Victorian construction firm goes into administration, impacting 115 homes

The director of a building company has made the “hard decision” to place the business into voluntary administration.

EXCLUSIVE

The director of a building company has made the “hard decision” to place the business into voluntary administration, placing more than 100 projects into jeopardy.

News.com.au can reveal that on Monday morning, the 115 customers of Victorian-based construction firm Langdon Building Pty Ltd received the devastating news.

The company’s eponymous director, Shane Langdon, emphasised that the business has not collapsed and will continue to trade. He also noted the company is not in liquidation, and there are no plans for it to be.

Construction work would “pause” for the next six weeks while administrators work to get things “back on track”. He said his intention was to complete every building project.

“Voluntary administration … is a process intended to assist companies facing financial challenges restructure to get them back on a more sustainable footing and ready to meet economic and business challenges,” Mr Langdon explained.

Sam Kaso and Shaun Matthews from insolvency firm Cor Cordis have taken on the job of turning around the business.

They told news.com.au they had commenced an “urgent review” of the company’s financial affairs and would keep everyone updated with their discoveries.

Victorian construction firm Langdon Building has gone into administration.

Mr Langdon said he had worked in Australia’s building industry for more than 30 years and said current financial conditions made it harder than ever to survive.

“I have never experienced the extreme economic challenges builders have faced in the last two years,” he wrote to customers.

“It’s the perfect storm of materials and labour shortages, bad weather, supply chain disruptions, Covid impacts, interest rate increases, rising insurance costs – just to identify some of the many issues.”

Langdon Building Pty Ltd is headquartered in Ballarat, west of Melbourne, and has been a registered business since 2005.

On its still active website, it says it “constructs single and double-storey homes including custom designs in Melbourne Metro, Geelong, Ballarat & Bendigo”.

Customers have been told to contact administrators on [e-mail] or [e-mail] with their concerns.

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Customers received the news on Monday morning.

News.com.au has reported on dozens of builders going into administration and liquidation over the past two years.

Several major builders have gone bust already this year despite being only one month into 2024, including Montego Homes and Alpha Building Group.

Interestingly, both are also based in Victoria.

A staggering 2349 construction firms have collapsed in the past year — with fears more may fall soon.

In times of economic hardship and inflation, building companies are usually the first to feel the pinch as they run on such small margins.

Indeed, of the 8471 business collapses for 2023, almost 28 per cent were in the building and construction industry, according to data put out by the corporate regulator.

The previous Morrison government’s HomeBuilder grant, which was introduced in June 2020 and handed out $2.52 billion to owner-occupiers who wanted to build or substantially renovate a home, turbocharged the sector.

More than 130,000 customers signed on for the program, with many tradies agreeing to the work under fixed-price contracts that soon became unsustainable as prices began to soar.

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