The conduct of the owners of failed Canberra builder Sublime Developments will be investigated after a court ordered the company be wound up this week and called in the liquidators.
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But the insolvency firm that will try to untangle the complex affairs of Sublime said it was too early to tell if the home owners, tradies and suppliers who were owed up to $2.5 million would see any of their money again.
The ACT Supreme Court issued orders on Monday ordering Sublime to be liquidated after a legal action by local law firm Chamberlains, acting for engineering outfit Truss Me, which was owed nearly $20,000 by Sublime.
Insolvency firm Vincents said on Tuesday that there were several avenues of inquiry to explore in relation to the conduct of Sublime's two directors, Minh Phan and Dee Sisomphou.
The company is also under investigation by the ACT government's construction authority, which has refused to give details of its investigation, citing privacy reasons.
Mr Phan has denied doing anything wrong, saying home buyers had ripped his company off by not paying for work.
Vincents says it will be investigating whether the directors made improper payments to themselves or their associates, whether they had the proper insurance cover for their activities, and the conduct of other companies associated with Sublime.
The Canberra Times first revealed in February that Sublime was in a downward spiral, leaving home buyers in the lurch with unfinished houses and owing money to small suppliers and tradies all over town.
Tony Lane, a senior manager at Vincents, said his investigations would be taking up where Sublime's administrator left off.
"His most recent report to creditors canvasses a number of things that we might be looking at," Mr Lane said.
"But his report is also silent on some other things that we might be looking at.
"There are issues in relation to insurance [and] in relation to related entities; those issues are ones we're alive to."
Mr Lane said he would look for any "unreasonable director-related transaction".
"That's where directors or any of their associates might have received an unreasonable amount of money or property from the company.
"That's going to be part of the focus of our investigation, expanding the range of parties who may have been involved in the conduct of this business, and more broadly, what range of recoveries might be available to creditors generally."
But Mr Lane warned that nothing was likely to happen in a hurry.
"The number of parties involved would probably make this a reasonably complex investigation," he said.
"It's certainly not going to be a rapid outcome but I don't think that creditors are going to be disadvantaged by that.
"Certainly the mood that I understand creditors to have is that they would prefer to have the investigation conducted thoroughly as opposed to there being a superficial investigation and then a hurried reporting of results.
"But ultimately we will be guided on that by what the evidence demonstrates."
