Bricklayers furious as they are left $35k out of pocket after Melbourne builder collapses into liquidation

The family-run business claims they are $100,000 out of pocket as building companies fall like dominoes, leaving them to foot the bill.

A family of Aussie bricklayers has lost more than $100,000 as the builders they work for keep going bust, leaving them unpaid and out of pocket for all their backbreaking labour.

The Melbourne family-run business is fuming as just on Friday, Red Bluff Homes went into liquidation.

Red Bluff’s collapse has left 21 projects at varying stages of completion in jeopardy. All up, 113 creditors have lodged proof of debt claims who are cumulatively owed $1.986 million, according to a liquidation report obtained by news.com.au.

Vicki Tanzen said her family’s bricklaying company was contracted for some of Red Bluff Homes’ jobs and its demise has left them $35,000 in the hole.

This is third time in the past year her family has been stung from a building company going under.

“All up, out of everyone (every company that has collapsed), it’s $100,000 we’ve lost,” Ms Tanzen told news.com.au.

Earlier this week, creditors were sent an initial liquidation report which detailed the many meetings Red Bluff Homes had with the insolvency experts before appointing them officially as liquidators.

This report “was a devastating blow” for Ms Tanzen.

“The company still had us out there working these f*cking jobs,” she said.

Vicki Tanzen says her business has lost $35,000 from the Red Bluff Homes collapse.

Ms Tanzen works as a bricklayer.

Ms Tanzen’s business had worked with Red Bluff for six years and there was no formal contract, only a verbal agreement of them doing business together, rendering her bricklaying company an unsecured creditor in the liquidation proceedings.

In the months leading up to the company’s collapse, there were some early warning signs that it was floundering.

In the weeks before Red Bluff went under, the construction firm tried to give the bricklaying family “more jobs” that were far away from their normal areas.

They also received a remittance slip indicating Red Bluff had paid them $10,000 but this was never deposited into their accounts.

The liquidators’ report shows the company was in early discussions about shutting down since March, and finally succumbed on June 23.

Both Ms Tanzen’s sons work in the family business.

The Tanzen family have been hit hard by building collapses.

Despite being aged 53, Ms Tanzen toils away alongside her sons and husband in the family business.

“It’s really hard to get good labourers and bricklayers, it’s a ruthless industry, that’s why I’m out there working,” she explained.

Every time they are not paid for a job, they still have to pay their workers. This leaves a black hole in her and her husband’s finances.

“The whole time you’re out there laying bricks, you’re like ‘am I working for free, or am I getting paid to do this?’” she said.

“Bricklaying is like physically the hardest trade, it’s so unbelievable. It’s tough.”

Her eldest son, who works in the business, and his wife had to briefly move back in with them amid the cost of crisis.

“Now they’ve just bought a house, it’s so a boiling point where there’s so much pressure,” Ms Tanzen added. “It’s like a pressure pot, putting so much stress on the family unit.”

Red Bluff Homes had 35 years experience in the construction sector. Picture: Red Bluff Homes

Petr Vrsecky and Glenn Jeffrey Franklin from insolvency firm PKF are overseeing Red Bluff’s liquidation.

“We’re investigating the possibility of other builders assisting with the completion of projects,” they previously told news.com.au.

It comes just months after a Melbourne mum was “brought to tears” over a bitter dispute with Red Bluff Homes after the company terminated her contract in September last year and kept their $23,675 deposit.

Dee Filik previously told news.com.au the company justified terminating her contract because of a clause about planning permits.

“We have always moved from house to house and always been in old houses and it’s been a dream of mine to build a nice family home and because I had my son coming it was something I always wanted – a nice family home to settle into,” Ms Filik said in tears at the time.

“It’s really upsetting. It’s taken a toll emotionally. I have severe anxiety daily not knowing what is going to happen with it as I’m just in limbo now.”

The company has since gone into liquidation, meaning Ms Filik might be entitled to an insurance payout.

Originally published as Bricklayers furious as they are left $35k out of pocket after Melbourne builder collapses into liquidation