Last Thursday, on August 24, Simone Homes Pty Ltd went into voluntary liquidation.

The family-run business was headquartered in Leppington in Sydney’s southwest and its liquidator is now Bradley John Tonks of insolvency firm PKF.

According to a creditor’s report obtained by news.com.au, the construction company has so far racked up debts of $1.165 million.

However, a lot more creditors have yet to submit proof of debt claims, meaning that figure is expected to rise.

One disgruntled tradesman told news.com.au “No one knows where that money went”.

There are 11 secured creditors and 53 unsecured creditors.

Those include banks, the tax department, homeowners, suppliers and subcontractors.

According to the documents, it appears that six construction sites have been impacted by the demise of Simone Homes.

Simone Homes has total assets worth an estimated $816,000, however some of these have realisable value of nil, according to the liquidator’s report.

Of those assets, it has sundry debts totalling $102,000 and work in progress claims of $227,000.

The company also has additional assets worth around $486,000.

One customer appears to have been fed up with the business for some time.

A Google review left a week ago for Simone Homes reads: “Horrendous company to work with. Save yourself the money and the trouble and go somewhere else.

“You’re better off letting a five-year-old build your property.”

Simone Homes had been a registered business since 2014.

Know more or have a similar story? Get in touch | alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au

ASIC insolvency statistics show 2213 building companies collapsed during the 2022-23 financial year — a 72 per cent increase on the previous 12-month period.

The alarming trend has been blamed on a “perfect storm” of factors, including fixed price contracts, escalating costs, supply chain disruptions and tradie shortages.

The previous Morrison government’s HomeBuilder grant, which was introduced in June 2020 and handed out $2.52 billion to owner-occupiers who wanted to build or substantially renovate a home, turbocharged the sector.

More than 130,000 customers signed on for the program, with many tradies agreeing to the work under fixed-price contracts that soon became unsustainable as prices began to soar.

This year alone, news.com.au has reported on dozens of major builders that have collapsed.

Australia’s 13th biggest builder, Porter Davis, also collapsed earlier this year, placing 1700 projects and another 779 empty blocks of land in jeopardy across Victoria and Queensland, while more than 1000 unsecured creditors owed a whopping $71 million.

In one week in July, news.com.au reported on a new builder going into external administration every day.

alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au