Now a number of small Perth businesses have come forward and claim they are still owed money by the company for work done over the last four years. The instalments that never came ... One sales consultant who said he worked with Mener in late 2015, claims he is owed a referral fee. After he was not paid his $6000 fee for a number of weeks, the consultant took Mener to the Perth Magistrates Court. "The defendant(s) Mener Group Pty Ltd has this day lodged a response admitting to the amount claimed," the notice of admission of claim reads.

"I have given judgment in favour of the claimant for the amount claimed together with interest of $0.00, totaling $6305.10." "In my case, I got a court order for [them] to pay and [the managing director] signed it and acknowledged that [Mener Group] needed to pay," the sales consultant said. The application was signed by a representative of Mener, and promised to pay the consultant instalments of $2101.70 per month commencing September 2016. But the consultant said he never received his money.

A spokesman for Mener denied having worked with an external consultant. "All consultants are and have always been in-house," he said. 'I cut my losses' Bricklayer Kevin Doyle also worked for Mener Group in 2018. He estimates his team is owed about $14,000 for work done on a home in East Fremantle.

“[Mener] told us there were issues with the money coming through ... I kept at [them] for about three months after the work, but [they] told us the clients weren’t paying [them],” he said. “They kept saying stuff like 'I reassure you you will be paid', but after a bit there was no contact from [them]. I couldn't get onto them for about four months after that, but every now and then [they'd] drop me an email saying [they] were sorry and [they'd] get me the money. “So I got a lawyer which cost me about $400 and sent a letter of demand, but nothing happened. “The lawyer said if you want to go to the next step it will be about $2000 and I couldn't afford that.” In response to Mr Doyle’s claim, a Mener representative confirmed he had worked at the property.

Loading “The owner of this East Fremantle home has verbally advised Kevin Doyle directly that he will not be paying Mener on several occasions,” he said. “Mener has at all times kept Mr Doyle updated with the situation. Kevin has also contacted the owner directly on numerous occasions to assist in chasing up this money alongside Mener. “Kevin agreed that he will cease chasing Mener until he receives confirmation from the owner of East Fremantle that he has paid Mener.” Mr Doyle said he eventually gave up on the money, cut his losses and moved on from the project.

Mener has since lodged an application against the owner of the East Fremantle property for property seizure and sale. Emails bounced, phones rang out Eliza Higgins owns a small bricklaying business with her husband and is also owed $12,500 for work done on a home in Willagee last February. “There's a team of them ... seven of them and they were there for two weeks,” she said. “My husband is sub-contracted, but a few of the boys work for wages, so we're out of pocket that money because we've had to pay the wages.

“[It's] a lot of money to us, we're a single income family, we have four children. It's a lot of money for anyone.” In April last year, Mener again accepted it owed the money to the family business. "Mener Group accepts there is a outstanding amount owed to Campbell & Jefferson bricklaying for labour carried out at the above address. Mener Group has and always will maintain the intention of paying the moines [sic] owed," an email from the group said. Ms Higgins said they then opted to pursue Mener through the courts, and issued the property developer with a creditor's statutory demand.

A creditor's statutory demand is a notice demanding a company pay an amount within 21 days of being served with the notice. In further correspondence between Mener and the small business' lawyer, Mener said they intended to clear the balance before June 30 last year. However as the date passed with no payment made, a final notice that was sent to Mener’s email bounced back, and telephone calls to their place of business also rang out. Ms Higgins said the next step was quoted to cost them around $6600. “Then we're going to be coming up for $20,000 out of pocket. It's just not sustainable,” she said.

‘You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do' Ark Electrical principal refrigeration mechanic Adam Kable took the extraordinary step of taking three Fujitsu airconditioners back from a property when Mener failed to promptly pay him for his labour and equipment. In a statement of claim, Mr Kable said he installed the three airconditioners on January 17 last year. A Mener representative was on site and directed them to the locations, and the work was completed over a two-day period. An invoice was sent to Mener on January 18.

Ark Electrical and Mener exchanged emails over the course of 18 days, and Mr Kable's business partner formally informed him they would attend site and decommission the air-conditioned systems if payment had not been made in full by February 12. Mener claimed they had not received payment from their client, and payment was coming. However, Mr Kable said it never came and his team attended the site on February 23 to take back the airconditioning systems. Mr Kable said it was at this point he met the owner who had supposedly not paid Mener.

"When we got there, we parked the ute at the end of the drive near the new units," the statement of claim reads. "We noticed two hot water systems were not on the wall where they had been previously, and it looked like very little work had taken place since we were last there. "The landscaping had not been completed and was not much different, and there was no fence separating the old front house from the new units at the rear "Two guys walked down the drive towards us who I did not know. I introduced myself to them and one said he was the owner. I now know him to be Glen Wilkins."

Glen Wilkins spoke to WAtoday earlier this week about his experience with Mener, which has left him about $270,000 out of pocket. Mr Wilkins was making progress payments up until the build reached the lockup stage, which was when Mr Kable and his team came by. "We told Glen ... we were there to remove the air-conditioning systems as we had not been paid by the builder since completing the job in January," the statement of claims said. Glen Wilkins outside his property. "Glen said he was having trouble with Mener himself. He didn’t want any trouble, and had heard stories of other contractors not being paid by the builder.

"Glen said, ‘you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do'." Mr Kable said his team spent another day taking the airconditioning systems from the property. “We don't muck around when it comes to that,” he said. “We rang [Mener] and told them we've removed the aircons and by the time you pay, we'll go and reinstall them for you. “[They] kept saying to us oh yeah no worries, well when we'll do that we'll get it sorted. But you could tell they weren't going to.

“We've got three blokes that need to be paid, and obviously they've been paid - so we're the ones that have copped it. We bear all costs to resolve whatever he hasn't paid us for. “But we've walked away from it. We've dealt with people like this before and the best thing you can do is get your gear, cut your losses and never deal with them again.” When asked about the tradesmen and contractors who claim not to have received payment for their work, a Mener representative said they were working to rectify the situation. "Mener acknowledges that there are contractors that are owed monies," he said. "These contractors have been affected by clients not paying their progress payments.

"Mener has commenced legal action against these clients. "Mener has every intention of paying contractors ... Mener is working towards obtaining a favourable outcome for all parties." The walls are closing in Just last week, another burned contractor Melville-based Barker Whittle Master Painters and Decorators lodged a wind-up application in the Supreme Court of Queensland against Mener.

Wind up orders are costly, and merely have the effect of preventing any further trading by the company on the basis that it is insolvent. The orders do not require any payment to creditors. The court appoints a liquidator, which then investigates the company's affairs and distributes any funds that are found. "The matter in the Queensland Supreme Court this week is currently in the process of being dismissed as a confidential settlement agreement has been reached with the plaintiff," the Mener Group representative said. "The plaintiff in this matter is a contractor for a project where the client terminated the building contract." The matter is adjourned in the Queensland Supreme Court until March 3.

There are no claims in the SAT against Mener at present, but there are claims against Mener in the Perth Magistrates Court brought by Statewide Building Products and Arns Legal. Statewide Building Products is seeking $8459.16 in unpaid invoices dating from February and March 2018 against Mener. Mener also acknowledged some contractors and tradesmen were out of pocket from working on the projects, but blamed that on homeowners' failure to pay progress payments. The company said it still had every intention of paying contractors, and it is no longer building homes. "Mener ceased construction to the general public in October 2018. Mener does not have any construction on foot [sic] and as such no persons would be affected,” the spokesman said.