Nicheliving owes state $600,000 in unpaid payroll tax: premier

Beleaguered WA developer Nicheliving owes $600,000 to the state in unpaid payroll tax, premier Roger Cook has revealed.

Cook made the revelation the same day the opposition referred the company to the corporate watchdog over concerns two of its business entities had traded insolvent for up to two years.

Nicheliving’s unfinished Willetton properties.Credit: Ross Swanborough

On Wednesday Nicheliving directors Ronnie Michel-Elhaj and Paul Bitdorf were successful in a bid to pull Nicheliving Holdings and Projex Management out of administration after a majority of creditors accepted their 2.7 million proposal.

On Thursday morning Cook revealed the state’s Commissioner of State Revenue Chris McMahon was also a creditor in that meeting thanks to the $600,000 worth of unpaid payroll tax still owed by the companies.

He said the state argued against accepting Bitdorf and Michel-Elhaj’s proposal.

“We’re a creditor, and we believe that other steps should have been taken in relation to the creditors receiving their money,” he said.

Under the rules of the state government’s bailout announced in October to get the unfinished homes of more than 200 Nicheliving customers built, Michel-Elhaj and Bitdorf relinquished their building licenses for 10 years.

Cook said that was still the case.

“Yesterday’s meeting changes none of that. The fact of the matter is that these [people] can still not build, they can still not lay a brick,” he said.

The deed of company arrangement comprised a lump sump payment of $2 million to both Nicheliving and its construction arm Projex Management and Construction, bankrolled by the sale of its Northbridge headquarters and a $200,000 deposit.

The remaining funds would be paid to the entities over nine monthly instalments totalling $522,000, with the money to begin flowing in shortly after Christmas.

A preliminary probe into the company’s affairs has found Nicheliving likely became insolvent in August 2022, while Projex may have been insolvent from as early as June 2021.

Opposition leader Shane Love has formally referred Nicheliving to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission following the probe.

“ASIC’s intervention is critical to ensure the directors of NicheLiving are held accountable, and to
demonstrate to the building industry and consumers that improper conduct will not go unchecked,“
he said.

“These claims raise serious questions about the financial management and solvency practices of both entities, with significant implications for creditors, customers, and the wider building industry in Western Australia.”

Cook also revealed the the government had recieved 212 claim under its home indemnity insurance scheme from Nicheliving customers and to date 103 of those had been paid out to the value of $19.1 million.

Nicheliving declined to comment.