Former director and shareholder Scott Wilcox denies responsibility for Dome Building’s collapse

Former Dome Building director Scott Wilcox has rubbished claims he’s to blame for the luxury home builder’s demise. Instead he says he made offers that could have saved the company.

Former Dome Building director Scott Wilcox says he is not responsible for its collapse.

Former Dome Building director Scott Wilcox has hit back at claims he’s to blame for the collapse of the luxury construction business, insisting his offers to help save the company from going under were rejected by his ex-colleagues.

The South Melbourne-based home builder entered liquidation on Friday, with current directors Jamie Brockman and Andrew Crellin telling customers in a letter financial hardship in conjunction with the inability to pay Mr Wilcox an annual payment led to the company’s demise.

However, Mr Wilcox – who is now a managing director of his company W – disputed the reasoning behind Dome Building going bust in a LinkedIn post, adding there’s been “a lot of misinformation flying about” following the announcement.

“I am shocked and saddened by the decision of the Dome directors to put the business into liquidation,” he said.

“With this announcement, there has been a lot of misinformation flying about and – understandably – emotions are running high, including my own.”

Scott Wilcox has hit back at claims he is responsible for Dome Building's collapse.

The former Dome shareholder continued by disclosing details of his annual payment agreement with the company, something he said he had not done previously to take “the higher road publicly and privately and not comment on the details of exit and agreement”.

He explained he loaned the company a “very substantial” amount of money in 2022 – the same year he resigned and moved to W – in a bid to keep Dome Building afloat.

Mr Wilcox said he has not seen a cent repaid of that loan, adding he had spent months working with the company to try to negotiate new loan terms.

“The worst-case scenario was always for the directors to put Dome into liquidation. No-one had more to lose from this decision than me,” he said.

“The facts are I have spent months working with the directors trying to negotiate new terms for the repayment of the very substantial loan.

“I have not received a dollar in repayment of this loan and I don’t anticipate seeing this changing as a result of the liquidation.”

Dome Building’s Brighton House.

The South Melbourne company was known for building luxury homes.

In negotiations, Mr Wilcox said he offered to return to the company to get it back into a “decent” financial shape that would save jobs and customers’ homes.

“Instead of taking up any of the offers I made that would have kept Dome going, the directors chose to go down the path of liquidation, putting staff, trades and homeowners in an impossible position,” he said.

“This whole story just makes me sad. I ran Dome very successfully for 10 years, half of that on my own in a day-to-day sense in my 20s, eventually making it into what I believe was Victoria’s leading luxury builder.”

Dome entered liquidation on Friday.

Dome built The Healesville House.

Dome Building was making annual profits including a $4 million surplus last year, according to Mr Wilcox who added he was “astounded” by how a company in such a position haemorrhaged so much money in a short time.

“It’s been an uncomfortable few days, hearing that I am responsible for Dome’s demise, when in fact I was trying to come up with a plan that would save the business, people’s livelihoods and clients’ projects,” Mr Wilcox concluded.

“Moving forward, my biggest concern is for the homeowners, staff, trades and consultants on all of the Dome projects. I want to assist them however I can.”

Mr Wilcox worked for Dome Building for ten years between September 2012 and August 2022.

Dome Building Founder Andrew Crellin reportedly owes Mr Wilcox millions of dollars.

Jamie Brockman is another director at the collapsed company.

Mr Crellin reportedly owes Mr Wilcox $6.5 million after the W founder lent him the money to purchase his two shares in the company in November.

Mr Crellin and Mr Brockman said their inability to service that debt was a key reason the company needed to be put into liquidation.

“Due to the extraordinary financial hardship builders have endured over the last 12 months we have been unable to meet our annual obligation to the former director in full for this year,” the duo said in a letter to customers.

“We have been attempting to negotiate revised payment terms that would still allow full payment to him in a manner that would also allow the Dome business to survive.

“However the revised payment terms have not been accepted and ultimately negotiations have failed.

“Unfortunately the failure of these negotiations has had a detrimental impact on our business. Our business has now been forced into liquidation due to our inability to meet our obligations and the refusal to accommodate payment terms the business can manage.”

PFK Melbourne was appointed as liquidator of the business on Friday and Dome Building has ceased all trade.