‘Our lives have been wrecked – an apology is not good enough,’’ she said.
Sub-contractor Dane Moule, of K and D Cartage Ltd, said his $25,000 bill was only paid after he threatened to pull up the flooring he had laid for the company. Then he called in the debt collectors.
He still had an outstanding dumping fee of about $2000, he said.
‘‘They were trying to make excuses,’’ Moule said. ‘‘It was like a game of ping pong but you can only play ping pong for so long.’’
Another Christchurch company that trades as Tectonic Enterprises Ltd is not related to Tectonic Construction.