Point To Point building company goes into liquidation leaving homeowners in the lurch

Local Democracy Editor·NZ Herald·

1 May, 2017 05:00 PM5 mins to read

Laetitia and Edward Lues, shown with baby Isabelle, paid $130,000 to Stephen Foley but have only an unusable foundation on their Gulf Harbour section. Photo / Doug Sherring

A building company has collapsed owing almost $2 million to 130 creditors including 30 homeowners who have been left in the lurch, some of them for the second time.

Point To Point Holdings went into liquidation in January leaving 30 houses at various stages of construction between Tuakau and Whangarei.

For some of the homeowners it's the second time in as many years they have been stung by a building company, with homeowners in the Pukekohe and Tuakau areas also losing money when NZ Home Builders went into voluntary administration in 2015.

And Stephen Foley, the director of Point To Point Holdings, now renamed HPTP 2014 Ltd, once headed up another building company that collapsed, was previously made bankrupt, and was a banned director for almost three years, though not at the time Point To Point Holdings was set up.

Beachlands residents Stewart and Sonja Goodsir have spent more than $100,000 in building deposits with NZ Home Builders and Point To Point Holdings, which they fear is lost.

The couple, in their 50s, signed up for two house and land packages in Pukekohe with NZ Home Builders.

Sonja Goodsir said they paid an $80,000 deposit for two homes to NZ Home Builders, and after the company went into administration they were put in touch with Foley whose company offered to take over a number of the builds.

This time the couple asked for their deposit to be held in a solicitor's trust account and took out Halo Insurance, a guarantee offered by Certified Builders for clients of members.

But Goodsir said it's not clear whether the money, about $20,000, was given to a lawyer and that after it was paid in August last year Foley stopped returning phone calls.

No construction took place on the sections and eventually the couple had to sell one and a boat they owned.

Goodsir said they were unsure whether to proceed and were awaiting the outcome of a claim lodged with Halo.

"I just feel like I've been quietly destroyed," Goodsir said. "It just takes a toll."

Edward and Laetitia Lues have paid $130,000 to Foley but only have an unusable foundation on their Gulf Harbour section.

The money, which the couple raised through an inheritance and using KiwiSaver contributions, included a $45,000 deposit for a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house.

"It's just been an absolute nightmare from the start," Laetitia Lues said.

When Point To Point Holdings went into liquidation Lues said Foley offered the couple a new contract, at almost $50,000 more, to complete the house with Maddison Homes, a company that his wife is the director of.

I doubt very much we will recover anything.
Stephen Foley

But the couple, who have two young daughters, declined. They are trying to sell the section and start again.

Liquidator Derek Ah Sam from Rodgers Reidy Accountants said recovery of the money owed, between $1.7m and $2m, looked unlikely.

Foley, 49, who lives at Gulf Harbour in Whangaparaoa, told the Herald the amount owed was $1.2m and that he was a victim too.

"There are matters that are being looked into which could lead to action being taken with past employees.

"We had an extraordinary amount of theft that went on within the company last year."

That theft combined with the continuing increase in building costs which could not be passed on to clients because of fixed-price contracts, resulted in the company's downfall, he said.

"Am I gutted, disappointed, all those emotional as you'd expect feelings? Yeah, absolutely. Am I angry about what happened to those homeowners? Absolutely. Which is why there will be civil action taken. I doubt very much that we will recover anything."

Foley said he started Point To Point Holdings to create employment and ran fine margins to help homeowners let down by other building companies.

"We were genuinely the good guys and we got screwed. If people think my wife and I financially gained from this then they would be wrong."

He would never do residential builds again, he said, and Maddison Homes was not trading. Foley would not say what line of work he was doing now.

Meanwhile creditor Roofworx NZ made an application in the High Court at Auckland for liquidation of two more of Foley's companies, Point To Point Construction and Metfix - a company that renovates methamphetamine contaminated houses.

Foley contested the application on Friday and it has been adjourned.

Certified Builders chief executive Grant Florence said he was aware of at least 10 homeowners who had made claims with Halo over the collapse of Point To Point Holdings.

Foley's membership had been terminated, he said.