A bankruptcy in the building industry is not unusual. Usually the directors of the firm involved are protected by the laws in place and are free to walk away - and often start a brand new firm on the ashes of the old one. Members of the public left with a half finished house suffer the protracted misery of financial loss - and a long wait before a new contractor can be persuaded to take on the restoration of the building programme.
An Australia wide building company has just placed its affairs in the hands of a liquidator - and the man at its head happens to be a member of the Australan Senate. Bob Day is a Family First Senator and he has signalled his resignation to concentrate his energies on sorting out the mess and trying to bring relief to victims awaiting completion of their dream homes. As part of this plan, he intends to sell his own home.
Home Australia was a holding company that operated independently named subsidiaries in each state. They were known as Huxley Homes in New South Wales and Ashford Homes in Victoria. There order books disclose that two hundred homes are partly built in NSW and a further fifty-seven wait completion in Victoria.
Today's building regimen is based on contractors delivering their trades to the assembly of a new home. This starts when the concrete slab is poured, and then the frame and roof trusses are delivered from various factories. Assembly teams put these in place and then the plumbers, electricians and roof tilers move in and do their work. Finally, the finishing carpenters and the painters finish the job - and it is ready to be handed over to the new owners.
The bankruptcy of this major building company will have wide repercussions. In all states a host of small contracting firms will be seriously out of pocket and many building supply companies will face losses for materials which have not been paid for. It is probable that this will result in a further string of bankruptcies.
Owners of these half finished homes will search for insurance compensation and then have the task of finding a new builder prepared to complete the task. That will not be easy. Most builders are reluctant to work where a bankruptcy is involved in case money shortages have resulted in "short cuts ". Any sub standard work would be at their expense to rectify.
No doubt there will be an enquiry into why this building group failed. Pricing building activities is a risky business because the work is subjected to weather delays, changes of building ordinances, sudden price increrases of building materials - and outright thuggery by building unions seeking to extract utopian working conditions and increased pay.
Bob Day is a very unusual man. He is relinquishing a well paid job in the nation's parliament - to which he was recently reelected - and will take much of the task of sorting out the affairs of Home Australia and their subsidiaries on his own shoulders.
This is a decision which unquestionably says much about his own integrity !
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