There’s good news for some, but no news for others after a builder signed on to complete close to a quarter of the homes left unfinished by the collapse of Porter Davis.
Nostra Property Group has entered into a sales agreement for Porter Davis’ multiple dwelling business, liquidators Grant Thornton confirmed on Monday.
Nostra will complete up to 375 townhouses, including 169 where work is yet to begin, as well as offer ongoing employment to 16 Porter Davis staff.
The parties have been able to preserve jobs and minimise disruption for existing and future builds, Grant Thornton Liquidator Said Jahani said.
“All parties worked tirelessly to achieve a positive outcome in an extremely short period of time,” Mr Jahani said.
Nostra founder and managing director Anthony Caruana said it was a natural fit for his business.
“We will work towards not only completing the existing partially built homes in this portfolio but also those projects yet to commence,” he said.
“This will ensure we can provide much-needed certainty to the families who have purchased a PDH-designed townhouse and they can once again look forward to having a new place to call home.”
An email sent to those able to start and complete their builds with Nostra did not outline the costs associated with building with the company.
Many are waiting for the company to contact them, which is expected to be after the Anzac Day public holiday.
One customer, who didn’t want to be named, said she still felt like she was in limbo despite the “good news”.
“We don’t know how much it will all cost,” she told AAP.
“It [the email] says nothing about the price of the new contract, when the build starts or the process – so we are really feeling neither here or there.
“We don’t even know if the deposit we paid and lost – because Porter Davis didn’t take out insurance – has to be repaid or if we need to cover the builder’s fee to the liquidator. There are a lot of unknowns.”
Porter Davis customer Richard Williams lost his $40,000 deposit when the builder went under.
Despite legislation in place to ensure he was insured, domestic building insurance wasn’t taken out on his behalf meaning there is no legal recourse to recoup his money.
It would have cost Porter Davis less than $1000 to insure his build, but they didn’t.
He said the Nostra news was great for some.
“But the majority of us are still left in the dark,” Mr Williams told AAP on Monday.
He said a letter from Grant Thornton, informing customers about builders offering to complete the homes left unfinished by Porter Davis, left many unanswered questions.
One builder told Mr Williams the cost would be at least 20 per cent higher than what Porter Davis had charged. They would also charge an additional $20,000 to cover the cost of an agreement with Grant Thornton to take on the job.
Dozens of Porter Davis customers, including Mr Williams, rallied on the steps of Victoria’s parliament on Sunday, calling for more support from the government.
Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan said the government was still assessing what steps it could take to support affected customers.
Opposition leader John Pesutto said Monday’s news was positive but noted many other would-be homeowners were still facing difficulty.
About 1700 homes across Victoria and Queensland were left in limbo when Porter Davis went into liquidation last month.
© AAP 2023
