KEY POINTS:
Sixteen customers of an Orewa building company that went into liquidation early last month have formed a group to pursue compensation for their $25,000 deposits.
The customers met for the first time yesterday at the creditors' meeting in Auckland of Meridian Homes.
The company, which had contracts to build houses from Tauranga to Whangarei, went into voluntary liquidation on November 3.
Liquidator Paul Sargison told 40 people at the meeting that the money owed to unsecured creditors totalled $3,045,000.
This included shareholder loans made by the company's director, Dean Hopper.
The meeting voted to form a liquidation committee to further their claims.
Mr Sargison said creditors included tradespeople and owners of partially completed homes, who had Master Build guarantees. A group was formed by 16 customers who had paid deposits for homes that had not been started and for which the contracts had been abandoned.
They had been referred to the Registered Master Builders Federation, which runs the Master Build guarantee scheme.
Customers paid a $723 fee for the guarantee to partially cover loss of deposit or building work not finished. But not all guarantee agreements were sent to the federation by the company.
Wayne and Carolyn Richards, of Whangarei, said they paid their deposit in April and were asked by Master Build to pay the fee again before their claim would be considered.
Another customer, Gail Francis, said the group banded together out of disappointment that a Master Build representative at the meeting was unable to give clear assurances of refunds.
Master Build manager Bruce Richardson did not return the Herald's calls.
