Failed Canberra builder Sublime Developments may owe up to $2.5 million to home buyers, tradesmen and suppliers around the capital, according to the company's administrator.
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But the bosses of the building firm are free to operate their other companies legally while Sublime is in administration.
About 50 creditors attended a meeting in the city's south on Friday morning to be told that an orderly administration process was their best hope of seeing any of their money again.
Lawyers representing one creditor will go to the ACT Supreme Court on Monday looking to have the controversial builder wound up as anger grows among its former customers, suppliers and subcontractors.
Sublime Constructions & Development called in administrators after the winding-up application was lodged with the court by local lawyers Chamberlains and angry home buyers went public, claiming they were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars and had been left with unfinished homes by the Mitchell company. If the court grants the winding-up order, Sublime will go immediately into liquidation, while an adjournment of the case will result in a further period of administration.
The company is also under investigation by the ACT government's construction authority, which has refused to give details of its probe, citing privacy reasons.
Sublime is owned by Canberra men Minh Phan and Dee Sisomphou. Mr Phan has denied doing anything wrong, saying home buyers had ripped his company off by not paying for work. His company was owed up to $500,000 for work done. On Friday, Mr Phan referred inquiries to solicitor Leonie Kennedy who could not be contacted.
Administrator Domenic Calabretta from Mackay Goodwin said it was too early to tell but the debts owed by Sublime around town could be as low as $1.7 million or as high as $2.5 million.
