Victorian builder Chatham Homes enters liquidation owing $2,000,000 to unsecured creditors

A Victorian residential builder has entered liquidation and terminated all of its staff.

River Dale Building Group Pty Ltd, which trades as Chatham Homes, appointed AS Advisory as its liquidator on Monday, October 2.

The firm said Chatham Homes stopped work on all of its current 50 residential home projects in Victoria, while there were an additional 29 signed contracts where construction was yet to begin.

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It said the builder was without funds and, as a result, had to terminate its 16 staff.

“The liquidators are working urgently to determine if a solution can be found to support customers, including engaging with key stakeholders and potential interested parties who may be willing to take over the current customer contracts,” liquidators Andrew Schwarz and Ben Conrad said in a joint statement.

“(Chatham Homes) director and shareholder regret the situation and note that the shareholder has provided significant recent funding to the company and had exhausted its funding options in this regard to allow the company to continue to operate.”

AS Advisory’s initial investigation revealed the builder has approximately 200 unsecured creditors who are owed about $2,000,000.

The company blamed “well reported” issues plaguing the construction industry nationally for its collapse.

These challenges included rising input costs, supply chain delays, labour shortages and fixed prices, the statement said.

Terminated staff have been directed to make a claim for outstanding wages with the federal governments’s Fair Entitlement Guarantee Scheme.