GENERAL NEWS
COLLAPSED builder Porter Davis could be facing heavy penalties if it left customers uninsured before going bust, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has warned.
There were 779 customers who had paid a deposit but whose project had not yet started work when the builder collapsed...
Said Johani of liquidator Grant Thornton told a packed webinar with distressed customers last week homebuyers who paid deposits without...
“You are required to lodge those insurance premiums and there are very significant penalties if you choose not to,” Andrews said
“Your customers are not there to provide you with an interest-free overdraft. They are there to be insured. So...
The Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA) has said that customers who paid a 5% deposit and...
Andrews said regulators were investigating reports Porter Davis lopped $50,000 off the price of its signature Grange-style houses early in...
“We are very, very concerned about…this notion of the price of baiting (by) a business that had no reasonable expectation that...
Andrews also confirmed that Porter Davis had approached Treasurer Tim Pallas for a bailout, which was refused....
Andrews said there was a due diligence process done by the Commonwealth Bank that included external consultants...
“The size of the problem got bigger, not smaller, when the externals had a close look at it,” he said.
“Where a bank refuses to prop up a business, that’s exactly the place where I don’t think we should be stepping in.
“To go without an administration, to go straight to a liquidation phase, tells you that the fundamentals of that business were not strong.”
“If Daniel Andrews had acted when Porter Davis came to his government, isn’t it possible that some deposits from home buyers might have been protected?”
“It’s always easier and better to deal with a company in a state of distress before it goes into liquidation.”
Johani has said there is strong interest from multiple companies keen to take over Porter Davis’ contracts, and that...
Resolution possible this week