Sanders Manufacturing's Auckland showroom on Dominion Rd, which has now closed. Photo / Google
Sanders Manufacturing's Auckland showroom on Dominion Rd, which has now closed. Photo / Google
A modular cabin building company has gone into liquidation owing close to $1 million — the second business led by director Charles Innes to collapse and leave customers badly out of pocket in recent months
Liquidators Blackrock Rose estimates as many as 68 customers paid deposits to Sanders Manufacturing forcabins and sheds but did not receive completed products. They now claim they are collectively owed about $450,000.
A further $392,000 is estimated to be owed to other creditors, including the Inland Revenue Department, with liquidator Garry Whimp telling the Heraldthis number is expected to rise as he further examines the books.
The first liquidator’s report is due out on Monday.
Innes is listed as Sanders Manufacturing’s director - and is also director of Auckland-based home-builder Podular Housing Systems, which collapsed in November, owing $5.2m to creditors, including up to 60 homes buyers.
Innes is understood to now be living outside New Zealand, and theHeraldcouldn’t reach him for comment.
Whimp believed Sanders Manufacturing continued taking money from customers, despite being in financial strife.
Whimp said what concerned him most was that he believed there “were 48 deposits received by the company in the last three or four months, when it’s clear the company was insolvent”.
Sanders Manufacturing’s collapse, combined with that of Podular, marks one of the largest failures in the modular home and cabin sector, an industry that is seen by some as key to helping ease the nation’s housing crisis by building more homes quickly.
Sanders Manufacturing had advertised that it made cabins, sleepouts and sheds.
It used modular designs that could supposedly be mass-produced, while also being modifiable to suit the needs of individual customers.
Eli Thomas and Sophie Annen, pictured with daughter Charlie-Rose at the site of their unbuilt house in South Wairarapa, say they are owed $350,000 by Podular Housing Systems, Photo / Dave Lintott
Auckland resident Charles Malcolm said he first noticed Sanders Manufacturing’s showroom on Dominion Rd in Mt Eden.
“They had a big site on Dominion Rd, and we were like, ‘If you can afford that, you must be relatively legit’,” he said.
He claimed he ordered an $8000 garden shed in October and paid a $4000 deposit for it. But the shed never came.
At first, the company’s staff were responsive and assured him the shed would be on its way soon. But then it became harder to reach them, until they “stopped answering the phones in December” last year, he claimed.
Builder Ryan Butcher from RNB Contracting claimed he is owed about $10,000 by Sanders Manufacturing.
Together with a client, he agreed to buy three kitset cabins from Sanders Manufacturing. Butcher planned to then build the cabins on his client’s property so she could use them as Airbnb-type accommodation.
Butcher claimed he paid a 50 per cent deposit but Sanders Manufacturing kept pushing back delivery of the materials. Then in December, he was told he could pick up the cabin framing, which he did.
However, he never received the roofing and joinery.
He said because his company signed the contract with Sanders Manufacturing and was then on-selling to the customer, his $10,000 is now likely lost.
A third customer, who didn’t want to be named, said they paid $3000 in August for a shed they never received.
Wellington doctors Kathryn Percival and David Pirotta stand to lose more than $500,000 in down payments for a modular home that was not delivered. Photo / Mark Mitchell
All three customers who spoke with the Herald said they didn’t have contact with Innes, but rather with staff at Sanders Manufacturing.
The customers also said their losses are “small fry” compared to those suffered by many customers of Innes’ other company, Podular.
Among those claiming to be owed money from Podular’s $5.2m collapse are 21 customers who collectively paid an estimated $2m in deposits for new homes, the construction of which was never started, a company insider claimed to the Herald in December last year.
Young parents Eli Thomas and Sophie Annen were those Podular customers, saying they have now likely lost $350,000 in progress payments made to Podular for a home that was never delivered to their Martinborough property, about 80 kilometres north of Wellington.
They have started a Givealittle page, seeking public help to try to ease their devastating financial loss.
Whimp said he is working with Podular’s liquidator, with the investigators agreeing to share records with each other.
Auckland’s Malcolm said that while his lost $4000 deposit to Sanders Manufacturing is not comparable to the scale of losses facing Podular’s customers, he is speaking out to “shine a light” on both companies.
He believed financial losses like these damaged trust in the building industry.
“People don’t need to second-guess and question legitimate businesses that are working hard and delivering good products,” he said.
Likewise, businesses shouldn’t be left dealing “with people that have been burnt and [are] gun-shy”, he said.
