A young couple who put $97,000 towards their dream home have been left with just a concrete slab after a major building company suddenly collapsed – leaving hundreds of customers in limbo.
Bethany McLaughlin, 27, and her fiancé Joel Patty, 29, from Melbourne, bought a block of land in Lara, north-east of Geelong, in September 2018.
In January 2020, the couple put down a deposit on a home that they were told would be ready to begin construction in June of that year.
They signed a contract with Victorian building company Porter Davis, and during the Covid lockdowns, designed the house they were expecting to soon call home.
Delays in securing the title to the land meant construction didn’t start until September last year – two years after they signed the original contract.
The couple were then told they could move in August this year.
But on Friday, Porter Davis went into liquidation, leaving Ms McLaughlin, Mr Patty and more than 1,500 other clients in housing limbo.
Bethany McLaughlin, 27, and her fiancé Joel Patty, 29, from Melbourne, bought a block of land in Lara, north-east of Geelong, in September 2018. With the collapse of building company Porter Davis, they’ve now been left in the lurch
‘There was no heads up. We found out on the news, and we were just gutted,’ Ms McLaughlin told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We’ve wanted nothing but for our home to be built a long time ago, considering we bought our land five years ago.’
Ms McLaughlin, a nurse, revealed she was left in tears at the news the building company had collapsed.
The couple had regularly shared updates to their social media accounts of the construction process.
In one shot, the couple is seen beaming as they announce they could finally stand on their land, years after buying it.
But once the work began on the build, the couple were constantly hit with setbacks.
The couple paid $97,000 towards their home only to be left with a concrete slab
Ms McLaughlin shared the news of Porter Davis’ collapse onto her TikTok account in an emotional video detailing the ordeal she’d had trying to build her home
‘At first, I was so devastated because the titling of a land was a disaster, and then this was the cherry on top,’ Ms McLaughlin said.
‘But after I processed it all I saw that others are worse off. There are so many effected.’
The couple has lodged a claim with the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority in the hopes they’ll receive their money back and another building company will take over.
‘I’m no longer optimistic. We just have to wait and see what happens,’ Ms McLaughlin said.
Porter Davis told the couple they were struggling to secure timber, but Ms McLaughlin believes they had the materials and weren’t paying their contractors.
‘All the houses around us had timber,’ she said.
The couple bought a block of land in Victoria in 2018 but construction didn’t begin until last year
Pictured is the state of the house the couple have been left with
Ms McLaughlin said her heart went out to those affected by the company’s collapse, including workers, contractors and clients, while the future of her house remains unclear.
Grant Thornton Australia were appointed as liquidators for Porter Davis on Friday.
The company has more than 1,500 homes currently under construction in Victoria and another 200 homes in Queensland.
There are also 779 signed contracts with customers where building has yet to begin.
A Grant Thornton spokesperson said there will be an investigation into what led to the collapse.
‘The extremely challenging environment for residential home building has directly contributed to the PDH Group’s financial position, with rising input costs, supply chain delays, labour shortages, and a drop in demand for new homes in 2023 impacting the Group’s liquidity,’ they said.
‘Notwithstanding the financial support from shareholders and lenders, the Group has exhausted options to secure the further funding required to allow Porter Davis to continue to operate viably, and the Directors were left with no option but to place the companies into liquidation.’
The couple now don’t know if they’ll see their money back, but are hopeful another building company will be able to finish the job
Porter Davis’ now 470 employees have also been left in the lurch, with the company forecasting a revenue of $555million in the 2023 financial year.
Another couple who bought with Porter Davis, Nicole Gray, 31, and Owen Lawrence, 38, spent $200,000 on their home in Armstrong Creek, south of Geelong, after signing the contract more than a year ago.
‘We were meant to be in around May and now we’re just completely left in limbo,’ Ms Gray told the Australian Financial Review.
‘Our lease is expiring in May too, so we’re going to have to find somewhere else to live pretty quickly as well.’
The couple signed the contract for the build in December, 2021 but work didn’t start until May last year.
There is still about a quarter of the construction left to be finished.
Another couple already paid $440,000 for their Porter Davis home, which was estimated to have a total cost of $481,000, despite no electrical, plumbing or flooring having been complete.
A webinar for those impacted by Porter Davis’ collapse will be held on Tuesday morning.
