A Podular home shown on the company's website. Photo / Podular
A Podular home shown on the company's website. Photo / Podular
Councils from Northland to Dunedin, Crown-owned entities, subcontractors, suppliers, an airport company, plumbers, glaziers, electrical suppliers and lawyers are listed as creditors of a failed North Shore-headquartered national modular house builder.
Podular Housing Systems’ liquidators Ben Francis and Simon Dalton of Gerry Rea Partners listed the Far North District Council,Western Bay Of Plenty District Council, Marlborough District Council, Waipa District Council, Auckland Transport, Masterton District Council, Hamilton City Council, Rotorua Lakes Council and Dunedin City Council on the eight-page creditor list.
House builders pay councils application, consent, inspection and final compliance signoff fees and charges as homes are granted consent and progress on sites, hence the long list of councils claiming money.
Building or resource consent fees must be lodged initially, then reserve contributions, planning, urban design, compliance, monitoring, investigation, environmental health and other fees apply.
Waikato Regional Airport is also a creditor after renting the business premises.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is listed as a creditor along with Meridian Energy, Trustpower, KiwiRail, Inland Revenue, Isle Land Planning, electrical supplier JA Russell, and many joinery and construction businesses.
Wellington doctors Kathryn Percival and David Pirotta, who stand to lose more than $500,000 in down payments if their Marlborough Sounds modular home is not built. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Morrison Kent Lawyers in Auckland appear on the list along with plumbing businesses Mico NZ (Christchurch), Mico Rotorua, Allgo Plumbing and Drainage, HH Diamond Plumbing Plus, Hutchison Plumbing Gasfitting & Drainlaying, Kowhai Plumbing and Peter Jackson Plumbing.
National businesses include Seek (NZ), Vodafone, Smith Crane and Construction, EnviroWaste Services and Carters Buiding Supplies.
National Glass Rotorua, Wally’s Glass of Gisborne, Waikato Cranes, Sanders Manufacturing, South Island Forklists, The NZ Natural Timber Co, Queenstown Media, Prestige Loos, Knobs ‘n Knockers, Drain Doctor NZ, Johnson Brierley Architecture of Grafton in Auckland, Auckland Cranes, Kennards Hire, Just Water,
“There’s a lot of businesses involved,” said one party close to the meltdown.
Ben Francis said today a number of creditors had been in contact with the liquidators but media wouldn’t be allowed at the December 13 creditors’ meeting in Auckland because it was important those claiming money be able to speak freely and openly. It was therefore inappropriate to allow journalists in, he said.
How much the businesses the liquidators have listed are owed or claiming individually isn’t disclosed in the report but the total deficit is estimated at $5.2m, making it one of the largest collapses in the modular housing sector.
Media yesterday reported an apology from Podular’s 5 per cent shareholder Charles Lewis Innes of Mt Eden, who until October owned 10 per cent of the company. A Sunday Star Times story said he was deeply sorry to those who had lost their life savings.
Ilan Gross of Grey Lynn owns 95 per cent of Podular. He told the Herald last month he was hoping to sell the company to overseas buyers who could then take over customers’ stalled house builds and finish them.
Customers said Gross had been telling them this for weeks yet they hadn’t seen evidence for it.
The liquidators’ report issued on Friday identified more than $2m in deposits paid by customers whose homes weren’t started. That money was also in the general trading account so customers’ deposits couldn’t be identified.
“The liquidators have identified in excess of $2,000,000 of deposits that have been paid by customers for which work has yet to be started.
The deposits were held in the company’s general account and do not appear to have been spent for the purposes for which they were paid.
The Herald highlighted the plight of some Podular customers last month, including Wellington doctors Kathryn Percival and David Pirotta who estimated $500,000-plus losses. Podular was to build their modular home in its factory, then deliver it completed to their Marlborough Sounds property within months.
Plans were finalised last August, yet they still don’t have their house.
