Construction insolvency is a chain-reaction industry: one failure strands homeowners mid-build, freezes subcontractors’ invoices and orphans defects claims all at once. The instinct is to pursue the dead company; the discipline — and the recoveries — lie in mapping every route around it. We act for homeowners left with half a house and for trades left holding the invoices, with the same first principle: honest arithmetic before hopeful litigation.
The Homeowner’s Map
First 72 hours: confirm the insolvency type, stop payments, document the works, secure paid-for materials, and take advice before terminating — the contract’s insolvency and termination clauses decide how you lawfully bring in a completing contractor and claim the extra cost. Then the recovery survey: bonds where the contract had one; the structural warranty on a new home, which generally survives the builder’s failure (warranty claims); insured professionals and certifiers whose roles failed (professional negligence); retention and set-off you still control. The liquidation claim itself gets filed — and expectations set accordingly. Full playbook: builder gone bust mid-build.
The Subcontractor’s Map
When the payer fails: your pre-insolvency debt joins the queue, but the live decisions matter more — whether to keep working through an examinership or SCARP process and on what protected terms; retention of title over materials not yet built in; direct-payment arrangements with the employer above; and the insolvency exception to the pay-when-paid ban, which changes the usual payment analysis. The structural fix is preventative: terms and credit discipline set up before the next failure — contract review for trades.
What We Won’t Sell You
False hope. Unsecured recoveries from building-company liquidations are usually poor; personal claims against directors succeed only on narrow facts; and litigation spending should follow the insurance and the security, not the anger. The first consultation is the arithmetic: what each route realistically yields, what it costs, and where your money and energy actually belong — sometimes in completing the build well rather than fighting over the wreckage.
Builder Gone - Job Half Done?
Homeowner or subcontractor: the first 72 hours shape the recovery. Call before you terminate, pay or sign anything.
Call 01 5827148