An adjudicated ruling last Friday in favour of the owners of an Auckland apartment building led to the collapse of Christchurch company Corbel Construction.

Directors Mark Wells and Craig Jones accepted legal advice that the company could not continue to trade while it faced a major bill that would effectively make it insolvent.

Corbel Construction, established in Christchurch in 2000, began to wind down its post-earthquake residential building and opened an Auckland office in 2015

Wells expressed sympathy with all those affected and praised his supportive staff but did not wish to be quoted directly.

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Bigger problems than originally envisaged were uncovered when the cladding was removed from the Parnell Terraces apartments in Auckland leading to disputes, a common problem when variations are required for any construction contract.

Wells and Jones had stepped back from direct involvement in the company about 18 months ago at the same time staff numbers locally were reduced by more than 100 direct employees in Christchurch.

Corbel has five active contracts still under way. In addition to the Auckland apartment projects, it has worked on commercial buildings, upgraded four schools in Christchurch, and worked with district health boards in Auckland and Christchurch.

Andrew Oorschot of Ashton Wheelans was appointed the liquidator on Monday.

Oorschot said it would take at least a week for him to come to grips with what the creditors were owed.

He was appointed by resolution of shareholders. The main security-holder is understood to be one of the main banks.

Corbel employed about a dozen people directly but was a project manager that worked mostly with subcontractors, he said.

IAIN MCGREGOR/ STUFF In 2016 Christchurch-based Corbel Construction expected to become a $100 million business as its Auckland office expanded.

A contractor, who said he is owed $700,000, told Stuff he received a letter from the liquidator on Monday.

"I received a letter from a liquidator saying a company Corbel Construction which used me to build and building [sic] for them from start to finish did not pay me $1, I was contracted to complete the entire build they also used my labour to speed other jobs up which are now not complete," the contractor said in an email.

"Devastating news before Xmas for me and my family which just moved to Auckland."

Corbel's website, Facebook and LinkedIn pages have been taken down.

JOHN ANTHONY/STUFF Corbel Construction's abandoned office in Grey Lynn, Auckland.

Last year the company said it had signed $35 million of new projects in Auckland.

At the time Kevin Burke, Corbel's Auckland general manager said, Auckland would contribute about 30 per cent of the company's targeted annual revenue of over $50m in its first full year of operations.

Corbel Construction's Auckland office in Grey Lynn is vacant after taking a lease 18 months ago.

The company is majority owned by Craig Jones, Jane Madison-Jones and Mark and Rachel Wells.

JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF Liquidator Andrew Oorschot was on the job today at the Corbel Construction offices in Lichfield St, Christchurch.

Corbel Construction averaged more than 25 per cent growth per year over the past eight years

When Corbel Construction expanded to Auckland it had a goal to become a $100m national contractor by 2018.

It's website stated before it was taken down that it had "adopted a strategy of narrowing our focus to key customers".

JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF Only a couple of staff members were at Corbel Construction offices in Christchurch to assist the liquidator.

In a press release the company last year said its projects included:

-The $3.5 million refurbishment of 560 Mount Roskill Road, a historic building to Heritage status in Mt Roskill for the Auckland City

- The refurbishment of the historic Ellen Melville Centre in Auckland's High Street for $4.5 million;

- The construction of amenities including a manager's bungalow, kitchen, showers and toilet facilities at the Muriwai Camp Grounds on behalf of Panuku Development Auckland, an Auckland Council organisation for $2.4 million

- Re-roofing, from flat to pitched, five school buildings at Birkenhead College for $3.8 million on behalf of the Ministry of Education, to be completed in November 2017;

- The $350,000 refurbishment and upgrading of the Fraser McDonald geriatric mental health facility for the Auckland District Health Board to be completed in April 2017;

- The $12.6 million refurbishment of 84 townhouses, Parnell Terraces, in Parnell for the Body Corporate to be completed in January 2018;

- A $160,000 4th stage of seismic strengthening of the Market Garden apartments in St Lukes for the Body Corporate to be completed later this month.