Pictures reveal devastation facing owners as Toplace empire crumbles
By Carrie Fellner and Sue Williams
Anxious apartment owners fearing they will be left destitute by the possible collapse of embattled construction company Toplace are expected to know whether it will survive by next week after it was placed into the hands of administrators.
The construction arm of the Toplace empire went into voluntary administration on Friday, a day after its besieged director and founder Jean Nassif was banned from operating in NSW while a review decides his future.
Vicinity apartment owner Margaret Wong was distraught to hear Toplace had gone into administration.Credit: Michael Quelch
Nassif, 55, has been on the run overseas after NSW Police issued a warrant for his arrest over an alleged large-scale fraud for which his daughter, Ashlyn, has been charged.
The latest development plunges thousands of apartment owners across Sydney into uncertainty with a number of Toplace projects still under construction, and a series of ongoing court battles over alleged serious defects in towers that have already been built.
Last week the NSW Building Commissioner issued urgent rectification orders for Toplace’s Vicinity building at Canterbury, warning inadequate beams and support columns could result in the “inability to inhabit” the building or its destruction or collapse.
Margaret Wong, who bought an apartment in Vicinity off the plan as an investment, was distraught to hear Toplace had gone into administration.
Apartment owners in the Vicinity building are among those fearing the collapse of Toplace.Credit: Janie Barrett
“You might expect something like this to happen in a Third World country but not Australia,” said Wong, 45, a lawyer.
“Now I am so, so stressed and so worried that the building might collapse and hurt my tenants, and I’m going to have to go back to work overseas to make more money to help pay for all this trouble.”
Jean Nassif’s Toplace empire has been placed into administration.Credit: Instagram
Administrators Suelen McCallum and Antony Resnick of dVT Group spent Tuesday flooded with inquiries from employees, trade creditors and apartment buyers.
Resnick said he was appointed by Toplace’s solicitors and had not had any direct contact with Nassif.
“Right now we’re safeguarding assets and communicating with key stakeholders to avoid any panic,” he said. “We will have a much clearer plan by the end of the week.”
Law firm EA Legal has been acting for Toplace but its website was down on Tuesday and phone calls to its office went unanswered. The firm’s sole director is Nassif’s daughter, Evelyn Helou, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Resnick said the building arm of Toplace had a substantial number of creditors, including about 40 employees, some of whom had been let go.
“There were some funds to start off with in the bank accounts of the company and we have retained some of the staff who are necessary,” Resnick said.
A first meeting of creditors will be held in the coming days.
Resnick said the administrators would be in a position to say by next week whether the company could pay its debts or would have to be liquidated.
Other arms of the Toplace empire harbour landholdings that are likely to become caught in the crossfire as creditors seek to recoup their losses.
Nassif has been offloading some of the lucrative development sites in recent months.
If Toplace goes into liquidation, Resnick acknowledged that off-the-plan buyers may see their projects sold to other developers for completion.
But the consequences could be catastrophic for owners corporations pursuing Toplace through the courts for defects in completed apartments.
They could be forced to discontinue the proceedings, and would have limited avenues to claim against other parties, such as insurers or subcontractors.
“It’s so unbelievably, ridiculously stressful,” said Jenna Jones, an owner raising her young family in the Vicinity building.
“If Toplace goes under and the building is worth nothing, how are we going to get out of this? We don’t have any other savings, and we’ll be destitute.”
Jones felt let down by state government regulators who she argued should have enforced proper building standards.
Fellow investor-owner Peter Smith said one of the structural engineers put the total cost of repairs for the building at $50 million to $100 million which could mean a bill of about $240,000 per lot owner.
“We’re now telling the lawyers to make sure they’re putting caveats on all Toplace’s assets to make sure they won’t be able to hide them away somewhere else,” he said.
A spokesman for NSW Fair Trading and the Building Commissioner said any orders currently in place on Toplace sites would remain, and the receiver would determine how they were responded to.
“Any consumers with a claim should contact the dVT Group in the first instance, and can contact Fair Trading to seek advice or make a complaint,” he said.
Toplace and its associated entities are also being sued in the NSW Supreme Court over two developments at Parramatta and its Atmosphere project at Castle Hill.
According to its website, Toplace Group has delivered approximately 30,000 residential homes, shopping centres and commercial suites across Sydney.
Last week, Nassif and Toplace were banned from operating while they fight to reinstate their building licences before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
It comes after NSW Fair Trading slapped Nassif with a 10-year ban from holding a building licence in December and permanently revoked Toplace’s licence over more than 40 “serious and potentially serious” defects in its buildings.
NSW Police have alleged that Nassif and his daughter Ashlyn lodged fraudulent documents to keep money flowing from a $150 million Westpac bank loan to the Toplace property empire.
Resnick said he understood the Westpac loan had now been repaid.
Toplace Group did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment.
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