The Gungahlin couple took out a "winding up" application against Sublime Constructions last April, almost 12 months before the company finally went into administration in February this year with debts estimated at between $1.7 million and $2.5 million.

The possibility Sublime may have been trading while insolvent will be investigated by the liquidators, Vincents, as part of the standard winding up process.

The ACT Supreme Court ordered the company be placed in liquidation on March 24 after it had gone into administration on February 19, 2014.

Mrs Sanchez said the couple, who run a family owned and managed rendering business based in Mitchell, had sought legal advice after all their attempts to recover debts totalling more than $70,000 had been ignored for almost six months.

What ensued was a unique Canberra take on the Peter Sellers classic The Mouse That Roared.

It was just too much money for the family to lose and, as a result, times were very hard.

"Luis had to work extra hours and extra hard [to try to make up some of the money]," Mrs Sanchez said. "He is an honourable man and the pastor of a small church.

"We only asked for what is ours. We have three kids and there was a time when they all had shoes with holes. At $30 each [for a pair of shoes], that was $90 we didn’t have.’’

Their lawyer, Andrew Freer, of KJB Law, said the couple's experience was not an isolated case.

"It is not uncommon for [the time lines] for credit demands to be extended out beyond normal terms [in the building industry]," he said.

Mr Freer said a "statutory demand was issued in the sum of $71,756.66", that money was paid and the application to wind up was withdrawn in July last year.

Mrs Sanchez said her husband, who worked with his father, had been a renderer since the age of 15. Originally from Colombia, he had started his own business in Canberra to support his wife and their three children.

"We could not afford not to get the money from Sublime," she said. "We owed money to other people [from operating the business] and we need for our names to be clean always. We are still paying off some of the debts from that time.

"It has been awful; my husband knew he was not the only one who was owed and there are still people who are waiting for their money. You win some and you lose some. We had to pay our own legal fees."

The couple say small businesses such as theirs are vulnerable when dealing with building companies – even smaller and middle-sized ones.

"They are big [by comparison]; we are small," she said. "They [Sublime] would not have done this to a big company."

Sublime does not fit the profile of a "fly-by-night" $2 company. It was established in November 2008 with paid up capital of $200,000. The two directors are Minh Phan (37) and Dee Vong Sisomphou (36) of Harrison and Forrest respectively.

While Mr and Mrs Sanchez have learnt from the experience and tightened up their accounting procedures, experts say one of the structural problems within the building industry is the pressure on subcontractors to help bankroll the operators they are working for.

Henry Kazar, of Kazar Slaven, one of Canberra's best-known insolvency practitioners, said he knew of one case where a bricklayer was on a "dripfeed" for a $61,000 debt.

"I asked him 'why don't you take a tougher line?'. He said that if he did they [the builders] would close ranks and he would find it hard to get work. There is a fear of adverse consequences."

Fairfax Media has sought comment from Mr Phan and Mr Sisomphou.