Casualties of collapsed company echo same story 

 

BY JULIA WADE

Following the recent collapse of a local building company, clients and contractors have been left to deal with the aftermath, their parallel stories in relation to the owners revealing a recurring and distressing theme. 

Rogers Residential Building Company Ltd [RRB] had been trading in Mangawhai since 2016 and officially went into liquidation on March 6 owing nearly $1.2 million to creditors. 

Owned and operated by Gregory and Suzette Rogers, the company was the husband and wife team’s third insolvency out of ten* businesses since 2000, with the wife listed as director of two recently and still currently registered companies, Seabreeze Ltd and RRB Homes Ltd. 

While the exact number of private RRB clients are not yet known, those who have spoken say the couple at first present as sincere and honest, ‘good sales people’ and ‘they were good at selling you your dream’. 

However for many, the dream soon began to resemble a nightmare with RRB’s positive first impression deteriorating into sporadic communication, with little building progress made once money exchanged hands, the stalled activity blamed on product suppliers and tradespeople, clients left out of pocket and sadly for some, not even a home to show. 

One Ruakaka client says he contracted RRB in mid-2017 to build an architecturally-designed home on their land in Bream Bay after a Mangawhai real estate agent recommended the company. 

He says he checked RRB out with local builders, consulted with the company’s architect and conducted a ‘cursory’ search online to check references. With no alarm bells sounding ‘except a general comment that they’re a bit slow on paying their bills’, his wife and himself met with the executives and drew up a tentative plan. 

“They looked us in the eye, said all the right things,” he says. “They asked us for 15 per cent deposit… however I found out later that the general consensus in the building industry is 5 per cent with the maximum 10 percent.”

Despite money being paid to RRB for initial work to begin, the client says after four months the ground had not even been broken for the concrete slab to be laid. Frustrated, once he finally got hold of RRB, he says he was just fed excuses and ‘fobbed off’.

“They blamed suppliers or contractors for building delays and say they would be switching to other trades and services. Nothing was ever their fault, it was always everybody else’s.” 

The client also holds little hope of recuperating any money due to hearing about RRB’s vague invoicing of services and products, leaving the paper-trail hard to follow. 

“We’re going to try and keep going, we’re in the hole for about $70,000 and no house but because we have to replace that, we’ve actually lost twice the number,” he says. “I’m really angry about it. I’ve always done business with a handshake and have never been ripped off. We shook hands, they took everything and gave nothing. They’ve stolen our money and as far as I’m concerned, they’re crooks.”

Contractors have also been left with unpaid wages with one local builder reportedly owed nearly $8000, leaving him to borrow money from his parents to buy food for his young family. 

Another builder/painter, Roger Jansen, worked with RRB in Whangaparaoa from September 2016 as well as in Mangawhai but ended his contract with the company in December 2017 when he became aware the company was heading for trouble.  

“I started hearing things like accounts were on hold and they were buying materials with a credit card and then that was maxing out. I started saying to people they’re going down the gurgler,” he says. “I got out ok… I walked before they had a chance.” 

Jansen says at first the RRB director appeared straight-up but his views changed after witnessing and experiencing what he calls ‘under-handedness’ towards some contractors. 

“Like telling a builder they need a house completed for an open day so he works hard-out despite being sick… then they [RRB] admitted there was no open day, they just said that to get the job done,” he says. “Also poor organisation of building projects, moving people into houses that were still being completed and lack of communication… they have no idea how to run a business. They owe a lot of tradee’s wages, people with young families to support and retired couples… they don’t seem to care who they hurt though.” 

While some clients have houses to show from their involvement with RRB, the quality of work they say was poor, requiring owners to borrow additional funds in order to get the house up to building consent, and liveable standard.

A Mangawhai couple say they contracted RRB when the company first moved from Whangaparoa in 2016, to build a number of houses on a parcel of land they were developing. The couple, who wish to remain anonymous due to local business interests, generously allowed RRB to park their portable office on site, rent free for 12 months while they got themselves established in the area and worked on the couple’s first house. 
“However, they really dragged their feet to get the job finished and began making excuses saying the contractors weren’t turning up. We were paying RRB to pay the contractors to keep the building going but as it transpired, Rogers hadn’t paid them,” he says. “To me that is just blatant theft.” 

He goes on to say that RRB had a number of houses on the go and, with the style of the builds, people paying in advance with ongoing progressive payments, ‘there should have been plenty of money’.

The couple cannot say yet just how much they are out of pocket, but calculate it will be in the high tens of thousands. They have employed the services of local tradespeople themselves to finish the house and have also had to foot for the rubbish removal bill, after RRB vacated the premises leaving building debris including the company’s signage and even their sewage tank, at the site. 

Furthermore, relations of the couple who were going to buy the first house once completed allegedly provided RRB with electricity on the agreement the relations would be reimbursed once the job was finished. 

“They’ve given them a bill but of course they haven’t paid it… that says a lot about the character of these people,” he says. “They came across as being genuine in their intent but I now doubt how genuine they were, it was just lie after lie, blatantly, to your face. It’s not just about mismanagement when so much money has gone missing, that’s fraud. However whether it can be proven through the receivers remains to be seen.”

The Focus endeavoured to track down clients through building industry professionals who may have had a positive building experience in Mangawhai with RRB, however no clients could be located by time of print.

* In the March 26 issue of the Focus, only nine companies registered were reported, however the Focus has been told of another company, ‘Dreams to Reality’, registered 2005-2009, bringing the total to ten. 

“WE WERE PAYING RRB TO PAY THE CONTRACTORS TO KEEP THE BUILDING GOING BUT AS IT TRANSPIRED, ROGERS HADN’T PAID THEM… TO ME THAT IS JUST BLATANT THEFT.”