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AAP
AAP
Politics
Rachael Ward

Porter Davis creditor talks fail to answer debt queries

The liquidators for Porter Davis say its unlikely families building homes will get money back. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

It's unclear when creditors owed million of dollars following the collapse of builder Porter Davis will get their money or how much they will get.

The company fell over in late March with about $147 million debt, leaving 1700 homes in limbo in Victoria and Queensland.

About 20 people representing hundreds of creditors met at the Sofitel in Melbourne on Wednesday to discuss the next steps.

Several motions were passed related to paying liquidators Grant Thornton, contracts and forming committees of inspection on three companies.

The focus remains on clawing back money but it's still too early to say how much money would be recovered and put into a pool for creditors, according to Grant Thornton partner Matt Byrnes.

Families building homes and contractors such as tradespeople are among ordinary unsecured creditors owed $71.5m, but are unlikely to receive any money.

"There's still some possibility if the (efforts to recover money) go really well that they could be, but at the moment we think it's unlikely and that's the advice we've given to the creditors," Mr Byrnes told AAP.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is owed $33m, which is likely to be paid in full.

The collapse of Porter Davis left about 1700 homes in limbo in Victoria and Queensland (Jono Searle/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Chesapeake Pty Ltd and employee priority creditors are likely to get a partial dividend.

It was revealed liquidators have sold off subsidiary luxury home building company Englehart to an unidentified builder.

All its construction projects and employees remain unaffected by the collapse of the parent company.

Some 560 Victorian Porter Davis clients were not covered by insurance despite paying the construction giant before it collapsed, forcing the state government to establish a $15m bailout scheme.

Simonds Homes and Metricon Homes have since committed to finishing some of the houses.

When asked about claims Porter Davis was accepting deposits the day before liquidators stepped in, Mr Byrnes said it was entirely possible because only senior level employees were aware of the company's financial position.

Earlier in June, the liquidators released a statutory report revealing the builder may have been trading while insolvent from February 2023.

Mr Byrnes said there were indicators it may have done so before that but the exact date remained unclear and there was no compelling case proving that things went wrong before then.

There is no timeline on the liquidator's investigation and about three terabytes of data to go through, which Mr Byrnes estimated would take hundreds of hours.

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