KEY POINTS:
A tradesman says he is owed $100,000 by troubled property investment group Merlot.
On Friday, Merlot Homes Ltd, the development arm of Merlot Property Investments, was placed in liquidation by its creditors.
Merlot has about 300 investors who bought $100 million of rental houses through the company, which also offers financing packages. The business then leases their properties, rents them to tenants and pays the owners a fee. Merlot Homes designs and builds homes in the Auckland region, which are sold to the investors and to owner-occupiers.
Plumber Peter Charleton said he hadn't been fully paid up for about a year for work he had done on Merlot Homes' Pukekohe development, Merlot Lane. He was now owed just under $100,000.
He knew of other tradespeople who were out of pocket.
Yesterday, Merlot Homes shareholder Stewart Goldstone said he had no idea why the company had been put into liquidation. "It only happened on Friday afternoon and I've not been party to it."
He also denied he was a director of the company, although Companies Office records indicate that he is.
He referred calls to his fellow shareholder Grant Petrie.
Last month Merlot Property Investments wrote to its clients saying it was having problems with rent payments.
Palmerston North investor Vicki Walsh said she and her husband were now owed $1400 in rent arrears on their Merlot rental property in Tuakau. She knew of another investor who was owed $3000.
Two weeks ago the group offered Walsh and other investors the option of going with other property management companies. The options included Harcourts and a new company, RPG Property Management.
Merlot Homes director and shareholder Grant Petrie signs himself as a director of RPG. Companies Office records show a company called RPG Residential was incorporated on July 4, two weeks before the Merlot Homes liquidation. Petrie is listed as the sole director of that company.
Petrie did not return the Business Herald's calls yesterday. The Merlot Property Investments Auckland office line went to answerphone.
