Veteran developer Jim Raptis and two of his companies win QBCC legal brawl to keep licences

A veteran Gold Coast developer has won a legal brawl to keep his Queensland builder licence after a Supreme Court Judge ruled in his favour against the state’s construction regulator.

The Supreme Court has ruled the QBCC set aside notices warning they would cancel Jim Raptis’s building licence.

PERENNIAL developer Jim Raptis has won a legal brawl to keep his Queensland builder licence after a Supreme Court Judge ruled in his favour against the state’s construction regulator.

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission had tried since April 2018 to cancel the licence of Mr Raptis and two of his construction companies, Ezra Constructions and Garnet Constructions.

In a 17-page judgement, Supreme Court Justice David Boddice declared notices issued by the QBCC to Mr Raptis and the companies be set aside.

The case hinged on the interpretation of the QBCC Act, which was amended in October 2014, with the relevant new sections commencing operation in July 2015.

Arguments centred on transitional provisions in the legislation, designed to ensure people weren’t unduly disadvantaged by changes to the law.

Jim Raptis Photo: David Clark

The QBCC in April 2018 sent Mr Raptis and the two development companies notices that it considered him an excluded individual on the basis of him being a former director of a company named RT No. 2.

RT No. 2 was placed into external administration with debts of $3.54 million in September 2014.

Mr Raptis is also a previous director of another company, RT No. 3, which went into liquidation with debts of $7.49 million in November 2015.

Both RT companies were used during the development of the three-tower Sapphire project at Labrador.

The QBCC took action against the Raptis group under the previous laws, under which the person or company threatened with exclusion had the right to apply to be a permitted individual.

The court found Mr Raptis was not afforded that right in this case and set aside the notices.

Raptis Group project Waterpoint Residences, near Harbour Town shopping centre at Biggera Waters, by Ezra Constructions. Photo: Supplied

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Mr Raptis did not answer the Bulletin’s calls today, but in a puzzling after-market statement to the ASX, his listed Raptis Group entity said it was “pleased” with the judgement, which was published in full on the Supreme Court website yesterday morning and subsequently covered online by the Bulletin.

“We refer to on line subscription content published by the Gold Coast Bulletin on 12 March 2019,” the statement began.

“In the normal course we would have waited until the court had completed their process and formally issued the judgement in the coming week.

“We are pleased this matter has been resolved successfully as anticipated and we continue to seek opportunities for the group.”

The group had previously attempted to distance the listed entity from the court proceedings and did not inform the market of their existence until after the Bulletin reported on them in August.

The Raptis team also argued that RT No. 2 was not placed into administration “for the benefit of a creditor”, a condition the QBCC would have required to exclude Mr Raptis from holding a licence.

Lawyers for the QBCC and its officers rejected that assertion, saying “for the benefit of a creditor” did not necessarily mean that creditors had received any money back.

Judge Boddice agreed with the QBCC on that point, ruling RT No.2 had been placed into administration for the benefit of a creditor.

Regardless, the QBCC’s notices were set aside, with the judge set to hear from both parties on how the matter, and its legal costs, would be dealt with.

Raptis’s Ezra Constructions is near completion of its 140-unit tower Waterpoint Residences near Harbour Town and also built the 57-townhouse Panorama Residences at Carrara, projects with a combined value of $47 million.

ASX-listed Raptis Group told its shareholders in August the court case would have “no material” impact on them despite documents filed with the court by Mr Raptis and his legal team said Garnet Constructions “is part of the publicly listed Raptis Group Limited, which has 589 shareholders”.

The listed Raptis Group, largely made up of creditors from a previous Raptis company collapse, made no revenue in the first half of the financial year.