Bay of Plenty builder folds owing creditors $500,000

File photo / Thinkstock

One of the Bay of Plenty's leading builders has been shut down - owing suppliers and sub-contractors about $500,000.

David and Kay Fawcett's WTF Builders, which had the David Reid Homes franchise for the area, was placed in liquidation following a court application by a long-time customer, Mt Maunganui Roofing.

The roofing company was owed $13,500 dating back to the middle of last year, and the court action was joined by Inland Revenue Department.

The move resulted from an informal meeting of 20 creditors held earlier this year. The amount of money owing to them totalled at least $500,000.

"Some of us were personal friends of David [Fawcett] and none of us were getting paid," said one creditor.

The Bay of Plenty Times left a phone message with Fawcett but he had not returned the call before today's publishing.

Auckland-based liquidator Garry Whimp, due to provide his first report on November 18, said he did not yet have a complete creditors list and he was still sifting through the company accounts.

"The things we have seen, there's nothing alarming. We are still tracking transactions and assets, and David [Fawcett] is being very helpful," Whimp said.

Fawcett, an award-winning builder who has built homes in Tauranga for 25 years, honoured some personal guarantees to main suppliers such as Placemakers, ITM and Carters.

He originally operated under Fawcett Construction, established in November 1985, and this company went into liquidation in mid-July.

The liquidator Grant Reynolds said there was an inter-related loan between Fawcett Construction and WTF Builders, but otherwise it didn't have a lot of assets.

WTF Builders was incorporated in February 2003 and took over the David Reid Homes Bay of Plenty franchise. Fawcett also used the name DRH Bay of Plenty.

Under that David Reid Homes brand, the Fawcetts won numerous Registered Master Builders awards - the last being a gold medal in the 2008.

The local David Reid Homes franchise has been taken over by RKK Construction, which was incorporated in August last year. The directors are Kerry Bird, Kaelin Clark and Ronald Clark, and Fawcett is working for them as a supervisor.

Bird also has the David Reid Homes franchises in Rotorua and Gisborne, and the Clarks run David Reid Homes (Hauraki) after giving up the Coromandel franchise in August last year.

Whimp said he would be looking at the circumstances of the transfer of assets -David Reid Homes brand, intellectual property and computer system - from WTF Builders to RKK Construction to see if there was any value in them for the creditors.