QBCC calls end of Empire
Company linked to Q1 Homes has licence suspended
QUEENSLAND’S building watchdog has suspended the licence of a company closely linked to collapsed builder Queensland One Homes.
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission has been investigating Ormeau-based Empire Constructions Pty Ltd since July, after Queensland Homes collapsed owing more than $5.8 million.
The sole director of Queensland One Homes, Paul Callender, is the husband of the sole Empire Constructions director Amber Callender.
Allegations of illegal phoenix activities have been referred to ASIC, while a third company, FRD Homes, is also being examined by the QBCC.
FRD, run by former Olympic swimmer Dwade Sheehan and ex-world champion rower Cy Pearson, has 25 of their clients’ new homes contracted to Q1 Homes, and then novated to Empire Constructions.
Q1 Homes liquidator Michael Caspaney last week revealed he had been unable to obtain crucial company records from Q1 Homes after hard drives were left in the back of a ute in the rain, where they became too wet to recover files from. Other hard drives were missing from a company server, the liquidator said.
Mr Caspaney said he would bring those involved with the collapse before a Supreme Court public examination under the Corporations Act.
Ms Callender had written to subcontractors denying her company was being investigated and claiming it “has and always will” pay subcontractors what they’re owed.
The company has responded to payment requests from subcontractors with legal letters claiming media reports about them are “false” and “sensationalist”.
The QBCC has repeatedly confirmed the company remains under investigation.
Meanwhile the watchdog has revealed it suspended 15 contractors in the last financial year due to insolvent trading or other serious risk.
Despite suspensions increasing by seven licences compared to 2012-13, the commission’s cancellations of individual licences have sharply decreased. Where they cancelled 283 individual licences in 2012-13, only 123 were cancelled in 2016-17.
The number of company licence cancellations has also fallen, from 139 to 85, as has the number of permanent exclusions, which have dived from 123 to 33 in the past four years.
In their annual report, tabled in parliament last week, the QBCC flagged “improved effectiveness of building laws” in the coming year due to new powers currently before the State Parliament. The report revealed the commission had issued significantly more demerit points in the past year, 5342, than they had in the previous four years, when between 1292 and 1842 were issued.