Families Lose New Homes As Companies Collapse

The Age

Monday September 6, 1993

DAVID PORTER

At least 20 families in Melbourne's Macedonian community in the northern suburbs have lost money and the titles to their homes, following the collapse of a group of building companies that had mortgaged their properties to banks to secure loans.

One of the companies, Tinplan Pty Ltd, went into liquidation last year. Another company, Meko Holdings Pty Ltd, was deregistered last month.

The companies were named in the parliamentary inquiry into the building industry on 24 August by the Labor MLA for Thomastown, Mr Peter Batchelor.

Mr Batchelor told the inquiry that about 20 families had been affected and ``two to three million dollars, perhaps more money to sub- contractors and individual workers, has gone missing ...".

Mr Batchelor, a member of the economic development committee that is holding the building inquiry, said yesterday that he would urge the committee to investigate the collapse of Meko and Tinplan and other associated companies.

This follows pleas for help by many of the families, who say they are the victims of a builder who mortgaged their properties without their knowledge to secure loans from the Metway Bank and other banks and financial institutions.

Most of the families signed a contract with Meko or Tinplan to ``trade in" their existing home for a new and larger one. The families signed over their existing homes to the companies, paid an agreed extra sum in cash, and remained in their old home rent-free until the new house was completed.

They were also offered cheaper solicitors' fees on both transactions, provided they agreed to use solicitors recommended by the builder.

But when the families moved in to their new homes they found the titles were not registered in their names. Some found they had to pay thousands of dollars extra to complete their homes because they were left unfinished when the building companies collapsed.

The families say they had paid for their new homes in full but have since been unable to secure title.

Although they are now living in their new homes and paying council and water rates sent to them in their names, they face eviction and loss of their homes because of legal action taken by the banks and finance companies to recover money owed by the liquidated builders.

The Metway Bank has filed writs in the Victorian Supreme Court, naming Tinplan and several families as defendants, seeking to recover money owed on the loans.

An amended writ filed on 15 June 1993, alleges that Metway agreed to advance $400,000 to various companies, including Meko Holdings and to Zivko Trajcevski and Anita Trajcevski, on 30 September 1986.

It claims that a further $266,000 was advanced to the borrowers on 21December 1990 and that four blocks of land in Hutchins Circuit, Bundoora, and a fifth block in Kingsway Drive, Lalor, were mortaged as security.

The writ alleges that the borrowers breached the terms and conditions by failing to pay monthly instalments of interest on the further advance.

Mr Zivko Trajcevski and Mrs Anita Trajcevski are listed in Australian Securities Commission records as directors of Tinplan and Meko Holdings.

Some of the families have lodged counter-writs in the Supreme Court naming Tinplan and others as defendants.

Magistrate's Court records from 1992 show that Mr Zivko (Jim) Trajcevski owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to various creditors, including timber, roofing, and electrical companies. The Taxation Department also has a claim of $84,433 against Mrs Trajcevski.

Mr Batchelor named Meko and Tinplan in a question on what he called ``uncovered corruption in the building industry ... that pivots around the $2 company".

Mr Batchelor said: ``I am just familiarising myself with the full extent of it, but it seems to me that this is an exact example where some 20 families, some two or three million dollars, perhaps more money to sub-contractors and individual workers, has gone missing and it appears that people will be able to escape ... their way through the legal framework because of the $2 company and the professional advice they've been able to get, and it seems to me that this is one area ... the committee ought to pursue in the broader context as to how a legal system can allow this type of fraud and corruption to take place.

Mr and Mrs Trajcevski could not be contacted by `The Age' for comment.