Subbies hit hard by collapse

Matty Crane and John Ivich are upset about losing money due to the Designer Homes Wide Bay liquidation.

Mike Knott

ROB McKeown thought he could trust his employers at Designer Homes Wide Bay.

But after 18 months with the company, Mr McKeown discovered the directors of the failed company have left him with a $48,000 hole in his bank account and little hope of seeing his wages.

“I started doing their carpentry, then my dad and brother came to work there too,” Mr McKeown said.

“We all went fishing together, I thought we were mates.” The carpenter only discovered the company had folded on Wednesday, when he visited the home of one of the directors and found it abandoned.

“All of their stuff was gone, and I had this feeling of dread — the worst feeling I’ve ever felt,” Mr McKeown said.

“I raced over to the office and it was the same there. They didn’t even tell me.”

Mr McKeown said his entire family was devastated by the closure.

“Effectively I worked all of last year for nothing. The worst part is, we pay the BSA (Building Services Authority) their dues every year, and we still can’t get anything back when something like this happens,” he said.

Plasterer John Ivich echoed Mr McKeown’s frustration.

As well as being owed $30,000 by Designer Homes Wide Bay, Mr Ivich said he had not seen a cent of the $5000 he lost when Coral Coast Homes collapsed in June last year.

“The BSA is sucking the money out of tradies but does nothing — everyone has protection except the subbies,” Mr Ivich said.

“It will get to the point where tradies will ask to be paid in advance in case something like this happens again.”

He said while his suppliers were understanding, it was a stressful situation.

“Greens Building Products has been really good to me but I’ve got six employees to worry about as well,” he said.

“We can’t get any work done because of the rain, and we had that money earmarked for bills.”

Liquidator Ross Duus said there were about 40 creditors owed money by the company, and while the full amount was not yet known it was expected to be at least several hundred thousand dollars.

The BSA is working with 22 homeowners who have buildings at various stages of development around Bundaberg.