Building companies are being put on notice that they will be banned from the industry if they have links to past financial mismanagement, under WA Government laws to stamp out “phoenixing”.
Building companies are being put on notice that they will be banned from the industry if they have links to past financial mismanagement, under WA Government laws to stamp out “phoenixing”.
The Building Services Board will move to exclude contractors where there is clear evidence that an officer has been involved in a previously insolvent construction business that failed to be reasonably managed. Exclusion can be at registration, renewal or when an insolvency event occurs.
That message is underlined by a recent decision involving Perth Building Group Pty Ltd, whose application for registration as a building contractor was refused after the Board declared it a temporarily excluded contractor, barring it from registration for three years from the date of an insolvency event.
Importantly, the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) backed the Board’s decision in April 2026, and the Board formally refused Perth Building Group’s registration application at its June 2026 meeting.
The Building Services (Registration) Act 2011 was amended in 2023 to enable the Board to temporarily or permanently exclude a contractor from registration in circumstances involving insolvency, including where an officer of the applicant was an officer of another construction company that became insolvent in the previous three years.
In this case, the exclusion was applied because of the previous role of Perth Building Group director, Brian McGillivray, as a director of Start Right Homes Pty Ltd. That company went into liquidation in April 2024, leaving numerous homeowners with unfinished projects and financial losses.
The Board considered submissions from Perth Building Group and Mr McGillivray before declaring the exclusion, which the SAT then upheld on review.
The Tribunal noted Start Right Homes’ failure “entailed significant unpaid debts and a number of customers of the company left with unfinished homes and/or claims for defective building work”.
Perth Building Group is ineligible for building contractor registration until April 2027, three years after Start Right Homes’ insolvency event.
Building Commissioner Phil Payne said company officers have a clear responsibility to properly manage the financial affairs of their building businesses.
“Failure to do so can follow them well beyond the company that fails,” Mr Payne said.
“These laws make clear that officers involved in the poor management and financial failure of one construction company cannot set up or help run another – sometimes called ‘phoenixing’ – without taking sufficient steps to ensure the competent and proficient management of the new enterprise. The Board can, and will, use its exclusion powers wherever the evidence supports it.
“Exclusion can apply when the Board assesses a new application or a renewal, or at any point during registration, and it can be permanent where there are repeated insolvency events. Without registration, a business cannot take on large building projects or obtain home indemnity insurance.
“Our focus is protecting consumers and maintaining confidence in the building industry. The vast majority of builders run their businesses responsibly, but those who do not should expect us to act.”
The Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety’s fact sheet has more information on excluded contractor provisions and other measures such as consequences for unpaid building service debts and notification requirements for new directors.
