Building consultant faces liquidation for third time
A Christchurch development consultant with projects in several suburbs has a company facing the threat of liquidation for the third time.
Joshua (Josh) Stevenson is a director of 12 companies and former senior manager with Housing NZ (now Kāinga Ora).
Frame and truss maker Probuild NZ Ltd has applied to have his company Three60Degrees Ltd, a building consultancy service, put into liquidation over outstanding bills. Probuild NZ’s application will be heard in the High Court at Christchurch on September 9, after the court approved a postponement from July.
Three60Degrees’ recent projects include a development of 28 townhouses under way in Redwood, four homes in Springfield Rd and a row of townhouses in Madras St, both in St Albans, and five units in Woodham Rd, Linwood. The Redwood development stalled earlier this year, and has since been restarted by the property’s owner, MUI Properties Ltd. Three60Degrees is no longer involved, and the director of MUI Properties said he did not wish to comment. Work at one of the St Albans sites has also been restarted by its owner after a hiatus of several months.
Stevenson also owns his own housing developments, under separate company names, in Dacre St in Linwood, Bower Ave in North New Brighton and Otaki St in Kaiapoi. The business operates by providing “end to end” management of property developments, including handling payments.
When approached by The Press, Stevenson said he did not want to answer any questions or make any comments on the record.
His company X-tend Ltd, which ran residential building contracts, was liquidated by Inland Revenue in 2015 and investigated over tax irregularities. Trade creditors and the tax department were left out of pocket by a total of $165,000.
The final liquidator’s report from KPMG in 2017 on X-Tend said the liquidators “pursued the director for breaches under the Companies Act 1993 and a negotiated settlement was reached without having to incur the costs of going to court”.
In 2013, Stevenson’s company Venture Out Ltd was wound up after being put into liquidation by Inland Revenue, leaving $63,000 in unpaid bills.
A tradesperson at one of the development sites run by Three60Degrees, who The Press agreed not to name, said subcontractors and suppliers were owed money by Stevenson’s business. “It’s not pretty,” he said. “There are so many people affected who did work for him. You do the work as best you can, and you should get paid.”
A supplier of goods to Three60Degrees who claims to be owed money said that as the middle man, Stevenson was responsible for paying everyone on a site.
“Every time I follow him up, he will pay a small portion of what is outstanding, just the minimum, enough to keep you on the hook.
“It’s a horrible situation people are in. The subbies aren’t going to get their money. I’ve pretty much written off the debt, because there’s nothing else I can do.”
Stevenson’s other companies include Stevenson Property Group and JD Stevenson Investments.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked as a senior development manager, and then national development and planning manager for the emergency housing team at Housing NZ from 2014 to 2017, and worked at Cancern, the Canterbury Communities’ Earthquake Recovery Network, from 2010 to 2012.
Stevenson was also one of the account holders caught up the 2019 collapse of Cryptopia, the cryptocurrency exchange, which lost $30 million to hackers and remains in liquidation. He has been a party to several court cases relating to how the company’s remaining assets are being handled.
He owns a home with a rating valuation of $1.11m in Hillsborough, an investment property in Merivale, and another in Rolleston.