Home owners ‘devastated’ by building company collapse: ‘All I have is a pile of rocks’

Liquidators have been appointed to troubled Brisbane builder PlanBuild leaving 40 homes unfinished including one customer “left with a pile of rocks”.

Liquidators have been appointed to award-winning Brisbane builder PlanBuild leaving 40 homes unfinished across the city and scores of “devastated” customers.

Richard Albarran, Kathleen Vouris and Marcus Watters of Hall Chadwick have taken control of the Kedron-based company that has been the subject of complaints to the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) about unfinished projects.

The company has told several clients in recent weeks it is “shutting down its business”.

It has undertaken 34 projects so far this financial year valued at $12.2 million, compared with 51 homes built the previous year valued at $19 million.

Customers fear the company’s collapse may now impact on grants received under the HomeBuilder scheme. The company was founded in 2003 to “provide Queensland homebuyers with affordable new houses that represent outstanding value-for-money.” In 2015, the company won a national award for its projects homes.

The company, founded in 2003, was named Australian Project Home of the Year in 2015.

Single mother Felicity Cameron said her plans for a dream home at Griffin on Brisbane’s northside had been “devastated’ by the company’s collapse.

Ms Cameron said she signed her contract with PlanBuild in October and in February paid a $10,500 deposit, also applying for a $25,000 HomeBuilder grant. “But building work never even started,” Ms Cameron said. “All I have is a pile of rocks they dumped in the driveway.”

She said she is now scrambling to find a new builder to start construction of the house in time to meet HomeBuilder grant deadlines.

“Potentially I could lose both the deposit and the HomeBuilder grant,” she said. “This has been devastating and the impact extends across many, many families.”

She said she had contacted the State Government to request special consideration so she and others impacted by the collapse can still receive the grant and engage another builder.

Hall Chadwick spokesperson Ginette Muller said liquidators were still assessing how much the company owed creditors, but confirmed about 40 homes were left unfinished. She said customers affected by the collapse should contact both Hall Chadwick and the QBCC.

Subcontractors say problems have been brewing at the firm over the past several weeks with clients in early stages of their projects reportedly having the job abandoned.

Plan Build's offices at Kedron have been cleared out. Photo: Glen Norris

People in the industry believe price increases for highly sought after materials, paired with the company’s attempt to remain competitive by dropping prices has contributed to its problems.

“Some of their build contracts I couldn’t justify what they were selling it for,” said one subbie. “It seems to be a trend when builders are struggling financially they drop the contract prices to get more money in the door straight away but it destroys them later down the track.”

According to QBCC data, the number of projects undertaken by PlanBuild has been declining since 2015 when it built 133 homes valued at more than $30m.

A QBCC spokesperson encouraged any home owners who may have an incomplete contract with PlanBuild to contact the watchdog.

The spokesperson said that now liquidators had been appointed, the QBCC will begin appropriate exclusion action against relevant individuals associated with the company, but no action had been taken against any individuals.

If an individual is excluded, they are unable to hold a QBCC contractor, nominee supervisor or site supervisor’s licence or be a director, secretary or influential person for a QBCC-licensed company for three years.

The QBCC is currently collating information on the number of projects undertaken by the company, including by seeking details from the company’s liquidator.

PlanBuild director Rob Thomson could not be reached for comment.

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