Angry contractors and suppliers have been left tens of thousands of dollars in the red after the closure of a Paeroa company in March.
Professional Trade Services NZ Ltd (PTSNZ), a residential and commercial maintenance and renovations company owned by Murray (Muz) Hintz, went into voluntary liquidation on March 25.
According to the liquidator, PTSNZ owes an estimated $900,000 to creditors, including Inland Revenue and finance companies. This also includes around $135,000 owed to more than 40 building supply retailers and businesses – many from the Hauraki-Coromandel region.
Sam Tissingh from Paeroa business TISS Electrical told The Profile he was owed around $27,000.
“I always thought they ran their business a bit funny [but] they had always paid me in the past – always late, but they trickled money through,” he said.
“But since they closed the doors, we were screwed. We were working hard-out for them right up until they just turned around and said, ‘doors are shut’. So they were screaming at us to do jobs and probably had no intention of paying, which pisses me off.”
Sam said the situation caused a lot of stress for his business.
“Twenty-seven grand for a company of three boys – there’s a lot of money to take a hit on,” he said.
“You’ve got to do $100,000 worth of work before you start making back what you lost on that 27, you know?”
Another contractor, Mike Le Cheminant, said PTSNZ still owed him $9115.
“I subcontracted and painted [a] house for them… I got halfway through the house and asked for a progress payment, which took me quite a while to get,” he said.
“I got it, but only because I threatened to walk off the job. Then at the end of the job, the owners paid him in full, and I’ve never seen a cent.”
Mike said he had spent months trying to recover his money, to no avail.
“[Hintz] won’t return my text, he won’t answer my calls. He’s obviously blocked me now,” he said.
“He actually turned around and said to me that he would pay me out of his private account – that was when they were still operating. Then when I spoke to the office… he denied that.”
Mike said he was “gutted” about the financial loss.
“I’ve paid my staff, I’ve paid for materials, and I lose money from this guy. It’s just heartbreaking,” he said.
“The stress it has put my family in has been unreal.”
Licensed insolvency practitioner David Thomas, who was appointed to handle the liquidation, said PTSNZ failed in part because it wasn’t able to bridge a substantial financial gap following the loss of some anticipated contract work.
“They tried to finance the bridging, but it was just too much to keep all the blokes on,” David said.
“They were scratching around for work. And unfortunately, they got a bit gung ho, particularly with a woman’s house, and they would have stripped it all out, and then she’s got the stripped-out shell.
“And of course [PTSNZ] go into liquidation, so the [woman’s] got a stripped out shell, and she doesn’t have the funds to finish it, because I think she paid quite a bit.”
David said he was now in the process of identifying and liquidating the company’s assets, including a piece of land, to get as much money back as possible, but he said it was “highly unlikely” the full amount would be recovered.
An auction at the company’s former office and warehouse at 3 Coronation St, Paeroa, on May 20 raised around $36,000 towards its debts. The assets sold include five vans, two trailers, a car, a forklift, and various tools, building materials, office equipment, and workshop goods.
Meanwhile, Hintz is still on the companies register as the director for two other companies – Professional Handyman Ltd, which was incorporated with the Companies Office in 2018, and The Tradie Hub Ltd, incorporated in 2022.
Hintz is the sole shareholder for Professional Handyman Ltd, and 75 per cent shareholder for The Tradie Hub Ltd, along with former employee Anthony Bourke, who has a 25 per cent share.
Anthony told The Profile The Tradie Hub Ltd still owned the building at 3 Coronation St, Paeroa, which is currently up for lease.
Anthony said he worked for Hintz for four-and-a-half years and was still owed around $6000 in wages, which he didn’t expect to see back. However, he believed the failure of PTSNZ was out of the company’s control.
“One of our biggest clients – we used to do a substantial amount of months – basically just pulled the pin. That was probably anywhere from $70,000 to $80,000 of work,” he said.
“You can’t control the economy, can’t control people. All you can do is always try and do your best but that doesn’t mean you’re always gonna succeed.
“It’s not like it’s a fly-by-night company, he’s been going eight years. So it’s not like he’d just come in, ripped everybody off and disappeared.”
Anthony said he was “just an employee” at PTSNZ, and was informed about the liquidation at the same time as everyone else.
“I was employed by the liquidators to help finish off a couple of jobs at the end, to try and get some money back, and involved with the sale of all assets,” he said.
“I’m out working for myself now… You’ve just got to deal with it and move on. It’s just one of those things, bigger companies than us have gone under, and [there are] people in a lot worse condition.
“It’s just because we’re local, it hurts a lot more locals.”
PTSNZ is a limited liability company, meaning its shareholder is only personally responsible for personal guarantees he has given to lenders or creditors.
Under the Companies Act, there is also nothing preventing directors from beginning new businesses, although people who are consistently involved in failed companies can be barred from serving as directors in some circumstances.
But David said company directors still had a professional obligation to do right by their creditors, citing sections 135-138 of the Companies Act.
“You can’t trade recklessly, you can’t incur a debt that you can’t reasonably expect to pay. And if you do that, [or] if you trade insolvently, then actually, there’s an argument there that you can become liable for those debts,” he said.
“[But] it’s not an easy thing to prove. In a lot of cases where you’ve got small companies and they’ve traded insolvently, the amount at stake is not worth going to a lawyer who’s going to charge you a hundred grand to recover. The cost of it is prohibitive.”
The Valley Profile made several attempts to reach Hintz for comment but he did not respond.
