Ex-AB’s house project caught in firm failure
Former All Black Matt Todd has been mauled plenty of times on the rugby field but now he and partner Anna McCormack feel they have been stiff-armed by the builder of their Queenstown duplex project.
The Todds and their friend Elliot Andrews hired Christchurch company Build 7 South Island to build a two-unit investment project on a Queenstown section overlooking Lake Whakatipu in 2019 but, due to Covid-19, building didn’t get under way until 2022.
Their troubles came to a head late last year when subcontractors started approaching them for money, saying Build 7 had not paid them. One subcontractor said he was owed $100,000.
Earlier this month, without any prior warning from Build 7’s director Jamie Cowan, the Todds were shocked to hear Build 7 (registered name Nawoc Limited) had gone into voluntary liquidation with debts of about $1.5 million, owed mainly to unsecured creditors.
The company has nine projects in Christchurch, Queenstown, Lake Hāwea and Wānaka still to complete and five yet to start.
A week before liquidation, Cowan, whose wife bills herself as a business mentor, had told them he had paid contractors and all was well, McCormack said. “I don’t expect people to feel sorry for us. We can get through. But I feel terrible for the contractors who have worked so long on this project and have not been paid.
“Other people with homes only part finished are much worse off than us,” she told The Press.
The Todds, who have four children, now hope to get bank funding to finish the project and pay all contractors. The work contractors had done was amazing, McCormack said.
Cowan was a “lovely guy”, just “incredibly useless”. Their own naivety might also have had something to do with the fiasco, she said.
It was ironic that Francesca Cowan had set up an organisation called Smart Babes Societe through which she offered master classes on how to make businesses profitable, McCormack said.
The Todds were furious when they found out Jamie Cowan, 44, had started another company, Nucleus Properties 2024, two weeks before Build 7’s liquidation. His mother Ann, of Queenstown, is listed as the only director.
“There they are just starting again. I hope our experience is a warning.”
The Todds are left wondering about where the progress payments they made to Build 7 have gone and reckon they could have lost $200,000.
“We paid our money, and it hasn’t been passed on to anybody. We can’t even get our building insured as [Build 7] hasn’t paid the insurance in six months. It is a disaster and such a huge, huge mess now,” McCormack said.
Build 7’s shares are owned by Jamie and Francesca Cowan and a lawyer’s trustee company. The shareholders put the company into voluntary liquidation on March 5, appointing Christchurch insolvency practitioner Brenton Hunt as liquidator.
In his report, Hunt said efforts to reduce company overheads through layoffs and selling assets had been to no avail. Increasing material prices post Covid could not be recouped under the company’s contracts with clients, and problems were exacerbated by consent delays and an inability to get more work.
However, Cowan’s new company appears hopeful. The Nucleus Properties website claims “to help kiwis on the path to living their dream lives, by building gorgeous homes that add real value”.
Cowan was a director of Riise Scaffolding, set up in 2018, but resigned on March 15. He vacated his shares on March 20.
The Cowans sold their St Albans, Christchurch, house for $2.6m in November last year. Hunt said Cowan had put any money left after paying the mortgage into the company.
One Queenstown tradie working for Build 7 said the company was always late paying him “so the writing was on the wall”.
The tradie, who asked not to be named, said he was owed about $45,000, which was “incredibly stressful” given the size of his business.
Another creditor, owed $20,000, said it had enjoyed working with Build 7 until payments stopped. Now it has little hope of having the debt satisfied and felt frustrated Cowan appeared to be setting up under another company name.
Despite many approaches by The Press, Jamie Cowan did not comment.
Matt Todd is currently the assistant coach of the Crusaders rugby team and made 25 appearances for the All Blacks between 2013 and 2019.