Carters chase Bella Vista director for more than $1m

Building supplies firm Carters is chasing Bella Vista Homes director Danny Cancian for more than $1 million it claims it is owed.

Carters has taken Bella Vista, which built and sold leaky houses to first home buyers, to the High Court to seek $1,078,668, which it says it is owed for products supplied to the company over an 11-month period.

The company claims Cancian personally guaranteed the firm would be able to make punctual payments of money owed. It sought a summary judgment against Cancian, which is a bid to get a result without having to go to full trial.

Cancian, on the other hand, claims he entered a deed of guarantee agreement by misrepresentation, and only personally guaranteed $50,000.

Bella Vista Homes went into voluntary liquidation on November 30 last year.

The latest liquidators’ report showed Bella Vista Homes had just $28 with which to pay more than $4m to creditors unless the liquidators could recover money from two former directors and a series of related company transactions.

Carters supplied Bella Vista with building materials up until October 2017. In 2016, on October 12, Bella Vista and Carters entered into a credit account agreement with a limit of $700,000. On the same day Cancian signed a deed of guarantee which did not have a credit limit clause. The next day, on the credit account application, there was a handwritten entry of $50,000 being the “approved credit limit”.

In December 2016 both companies entered into a supply agreement with a clause that stated Carters would pay Bella Vista a one-off payment of $10,000. Cancian claims he thought the money was a new customer “gift” to lock in clients.

Associate Judge Peter Andrew said there was arguable defence of misrepresentation in regards to the $50,000 personal guarantee.

“In my view an arguable defence that Mr Cancian was induced by a representation namely, the limit of $50,000, in entering and signing the guarantee,” Andrew said. “There is clear, documentary evidence that the credit limit was set at $50,000.”

Andrew, in a decision released this week, dismissed Carters’ summary judgment application, which means a longer hearing is required if it wishes to pursue the claim.