Liquidator of collapsed building firm alleges director was loaned nearly $1 million in company money

The building boss received a loan for nearly $1 million in company money while his customers have been left with nothing, according to a public liquidator’s report.

The director of a failed building firm received a loan for nearly $1 million in company money before the business collapsed while his customers have been left with nothing, according to a public liquidator’s report.

Tozer Construction Group, which did residential building in NSW and the ACT, was court-ordered to go into liquidation at the end of the 2022 with debts of $3.227 million.

A statutory report lodged by the appointed liquidator, Stephen Hundy of insolvency firm Worrells, suggested the company’s sole director, Corey Tozer, had committed possible offences in his duty as a director under the Corporations Act. The regulator, ASIC, has not taken action against the director.

The report, lodged last year, said Mr Tozer was issued with a demand to pay back $908,251.98 that he had taken out from the company in personal loans.

This money was not repaid but a solicitor representing Mr Tozer disputed the amounts and claimed the building boss had no assets left anyway to pay anything.

Meanwhile, the Kemp family have lost out on a large portion of their life savings after paying a deposit to Tozer Construction for a renovation job but later learned it was not covered by insurance. As a result, they lost the lot.

Eighteen months on from the builder’s collapse, mum-of-three Anita Kemp, 46, told news.com.au she has “exhausted every avenue” to rescue her money and has now created a GoFundMe out of desperation.

“It’s unravelled to be a nightmare,” Ms Kemp, based in Wagga Wagga, told news.com.au. “The deposit was $13,200, which may not sound like a lot, but it is a lot for our family.”

The Kemp family lost most of their savings because of the building company collapse.

They’ve been unable to recover any of their money.

The investigation into Mr Tozer and his company has since ended because funding for the liquidator dried up, the report stated.

There was “nil” money left in Tozer Construction Group’s bank account and “no class of creditor” received any money back.

Of Tozer Construction Group’s substantial debts, $576,865 is owed to employees for unpaid superannuation.

A further $1,012,397 is owed to the tax office in PAYG tax debts and GST credits.

Other unsecured creditors are owed a little over $2 million.

The company had about 80 projects in Wagga Wagga and about 180 in Canberra, according to an employee who previously spoke to news.com.au.

Mr Tozer sold his property in Wagga Wagga in 2022 and is understood to now be residing in the Gold Coast.

The building company director committed two potential offences under the Corporations Act, according to the report lodged with ASIC, which were contraventions of care and diligence, and contravention of good faith.

News.com.au attempted to contact Mr Tozer for comment.

The company has now been deregistered, but Ms Kemp is hopeful her fundraising attempt will recoup some of her missing money.

“It was just a big slap in the face,” she said of the whole ordeal.

The Victorian government announced a slew of changes last year in the wake of the unrelated collapse of major builder Porter Davis, which failed to take out insurance for hundreds of aspiring homeowners who had paid deposits.

A government rescue scheme fully reimbursed customers of Porter Davis and was then expanded to others victims of failed building companies which had collapsed in the same period of time.

Nothing comparable has been rolled out in NSW.

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Sarah Towers when she was starting in her role as a project administrator at just 18.

Sarah Towers says she was basically running building projects despite having no experience.

News.com.au previously spoke to a former employee at the defunct Tozer Construction Group who said the staff turnover was massive.

Sarah Towers was just 18 when she started work at the company straight out of school but said that as staff started quitting in droves, it was left to her to organise the builds for customers’ dream homes, even though she had no experience.

“It was pretty bad. Customers wanted their refunds. We got called pretty much every day and got screamed at (by tradies) asking when they were going to get paid,” Ms Towers said.

The young worker claimed she would often end up organising the home builds herself despite never having worked in construction before.

“We just kept picking up jobs we couldn’t handle,” she claimed.

“I remember we signed on a $2 million job, they wanted their money back, we couldn’t pay them.”

The liquidator found that the company’s revenue increased from $5.88 million in 2020 to $9.53 million in the following year.

Then it dropped “significantly” in its final year of existence.

This spike in projects coincided with the rollout of the HomeBuilder grant, which was introduced in June 2020 and handed out $2.52 billion to owner-occupiers who wanted to build or substantially renovate a home.

Although this turbocharged the sector and was hailed as a way to prop up the economy during the slowdown from the Covid-19 pandemic, the subsequent cost of living crisis and rising prices of materials pushed many builders to the brink.

Indeed, of the 8471 business collapses for 2023, almost 28 per cent were in the building and construction industry, according to ASIC.

Contribute to Anita Kemp’s GoFundMe here.

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Originally published as Liquidator of collapsed building firm alleges director was loaned nearly $1 million in company money