Creditors petitioning for the winding up of island house builder Haven Homes claim they are owed more than £5m between them.
The property development company says it will ‘robustly’ oppose the petition.
At the heart of the dispute is The Meadows development in Castletown where work stopped for some time last year and a number of homes remain unfinished.
The winding up petition has been presented by Castletown builders merchants J. Qualtrough and Co boss John Qualtrough and Ballasalla-based investment company Sherwood Ltd.
They claim it would be ‘just and equitable’ for Haven to be wound up as it is unable to pay its debts and this would allow a liquidator to examine the company’s accounts.
Media IoM has now obtained a copy of the petition claim which shows that Qualtrough’s has issued proceedings for the repayment of a £53,616 debt in relation to the supply of building goods and materials for The Meadows.
John Qualtrough, who provided the land to be developed for a consideration of £3m and provided £1m of additional funding, has served a statutory demand for £250,000 for part-payment of the land but claims he is owed a net amount of £2,585,100.
Sherwood Ltd, meanwhile, has issued a demand for £2,529,882 which it says remains outstanding but says it is owed a minimum of £2,716,929.
The petition says that a draft statement of accounts prepared by Haven shows a total income of £31,309,220 from funding, sales, deposits and land, with total expenditure of £28,897,728.
This should leave a surplus of £2,411,491 available.
But the petitioners have queried why the defendant has taken £1,277,720, arguing that this profit share should not have been taken.
In their petition, they say: ‘We believe that the defendant had received profits in excess of its entitlement in accordance with the development agreement.
‘We do not accept that the defendant has properly accounted for the business expenditure for the development.
‘We believe that the defendant has spent funding/money received from the sale of properties on the site on other projects and have lost all faith and trust in the defendant.’
Haven Homes director Dave Lewis previously told Isle of Man Today: ‘We consider this petition to be a tactic surrounding a wider dispute that we cannot comment further on at the present time. We will be opposing this robustly.’
He added: ‘The Meadows is at the heart of the dispute and whilst I have no doubt it will be finished, I am unable to comment further at the moment.’