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.