Ebert’s fund for subcontractors $1m short

what the retention payment should have been.

It is up to Justice Churchman to decide whether these 21 subcontractors are eligible under the new legislation to the retentions fund.

The judge said he was likely to deal with the classification issues in his decision.

‘‘It may be that I have to issue a decision in principle on those and follow that up with reasons which I can’t guarantee when I’ll actually be able to issue those,’’ he explained.

Those excluded because of a the computational error were the ‘‘most difficult of the categories’’ to rule on.

These subcontractors were owed an estimated $170,000 in retentions, according to Rachel Pinny, the counsel for receivers PWC.

Justice Churchman also said he intended to grant the application for the receivers to be appointed by the court, and rule on whether receivers’ costs should be capped at $150,000.

According to PWC, the subcontractors were not expected to be paid anything beyond what was in the $3.69m fund.

The company had less than $10,000 in its other accounts at the time of its collapse.

Auckland Ventilation Services has the largest claim for retentions, making up 14 per cent of the fund or $546,808.

The company’s lawyer, Craig Andrews, argued that allowing the 21 subcontractors whose retentions were not included in the fund to make a claim to it would ‘‘do violence to those that did have it put aside’’.

Receiver Lara Bennet said: ‘‘The aim here is to get some money out before Christmas, it’s not doing anybody any good sitting in a bank account.’’