Angry home owners, tradies chase house building company
Saturday, 7 December 2024
JNJ Homes based in Christchurch appears to be in financial trouble, leaving angry clients and sub-contractors demanding answers. Tony Wall reports.
“It’s like a ghost house,” says Kosala Abeykoon, as he surveys his unfinished home in the Christchurch suburb of Casebrook.
Abeykoon is a customer of house building company JNJ Homes, which appears to have stopped operating, leaving several unfinished projects and tradies who say they’re tens of thousands out of pocket.
For IT worker Abeykoon and his wife, Salika, the house and land package they signed up for was their dream - their first property purchase since coming to New Zealand from Sri Lanka about 11 years ago.
“We put all our savings into it,” he says.
They were supposed to move in in September, Abeykoon says.
He has since discovered that, back in August, contractors came and took away the cladding, claiming they hadn’t been paid.
“It got delayed six weeks. It was a bit of a shock because they didn’t tell us … we found out a different way.”
More recently, he says kitchen cabinetry and benchtops were removed - he’s not sure who by.
Abeykoon says he’s had trouble getting hold of anyone from JNJ Homes.
He went to the company’s Wigram offices on Wednesday and there was no sign of life, while its Riccarton sales office is up for lease.
He and his wife have paid most of the purchase price, with only a couple of payments to go.
“I don’t know when they’re going to finish it - or not. The house is not liveable, it’s got no carpets, no tiling is done, nothing has been done interior-wise.”
JNJ Homes is a trading name; the companies behind it are JNJ Construction and JNJ International Investments.
The managing director is Zuyu Huo, known as Jackie Huo.
The company has a slick website, offering “personalised design, at every budget” and says it has an Auckland office as well, although it’s believed most of the builds have been in Christchurch.
Calls to the company’s 0800 number say it is “either not allocated or temporarily unavailable”.
A man who was project manager for the company, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “We got told last Tuesday that [Huo] was going to put the company into receivership.”
Asked what it would mean for people whose homes hadn’t been finished, he said: “I don’t know, it depends how it all works with the Certified Builders guarantee.”
Stuff sent Huo multiple requests for comment about the state of the company over several days.
On Friday, he sent an email saying only: “The company is considering all options and cannot comment further.”
Jack Canute, whose family owns the Wigram building JNJ Homes was operating out of, says “all different types of people” have been turning up in recent weeks claiming they’re owed money, and some have tried to take tools and equipment.
He says he’s disconnected JNJ’s gate key so staff can’t access the building. He says Huo has been vague about what’s happening, but has indicated the company’s position is “not good”.
Huo’s social media profiles say he has studied at Harvard Business School, Cambridge University and the University of Sydney and is the third generation in his family to be working in the building industry.
In a Facebook video posted earlier this year, Huo says JNJ Homes offers clients “full transparency” and “utmost workmanship”.
“We give them an iron-clad backing that if anything goes wrong, we come back and fix it,” he says.
Huo says in another video that his company keeps up clear communications with customers “right down to the last nails that go on the frames”.
The videos were removed from the company’s Facebook page this week.
Stuff has spoken to several sub-contractors who claim they are owed significant sums for completed work.
Luke Adams was the main building contractor for JNJ Homes and had done work for it since December, 2022.
He says the company would usually pay reasonably promptly, but around June of this year, he sent an invoice “and they said they couldn’t pay”.
“They kept saying, ‘Oh we’re selling our show home’ … but they were waiting for one person to sign a document, and that person was in China.”
Adams threatened to get lawyers involved, and the company agreed to a payment plan, he says.
Stuff has seen an email from JNJ’s operations manager, sent in August, promising to pay $3-$4000 weekly or fortnightly “to clear up all overdue invoices, and we will be trying to clear up earlier as best as we can”.
“If there are any changes in the payment schedule, we will keep you updated.”
Adams says he was originally owed about $56,000, and that’s now down to about $28,000.
He says he was recently told by an employee of the company that it was going into receivership. “I knew I wouldn’t be getting any more.”
Adams says the company should have been more up-front about its financial situation.
“It’s totally immoral, it’s ridiculous. They knew it was going to put people’s businesses in jeopardy.”
Plasterer Dan Hanifin says he was owed about $48,000 for work done in March, and managed to get some of his money, but is still owed about $16,000.
He says the company would take on new sub-contractors before the previous ones had been paid.
“I’ve warned other subbies not to go and work for them, but they did and got the same treatment.”
Hanifin says he was told by a JNJ employee that the company was shutting down and being put into receivership.
He went to the company’s office and warehouse in Wigram last week and says he found Huo, “loading stuff into the back of his car”.
When asked what he was doing, Hanifin says Huo said he was taking “private stuff” and that he “wasn’t actually liquidated yet”.
Painter Jason Gray, who says he is owed $27,000, went with Hanifin to confront Huo, who said he didn’t have money to pay them.
“I just wanted to take all the gear, so I could recoup money. I said … ‘You’re saying you haven’t liquidated yet, I might as well take some of this gear’.
“I just about took it, but Dan stopped me.”
Gray says he was told by a JNJ employee they were getting another painting company in to finish the job he’d started.
“I said, ‘my product is sitting on that job, you can’t do that’. It’s really unethical.”
It appears JNJ Homes has made some effort to pay debts.
After Stuff started asking questions, Casey Cross of Alchemy Painting says the company deposited money into their account for materials used for work completed in October.
However, about $20,000 is still owed for labour, she claims.
Cross says she couldn’t get hold of the company until this week, when Huo emailed to say they were having “hold-ups” and late payments, “and this is affecting our cash flow”.
Huo added: “I am able to disburse payment mid next week and after to clear your currents.”
Making matters worse, Cross says, there was a break-in at a JNJ Homes building site and about $3000 of her partner’s tools - he’s also a builder - were stolen.
“It’s just completely stuffed us for Christmas.”
Several tradies spoken to by Stuff say the Government needs to do more to protect sub-contractors.
Gray, the painter, says the IRD always gets paid first and “doesn’t give a s…” about subbies.
Meanwhile, some JNJ clients are distraught at what the apparent company failure means for them.
One woman, who asked not to be named, claims she’s paid all but about $45,000 on an $850,000 house and land package.
She’d paid about $57,000 above the asking price for interior and landscaping upgrades - money she says JNJ wanted up front.
She says she was also asked to pay in advance for stage work that was supposed to be 80% completed before payment.
Her house remains unfinished, and she claims recently someone came and removed doors from the kitchen cabinets and vanities from the bathroom.
She’s worried the house won’t get council sign-off, and is consulting a lawyer.