Signature Homes operator lies low
The double collapse of Signature Homes’ Wellington franchises has hit customers hard and left creditors with nowhere to go but to a man who will not answer the door.
Thomas John Croad headed Oakwood Enterprises, a Signature Homes franchise that failed in January last year, and established Pinehill Project Management to mop up unfinished projects left by Oakwood.
Pinehill, 100 per cent owned by Mr Croad, ceased trading recently, leaving nine customers waiting for homes to be completed and reportedly more than 100 creditors and debts estimated to be in “six figures”.
Tricia Cox and her husband were two of those left behind, having paid Mr Croad 90 per cent of the value of their new Porirua home and been forced to move into the unfinished property after their temporary accommodation was sold.
Their first visitors were not there for a house warming, but to repossess the carpet.
“The carpet, the kitchen, the windows have not been paid for (by Pinehill),” Mrs Cox said.
After paying “hundreds of thousands”, Mrs Cox could not understand where the money had gone.
Signature Homes general manager Phillip Howe had said the company would fix all the homes affected by the collapse through another builder, but no one spoken to by The Dominion Post had received any certainty from the company.
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