Property owners in NSW are being left with no one to sue for building defects due to a practice called ‘phoenixing’.

Industry experts say phoenixing, where companies are deliberately wound up to avoid paying debts such as tax or GST, is rampant in NSW.

The practice of deliberately liquidating a company means unit owners are left with no compensation for defects they didn’t cause.

Several reforms have been recommended to the government to stamp out the practice, but none have been adopted.

NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge is chairing a NSW Parliamentary inquiry into building standards. He tells Mark Levy it’s about time the government addressed this problem.

“Not only is it not going away, there’s not even a framework that the state government has put forward to try and deal with this.

“They don’t have a solution. They haven’t even pretended to grapple with this problem.”

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Image: Getty/Lisa Maree Williams