Yet another "tiny home" company has gone into liquidation.
NZ Modular Homes Ltd has left numerous customers without their dream home or the money they paid to have their home built.
Eight customers spoke to Fair Go about their experiences with company director Warren Sinclair.
In all cases, the initial experience was first-class. Sinclair was attentive, responsive and full of ideas.
"He was really quick to respond to emails and phone messages," Kris Schollum said.
Schollum and her partner Don Thew were looking forward to her mum Gayle moving onto their property.
Gayle was retiring and saw some beautiful modular homes that she could afford on the NZ Modular Homes website.
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She signed up with Sinclair in October 2021 and paid an $89,000 deposit to the company in instalments. But all communication stopped once the deposit was paid.
"He just ghosted us, never heard from him since," Thew said.
Gayle had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died in September 2022, almost a year later.
She never got to live in the home she'd saved for. Her daughter said it was her mum's dying wish that Sinclair and his company be taken to court "so that Warren doesn't do this to anyone else".
The couple don't have much money but they've spent it on applying for NZ Modular Homes to be put into liquidation.
This went ahead last Monday at the High Court in Whangārei. They don't expect to get their money back but they hope it puts an end to the business.
Seven other customers spoke to Fair Go about the money they had lost to Sinclair too. Tim James paid $138,000 in cash in March last year. He has nothing to show for it.
'They were just a floor'
Another customer Vanessa Parkinson realised something was wrong after paying $40,000 back in October 2021. Her two modular units were well overdue so she went to check out their progress. She turned up at a yard and was shocked at what she saw.
"They were just a floor, steel framing and cladding tacked on. Just black boxes."
Black wasn't even the colour she'd asked for. "I was like OK, this is not going how he said it would go."
She was promised a refund but it didn't come. Weeks later she decided to take matters into her own hands and borrowed $4000 to pay a transport company to remove the cabins and place them on her land.
"I had to help myself."
Sinclair wasn't happy but agreed that Parkinson could keep them if she didn't make any other claims.
Lawyer James McMillan from Dentons Kensington Swan said Parkinson's course of action is not advised.
"It's a very tempting option but you might get trespassed or things might go in a direction you're not planning."
However, he said there is hope for tiny home owners following a recent court case.
"If you have partially or fully paid for a home and can point and say that a particular home is yours, then the court could rule that you have what's called 'equitable lien' over that property."
This puts the home owner at the top of the pecking order when it comes to claims after liquidation, so ahead of other creditors.
"It's a big win for tiny home purchasers," he said.
Sinclair tracked down
With NZ Modular Homes now in liquidation, as well as Sinclair's previous company Ready Homes, customers are waiting nervously to see if they can get any compensation.
Fair Go attempted to speak to Sinclair using email addresses and phone numbers linked to the six companies which are registered with him as director. There was no response.
We also approached him at a building yard address associated with NZ Modular Homes. The conversation was brief. Sinclair said his lawyer had advised him not to speak to us and that we had to get off his land. We left and tried calling to continue the conversation but got no answer.
It's not clear where the money he took from customers has gone. A simple explanation of what's gone wrong would help. But with nothing forthcoming, his customers just want him stopped.
McMillan said this may be more likely now due to the increased powers of liquidators.
"Liquidators have a relatively new duty to report serious problems to the regulators. One might be a director hasn't done their job properly or has entered into a contract that their company couldn't perform and then MBIE could take proceedings and ban the director for a certain period of time."
Sinclair's customers believe they have proof of mismanagement. They have written evidence that Sinclair said the building consent process was underway with the Far North District Council.
The FNDC confirmed to Fair Go that it had never dealt with him. NZ Modular Homes also took on new customers when it was failing to deliver on the contracts already in place.
With this information being provided to the liquidators, customers hope action against Sinclair will be taken, and Schollum and Thew hope Schollum's mum will get her wish.
"It will be money well spent if it shuts him down," Thew said.
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