Staff and sub-contractors for Imagine Building Concepts have been left blindsided after they received calls from an administrator on Wednesday morning, saying the company had gone bust.
Imagine Building Concepts Pty Limited was taken over by RSM Australia on October 9 after it entered into voluntary administration.
This administration also covers a related labour services company, Imagine Management Pty Ltd.
The company's construction manager, Dion Young, said his team of eight had not been paid what they were due.
"No staff, including myself, knew anything about this until [the liquidator] contacted me yesterday morning," Mr Young said in a personal statement to The Canberra Times.
"Our reputation as a team has been tarnished by somebody else," he said.
The company had 10 employees at the time RSM Australia was appointed. An initial review of financial statements show more than 100 creditors who are owed in excess of $4 million.
A contractor told The Canberra Times he estimated his company was owed roughly $57,000 since they were hired by Imagine to work on the Acacia complex in Whitlam in May 2023.
He had two staff on the job who have been paid, but said he had lost his entire profit margin after more than a year of work.
"We've essentially done it for nothing," he said.
Acacia has been granted practical completion and tenants have begun moving in.
The Canberra Times understands the Bulum Group was the developer on Acacia. It has been contacted for comment.
'Rumours are generally true'
The Canberra Times also understands the Acacia site was previously a PBS Building project.
PBS Building had an active project in Whitlam at the time of their collapse in 2023, according to a liquidators' report released in late June last year, but an exact address was not published.
The contractor on the Acacia site told this masthead he was working on the project for PBS Building prior to Imagine taking over the job.
He said he was not paid for the work done when contracted for PBS Building. He was not expecting to be paid for his work under Imagine, either.
"We took a hit on that one last year and now we will take another hit on it," he said.
Imagine Building Concepts Pty Limited has been contacted for comment.
The companies are part of a string of builders to collapse in recent years, including Project Coordination which was wound up in September after it entered voluntary administration earlier in the year.
This climate meant sub-contractors were often unsure where there next job would come from.
"I am definitely hesitant about who is asking me to price a job," the Acacia contractor said.
"If you hear rumours [about someone going under], they're generally true."
"But you just don't know who it's going to be - who will go under next," he said.
'It is disgusting'
A contractor on a different Imagine project, who said he was owed "hundreds of thousands", said more protection was needed for sub-contractors.
He described Canberra's construction industry as being in the worst position "it has ever been in".
"It is disgusting. It is an abysmal industry at the moment," he said.
When work was quiet, sub-contractors were pricing low on new projects
They were running on a "perpetual cycle" of debt while waiting to be paid for work as a result.
The contractor said these payments often never came, or came well-after company owners had paid their staff.
Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2009 stipulates that contractors must wait until a payment is overdue by 90 days to lodge a claim.
These claims are lodged for active companies. One in voluntary administration or that are being wound up are dealt with by the liquidator.
"Then, you know you will have to wait a few months at least - if you even win the claim - so you have to be able to float what you're claiming for," the contractor said.
"Going in with a zero margin is a recipe for disaster."
Do you know more? Contact Lucinda at l.garbutt-young@austcommunitymedia.com.au
