The parent company of the Signature Homes franchise in
Dunedin, which has been placed in liquidation, is confident
the 10 homes in Otago and Southland still under construction
will be completed under guarantee.
Signature Homes chief executive Phillip Howe was contacted
yesterday and said previous contracts with the 10 home owners
were being reassigned to the parent of the Signature Homes
franchise "to complete the homes as per guarantee".
Murwil Construction Ltd, the franchisee in Dunedin for the
past two years, was placed in voluntary liquidation by its
managing director Murray Wilson last Friday, who claims one
client's $160,000 debt constrained cashflow and forced Murwil
into the liquidation process.
Mr Howe confirmed Mr Wilson's contract as the Otago
franchisee had been terminated last week, prior to the
liquidation, but said yesterday that was done on legal advice
so the contracts of the 10 clients "could be legally taken
over" by the parent company to "allow the legal process" of
changing contracts to begin.
"We had [legal] advice to terminate in order to start the
process of signing clients across," Mr Howe said.
When asked if the parent company was actively looking into
Murwil's trading record during the past year, Mr Howe said it
would be up to the liquidators to decide what information was
released.
