Was VAs caveat over property securing deed fund?

When Hall Chadwick pair Nick Wollinski and Richard Albarran took appointments as administrators of The Building Agency Pty Ltd last month they weren’t taking any chances, lodging a caveat over a property owned by their appointing director to secure a promised $50,000 indemnity.

In the Federal Court yesterday it was the major creditor taking no chances, with the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) opposing an application brought by Wollinski and Albarran seeking to have the hearing of the DCoT’s winding up application adjourned so they could hold a second meeting of creditors at which their appointor’s DoCA proposal could be considered.

The DCoT, represented by K&L Gates, was worried about votes in a deadlock scenario, be they the votes of related parties or the casting vote of the meeting chairman.

Lawyer Sophie Stein indicated to the court that should the hearing of the winding up application be adjourned the DCoT, which holds almost 90 per cent of the unrelated and unsecured debt, would be voting against the deed.

Greenway Chambers’ Michael Connor for the administrators argued that there would be little prejudice to the DCoT in allowing the deed proposal to be put to creditors.

Registrar Robyn Curnow described the competing interests as finally balanced.

The Director – Mr Jodi Mawad, 48 of West Ryde – was proposing to fund the deed fund via a loan from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to another of his companies, I Manage NSW Pty Ltd.

Securing that loan the court heard was a property, but Wollinski and Albarran’s DIRRI also speaks of a property owned by their appointor, a property over which they lodged a caveat to secure their indemnity.

So does the director own more than one property, or is the property securing the deed funds also collateral over which the appointees could assert a lien?

Neither Wollinski or the DCoT’s solicitors would confirm that the property securing the loan for the deed funds was the same property securing Wollinski and Albarran’s fees and the issue, if it existed, was neutralised when the Registrar ruled that an adjournment should be refused, that The Building Agency be wound up and that BDO’s Luke Andrews and Matthew Blum be appointed liquidators.