A former construction manager who managed multimillion-dollar projects claims he is now “living in a shack” because his clients refused to pay their obligations.
Jason Rayner of Tasmania asserts that “non-payers” have driven his company, JMR Fitting and Labour Hire Services Pty Ltd, to its knees.
According to documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the business owes $415,858.49 and has a negative bank balance of $11,826.
JMR owes the Australian Taxation Office the entirety of its debt, less $526.56.
Following a string of high-profile firm failures, the discovery is made at a time when the Australian construction industry is grappling with rising costs and bankruptcies.
Jason Rayner (pictured) of Tasmania asserts that “non-payers” have driven his company, JMR Fitting and Labour Hire Services Pty Ltd, to its knees.
Mr. Rayner told the Mercury that “people not paying for jobs” generated the debts.
According to him, an outstanding bill for $23,475 linked to his own retirement benefits.
It is due $391,856.93 in unpaid GST and PAYG.
Mr. Rayner stated that the company had previously owed roughly $50,000 in unpaid retirement benefits to other employees, but this had been settled.
“Everything was finalized last week,” he claimed.
The November 2013-founded JMR Fitting and Labour Hire Services Pty Ltd was voluntarily dissolved on November 21.
According to documents filed with ASIC, the company terminated operations on September 17, 2019.
JMR Fitting and Labour Hire Services Pty Ltd (seen worker) purportedly transferred its assets to the company with a nearly identical name.
A month earlier, however, Mr. Rayner incorporated a company with the same name, JMR Fitting and Labour Hire Pty Ltd.
Reportedly, JMR Fitting and Labour Hire Services Pty Ltd in Railton, northwestern Tasmania, moved its assets to JMR Fitting and Labour Hire Pty Ltd.
It is believed that the business, which employs dozens of people, continued to operate during the transition.
It is said that JMR has dozens of employees. Featured is a social media photo from the company.
“All I want to do is go on with my life,” he told Daily Mail Australia. “This happened 3.5 years ago.”
A former employee of JMR said that the company did not pay his superannuation contributions for a time, but that the issue was eventually remedied.
He stated, “I was not paid overtime for a few years until other employees caught on.”
Australia’s building industry is struggling
The Clough Group, one of Australia’s oldest construction companies, filed voluntary administration on December 6, leaving 1,250 employees unemployed.
Murray & Roberts, the South African parent firm of the Perth-based company, warned investors that a $350 million “white knight” acquisition plan had fallen through.
The 102-year-old construction and engineering firm, which is constructing the Australian government-backed Snowy Hydro 2.0 energy project, was scheduled to be acquired by the Italian construction firm WeBuild.
On November 24, a construction titan with a two-year-old revenue of about $100 million became the latest construction company to fail.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are apparently owing to subcontractors by the Western Australia-based FIRM construction company, which has declared bankruptcy.
Mark O’Gorman, the company’s director and co-owner, stated that the company’s financial woes were exacerbated by rising labor and material expenses.
‘Over the past few weeks, we have worked closely with the Department of Finance to ensure that our approach is aligned in terms of how best to deliver on our public sector contracts, and we expect this process will continue as we reorganize the company,’ he said.
Privium:
As a last ditch effort, the company poured $3 million into a Gold Coast cryptocurrency and more than $500,000 into a Christian charity.
Privium group, a conglomerate of enterprises best known for home construction, went into insolvency in December, with an investigation into their accounts revealing that they had likely been conducting business while insolvent.
Hundreds of properties were left incomplete as a result of Privium’s bankruptcy, with founder and CEO Rob Harding expressing “great regret.”
Privium, a Brisbane-based company that incorporates the real estate developer Impact Homes, has constructed homes in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.
Due to Victoria’s lengthy lockdown in 2020, the pandemic negatively impacted the group’s revenue, as construction sites around the country were shut down.
Administrators believe a series of investments rather than Covid were responsible for its demise, noting the $3 million crypto wager.
It converted the cash into Bartercard dollars, which were subsequently exchanged for Qoin coin, the currency of the Gold Coast.
They also mentioned a $530,000 payment to the Christian charity Love Your World, whose board of directors includes Rachel Harder, the wife of Privium founder Mr. Harder.
The amount was paid in four installments in 2021, and Love Your World additionally received a special dividend of $50,000 in 2019.
These payments may also violate directors’ responsibilities.
In April, the Sydney-based company declared bankruptcy, citing the pandemic, rising material costs, and even the floods as causes.
Next, a company that specialized in inexpensive housing for seniors and students, declared bankruptcy owing $5 million to creditors, including $400,000 to its employees.
Its largest project, a $35 million student apartment development near UNSW in Kensington, is currently in jeopardy.
The Gold Coast company folded in January, a month before ProBuild, with $1 billion in pending coastal projects in Queensland.
Steve and Tracy Marais, co-founders of Condev, unsuccessfully sought a $25 million bailout from developers, with Tracy Marais predicting that more companies will face the same fate.
They were had to abandon a number of brand-new developments, including a complex on the Cannes Waterfront in Surfers Paradise.