Building companies are falling like dominoes and yet another one has been added to the heap as it became the latest victim of the crisis on Tuesday.
Perth-based builder Flexible Homes Pty Ltd went into voluntary liquidation on Tuesday, according to a notice filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Gregory Quin and Kim Wallman of insolvency firm HLN Mann Judd have been appointed as joint liquidators.
The website and Instagram page for Flexible Homes have already been shut down.
It comes as earlier this week there were reports of frustrated customers unable to contact the company, especially as the office was shut down earlier this month, leaving them nowhere to turn.
So far it appears 19 homeowners were customers of Flexible Homes and will now be impacted, according to The West Australian.
News.com.au has contacted the liquidators for comment.
Flexible Homes had recently undergone leadership changes, with its role of director and all the associated shares being transferred just a month before the company’s demise.
Christopher Platt, who has been the company’s director since May 18, told 9News several days before appointing liquidators that he was thinking of shutting the business down.
“This all is getting too stressful,” he said.
“This was never meant to be this way, but now with all the media and negativity, it would be impossible for me to run the company.”
Pavreet Singh and MD Sunny registered Flexible Homes as a proprietary limited company in 2000 but both quit as directors in February.
They handed the reins over to a man named Manmohan Singh. Mr Singh then subsequently passed the directorship onto Mr Platt.
Mr Sunny told The West Australian Flexible Homes had been struggling because “the prices of everything had increased” in the industry.
“I couldn’t handle that,” he said. “Everything’s gone up so I couldn’t actually manage everything. That’s the reason I resigned.”
He added that he appointed a new director in his stead and transferred his shares of the company.
Flexible Homes has operated for 23 years but was unable to withstand the woes besetting the building sector.
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It comes as the entire building industry is in crisis because of supply chain disruptions, skilled labour shortages, skyrocketing costs of materials and logistics, locked-in price contracts and extreme weather events.
So far this year, around more than a dozen builders have collapsed.
On Friday, news.com.au reported that Melbourne construction firm Red Bluff Homes had gone into liquidation amid a dispute with a customer over suddenly cancelling the contract.
Last month, another Western Australian firm, the Slatter Group, also went into liquidation, after being in business for 20 years.
Interface Constructions Victoria, which specialised in childcare and education projects, also appointed external administrators in May.
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