Adelaide Designer Homes collapses leaving dozens of heartbroken families with unfinished homes
- Builder based in SA placed into liquidation
- Paying customers left with unfinished building sites
- READ MORE: Whitefox Recruitment boss charged over debts
A South Australian residential building company has collapsed leaving 20 homes unfinished and more than 80 creditors with significant unpaid bills.
Adelaide Designer Homes has gone into liquidation which is being handled by Anna Agostino of insolvency firm Clifton Hall.
'We wrote to homeowners (on Thursday) and basically handed back the sites, telling them the company can't continue,' Ms Agostino told 9News.
One employee of the company said he should have 'jumped ship' earlier as he was left out of pocket and the company had been in financial difficulty for a while.
'With a name like Adelaide Designer Homes, you'd think that's what you're getting... that maybe it will get better, or maybe we can work through this or maybe it's a hiccup, but it's not,' he said.
Ms Agostino said increased material and labour costs resulted in the company being unable to fulfill fixed-priced contracts it took on before Covid.
She added she is looking into whether the company should have closed down sooner.
'We'll investigate whether they've done that in a timely manner or not, but they have complied with that obligation.'
Luxury SA residential builder Adelaide Designer Homes has gone into liquidation
About 20 building site were handed back unfinished to paying customers this week
The luxury home builder has previously won the HIA-CSR Housing Award for Best SA Bathroom and another for Best SA Steel Frame Project.
Some creditors have alleged the company was taking on more contracts than it had the resources to complete before it collapsed.
Nearly 3,000 builders have gone bust in Australia in the past year, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) data.
The figure is up about 28 per cent from the previous year.
Adelaide Designer Homes has been contacted for comment.
