Melbourne construction firm Como Homes spared from going into liquidation but company director to sell family home

The builder is battling mounting debts, a “long line of creditors”, and has been evicted from its premises as customers demand answers.

A court has spared an embattled building company from going into liquidation despite mounting debts, a “long line of creditors”, and the landlord repossessing the office space.

On Wednesday morning, Melbourne-based Como Homes Pty Ltd was called in the Victorian Supreme Court after disgruntled creditors initiated winding up proceedings against the business in January.

Judicial Registrar Gitsham ordered an adjournment on the case for three months to give the company director time to sell a property to settle the debts, which total nearly $1 million.

“The family home that is being sold by the defendant is listed for settlement in September,” Como Homes’ solicitor, James Shannon, told the court.

Mr Shannon said the company’s director was seeking to sell the property to pay back the debts, but said only some of them were “legitimate ones”. “Not all (debts) are acknowledged,” he added.

The solicitor also said his client, Como Homes, had reached an agreement with the main plaintiff in the case, Flooring Xtra, who claimed they were owed $141,000, according to court documents.

However, 12 other supporting creditors had joined the case, including the Commissioner of State Revenue, which is now seeking to be substituted as the plaintiff.

The purpose of the company director selling his home is in order to meet his obligations to both his creditors and his clients, a spokesperson said. Many other builders had taken the "easy option" of going into external administration but he is doing right by his clients, they added. 

Two days earlier, news.com.au revealed Como Homes owed nearly $1 million to 13 creditors and that its phone lines had shut down while its social media accounts had disappeared.

In April, landlords repossessed the builder’s office in Dandenong, in Melbourne’s southeast, which was also when its landline stopped working.

Concerned customers were greeted with the eviction notice when they visited the firm’s offices.

The eviction notice pasted on the office of Como Homes in April.

The site where Jeremy’s home used to sit.

On the Como Homes website – which still remains live – the residential builder boasts its customers are “the envy of the street” and implores anyone interested to contact them if they are “ready to discuss your dreams”.

However, for one customer who spoke to news.com.au, Jeremy*, said for him, it was more like a nightmare.

“I’ve been sending emails, texts, no reply,” he said.

The dad-of-two engaged Como Homes to knock down and rebuild his family home in Melbourne last year.

“Nothing happened until February. And then the house was demolished. And then that’s it, nothing has happened,” he said.

Jeremy, 56, and his family moved out of the property in December and have been renting ever since. Now they have no idea when their build will begin, with their block sitting empty.

“We’re spending around $2000 in month in rent, we could have saved that,” he lamented.

He spoke to a company representative on June 27 where he was informed he build would be starting in a couple of weeks.

But growing concerned, Jeremy decided to visit the company’s offices, where he saw a notice that the landlord had evicted Como Homes.

“Enough’s enough. I took a day in lieu and we (he and his wife) went to the office and in the office we found a sign saying they had been evicted.

“That was the heart crunching thing, we knew ‘okay, something is happening’.”

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The company claimed its homes made customers “the envy of your street”.

The builder appears to have fallen on hard times.

On January 24, Flooring Xtra began winding up proceedings against Como Homes after it failed to comply with a statutory demand for payment.

The flooring supplier provided invoices which showed from July and August last year, Como Homes racked up debts of $141,000 in those two months but never paid.

Flooring Xtra suspended work with the company in August and several months later lodged documents with the Supreme Court.

This lodgement sparked a pile-on for Como Homes.

A further 12 other applicants joined the court proceedings as supporting creditors in the following months.

The Commissioner of State Revenue was the first supporting creditor to join the case after Flooring Xtra, demanding a tax debt of $44,000.

There were also a number of trade creditors who joined the case claiming they are owed money, including: AAA Advanced Truss (Dandenong) owed $130,000, its sister company AAA Advanced Windows owed $278,000 debt, Liquid Force Plumbing owed $67,000 and Austral Bricks with a $70,000 hole in its balance books.

Other tradie businesses are owed smaller amounts, such as Crystal Interior Concepts Pty Ltd, allegedly owed $14,500, Sitetech Solutions owed $14,888, and Waco Kwikform Limited, coming in at $9600.

Cornell Developments, a concreting and earthworks company, is owed an unknown amount, but still registered as a petitioning creditor.

According to a CreditorWatch report obtained by news.com.au, Cornell Developments is owed $101,000 for invoices dating back to February last year. It’s unclear how much of that debt still remains outstanding.

Bunnings Warehouse was also one of the creditors for $9000 that had not been paid back but pulled out for unknown reasons in May.

Two customers also joined the case, for debts of $5250 and $185,000 respectively.

It appears that the debt to Flooring Xtra has since been paid.

During the court proceeding, the legal representative for Austral Bricks said there was a “long line of creditors” involved in the case, when they were seeking to be substituted as the main plaintiff.

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