Another failure for builder
From the outside, no-one would have picked Todd Kirk Halliday was heading towards another financial disaster.
He and wife, Anna, drove a Land Rover Discovery and an X5 BMW wagon. He owned harness-racing horses and lived on a lush two-hectare property in the Canterbury countryside. He had a boat and two jetskis.
He also owned an apparently successful building company called HT Construction, and to hear him talk, creditors say, he oozed confidence and optimism. He also owned other companies, including one called Ha Ha Developments.
There was no laughing, however, when HT Construction was last month put into liquidation by the Hallidays themselves, with unsecured creditors owed about $300,000. The full extent of the debts has yet to be finalised but IRD is owed $33,554 in GST and PAYE of
$7260.
Halliday, a former bankrupt, is no stranger to business failure.
He owned building company Phoenix Homes (2004), which was liquidated in early 2008 owing $1.1 million to unsecured creditors who eventually got
12.5c in the dollar in the wash-up. Master Builders, which was forced to clean up the mess by finishing uncompleted homes, got a court order against him for $311,000 in late 2008 and within a month he was declared bankrupt.
Halliday told The Press he would lose his house as a result of the latest liquidation and his horses, which had no value anyway, had been moved on. The family’s cars had been re-possessed and he wasn’t sure what his next move would be.
‘‘I didn’t want to be here again,’’ he said.
Asked what he wanted to say to his creditors, he said he had already spoken to about 90 per cent of them.
His company got into strife over a
$5m building contract in Ferry Rd in Christchurch that cost the company
$6m, he said. Then an arrangement the company had with a property company, where it would scope work in exchange for repair contracts, turned sour and the repair work was awarded to another company.
Halliday said he was looking at legal action.
HT Construction was set up in 2012 after Halliday was discharged from bankruptcy. Its business model entailed quoting for jobs and getting other contractors to do the work.
A North Canterbury couple, who do not want to be named, signed up with HT Construction to build their retirement home about 18 months ago. Their previous home was destroyed in the 2010 Canterbury quakes and they cash settled with their insurance company.
Their house is still unfinished. Problems began at the beginning of the year when a project manager left HT Construction and work slowed down.
Halliday took over project management, brought new subcontractors in and did some of the work himself. Delays increased and the couple despaired of seeing their home finished.
They terminated the contract about six weeks ago and found many of the contractors had not been paid. A family member said the couple had become ‘‘stressed out’’ working with Halliday.
Halliday agreed delays had plagued the job, but said the owners were partly responsible.
The Hallidays have owned their 2ha property in Ohaka since 2016 and own a $600,000 property in Rolleston. Todd Halliday also owns half of a 1315sqm property in Wigram through Ha Ha Developments.
Mel Hurrell, of Custom Made Garage Doors, said his company had lost more than $20,000 in the Phoenix Homes collapse and HT Construction ‘‘slipped through the cracks’’ to become a client again.
He had to chase HT for $3000 and, although he finally got it, he would never deal with Halliday again.
‘‘It’s very frustrating dealing with these guys. He promises the earth and delivers nothing.’’
Halliday’s racing interests included three trotters trained by Simon McMullan.