Tom Orel’s Oracle Homes in hands of liquidators as icare activates Home Building Compensation Fund

Just last year, it was profitable. But now, with debts of $14 million, Oracle Building has plunged into liquidation. Here’s what the owners of 170 incomplete NSW houses must do next.

About 170 homes in NSW have been left unfinished following the failure of Oracle Building Corporation.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the majority of 300 part-built houses caught in the Queensland company’s collapse are in the Hunter Valley and Central Coast.

The incomplete NSW projects figure was provided to The Daily Telegraph by Oracle liquidator Bill Cotter after his initial discussion with state government agency icare, which administers the Home Building Compensation Fund.

Oracle customers who contacted icare on Wednesday were sent forms to begin the claims process.

Oracle is based at Logan and may owe secured and unsecured creditors about $14 million, according to Mr Cotter’s insolvency firm Robson Cotter.

Oracle Homes’ head office on Wednesday. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Mr Cotter said Oracle Building director Tom Orel was “fully co-operating” with a “view to maximising the prospects of recovery for all classes of creditors.”

Mr Orel had highlighted the “difficult circumstances prevailing in the construction industry, including the recent and rapid rise in costs of construction materials eroding the company’s margins, and substantial delays experienced in securing supply of materials and labour,” Mr Cotter said.

Oracle Homes founder Tom Orel.

“These factors resulted in cost overruns and delays in project completions, which severely impacted the company’s cash flows and its capacity to continue to operate.”

Oracle posted a profit of $1.3m last year on a 35 per cent increase in revenue to $67m, according to financial statements lodged with the corporate regulator.

The company employed about 70 people, all of whom were “terminated effective from the date of the liquidators’ appointment,” Mr Cotter said.

Oracle made headlines earlier this year when it sought tens of thousands of extra dollars from clients to complete their homes amid the deepening financial crisis in the construction sector.

An unfinished Oracle home. Picture: Facebook

Creditors and suppliers have been circling Oracle in recent months over unpaid debts with one taking a caveat over the $5m Gold Coast mansion in which Mr Orel lives with his wife Elia.

Dynamic Bradview Roofing launched Supreme Court action this month to recover $910,000 from Oracle over the supply of building materials.

At least two other suppliers – Raven Roofing and Regency Showerscreens and Wardrobes – have also launched debt recovery actions against Oracle.

As its financial situation deteriorated, Oracle demanded up to $120,000 from some home builders before they could move into their homes, sparking a warning from the building watchdog to seek legal advice before paying any extra money.

In a letter to his customers earlier this year, Mr Orel said the increase was blamed on “ongoing ripple effects” of the pandemic causing supply shortages.