Inland Revenue owed $1.1m, trade creditors $460k: Auckland builder goes under

Inland Revenue owed an estimated $1.1m by the company. Photo / File

What do you do when it’s a week before Christmas and things have all gone so wrong?

Covid stopped you from working on building sites for weeks and weeks. Jobs ran over time. Staff, materials and finishing work on time are problems.

People are at you. Your debts mount to the point that you owe Inland Revenue $1.1 million - and we all know where that ends.

Your trade creditors want another $460,000. They’re sending demands.

Accident Compensation Corporation, Mercury Energy, Spark, Bunnings, Watercare ... they are all creditors. All up, you owe at least $1.56m.

You have $5017 in the bank. Things are not improving. This happened to builder Andrew Grigg and his business, in precisely that situation the week before Christmas.

On December 16, he called in PKF Corporate Recovery & Insolvency’s Christopher McCullagh and Steve Lawrence to his Rosedale-based Auckland Building Specialists.

And that’ll be expensive: they charge around $300 an hour.

It wasn’t an easy decision. The builder has been running that business since 2005. He seemed proud of his achievements.

“Auckland Building Specialists was started in 2005 by Andrew Grigg when the building industry was in a bit of a state - cutting corners, understated budgets, miscommunication and low-quality work were all common issues,” Grigg writes on his LinkedIn profile.

“Andrew was committed to creating a company that restored quality workmanship, excellent communication and delivered projects on time and within budget. We’ve kept growing since, building a name for ourselves in Auckland as friendly, professional and trustworthy.”

McCullagh and Lawrence said the company suffered a range of compounding issues such as Covid-19-related challenges, material shortages and staffing issues.

“These issues ultimately led to the business being unable to deliver profitable projects as they would run over time and budget frequently.

“Over time, this led to the company being unable to carry overheads of staff and other operating expenses, leaving the company in an irreparable financial position. It’s for this reason, that in December, trading came to a halt and the sole shareholder resolved to put the company into liquidation,” the PKF men wrote.

The estimated deficit to creditors is listed simply as “unknown” at this point.

Scaffolders, plumbers, Mico Plumbing and Bathroom, plasterers, Pink Bins Company, roofing people, Bunnings, Canon, air conditioning experts, cleaning and engineering companies, electricians, concrete specialists, painters, South Pacific Timber, door and fire people, Z Energy, hardware suppliers, Resene Paints ... all appear on a list of creditors out with the PKF report.

Auckland Building Specialists’ website says that “from concept to reality, creating dream home on budget and on time guaranteed”.

But it didn’t work out like that in the end.

Covid, lockdowns, material shortages and critical labour supply problems have dogged others in the sector as well.

Attempts were made to speak to Grigg, including a message sent via the liquidators. He did not respond by the time of publication.

However, Steve Lawrence said when asked about the situation: “I think it’s fair to say that most of our clients are emotional when they see their company fail. Generally, they do not take the process of having to liquidate lightly. And Andrew was no exception.”