Insulhub Isotex Voluntary Liquidation

[Surfiejim]

A notice on thie website states they've gone into voluntary liquidation. Does anyone know anything? They have my money and I've spent a small fortune trying to get building regs completed with their system. Very bad day......!

[Shiloh]

Me too. Just spoke to the liquidation company. Doesn’t look like we’ll get much back.

[Dave Jones]

1 hour ago, Jamie Kent said:

A notice on thie website states they've gone into voluntary liquidation. Does anyone know anything? They have my money and I've spent a small fortune trying to get building regs completed with their system. Very bad day......!

 

did you pay any amount to them on a credit card or debit card when you were using an overdraught ?

 

If so claim off the bank.

[Marv968]

Yep, Section 75 if you have used a credit card.

Ask your bank to carry out a chargeback if you've used a debit card (IIRC, you get a certain number of days to claim with chargeback, so if you have paid with debit card, look into it and contact your bank quickly!)

[Kelvin]

Nightmare. I’m so sorry to hear this. 
 

This has been my biggest fear with the timber kit company I’m going with. I flagged my concerns to them right at the start 10 months ago and despite promises and different options to protect client funds (section 75, Escrow, insurance) nothing ever materialised. They have £123k of our money for the kit, the insulation, and all the 3G windows. We’re two weeks away from delivery and we’ve been to the factory to see the panels being made but it’s been quite a point of stress for me so I really feel for you. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Kelvin

[Surfiejim]

17 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

 

did you pay any amount to them on a credit card or debit card when you were using an overdraught ?

 

If so claim off the bank.

No to all the above. They wouldn't take card payment- I voiced my concerns but they said their order books are full and they have no problems.   Big lesson learnt..! 

[Canski]

I'm gutted to read these posts.  I really feel for you. You can't trust anyone these days. There doesn't seem to be much that you can do to protect yourselves either.

[Shiloh]

Lesson learned indeed. Jamie was full of positive chat right until the blocks failed to arrive. They didn’t want credit cards and now I know why. 

[Kelvin]

I’m angry just reading this. They clearly knew they were in trouble but kept stringing you along. Awful. I’d need to stop myself hunting them down which I know is not the right response and just gets you into more trouble but still. 

[saveasteading]

When we used a timber frame company for the first time, we could see things were hand to mouth. Felt like our deposit was buying another client's timber.

Ended up agreeing the next cheque was on delivery. That was 15 years ago...what is wrong with this section of the industry that they need so much upfront, and can't use secure accounts/ have insurances?

The construction industry does not otherwise work like this.

[Ralph]

I'm really sorry to hear about this. I hope you manage to get something from the liquidator. 

Being afraid of this happening is one of the reasons we went for Scotframe, their payments were also in 4 or 5 stages.

[Surfiejim]

36 minutes ago, Shiloh said:

Lesson learned indeed. Jamie was full of positive chat right until the blocks failed to arrive. They didn’t want credit cards and now I know why. 

When did you order. I paid on 14th March. 

[Kelvin]

Quite. Most seem to operate like this. What I don’t understand is if you were doing this with a mortgage then I’d have thought the bank would want something in place. Ultimately they’d go after the self-builder. 
 

We’ve already paid for our kitchen but the deposit was on a CC. They are storing it for us and have sent us pictures of the kitchen with our name and order number on it. 
 

This issue alone is the thing that will stop me from ever self-building again with a timber kit. 

[Kelvin]

10 minutes ago, Ralph said:

I'm really sorry to hear about this. I hope you manage to get something from the liquidator. 

Being afraid of this happening is one of the reasons we went for Scotframe, their payments were also in 4 or 5 stages.

Ours is in 6 payments. But it’s still upfront and by the time you get to the stage we’re at you’re 97.5% into it. 

[Shiloh]

I had paid in September and was expecting delivery last week. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Shiloh

[Chanmenie]

Yeah I paid final amount in December blocks should have been delivered last month 

[saveasteading]

34 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

stop me from ever self-building again with a timber kit. 

On our current project, we had stick build, so the timber was immediately ours,  delivered by the BM. The joiner still called it "kit" but it was he who converted it from sticks and sheets into kit, on-site. 

I recommend having a look at this option.

[Ralph]

1 minute ago, saveasteading said:

On our current project, we had stick build, so the timber was immediately ours,  delivered by the BM. The joiner still called it "kit" but it was he who converted it from sticks and sheets into kit, on-site. 

I recommend having a look at this option.

I think that is basically how most houses are built in Scotland these days. Like everything else there are advantages and disadvantages but the big difference is the reduced upfront cost.

[saveasteading]

4 hours ago, Jamie Kent said:

 They have my money and I've spent a small fortune trying to get building regs completed with their system. Very bad day......!

Have you anything recent on record? This situation can be caused by a severe non-payment to the company. More likely though there have been cash problems for some time.

Have the directors been taking salary or even dividends the while?

I would make all possible fuss so that they know this isn't just going away. 

Perhaps that might get you higher up the list? 

I don't have much faith in liquidators..they always seem to get paid though.

 

The design is yours. Have you got the drawings and calculations? If not  then demand it, as that will take them 10 minutes.

 

Jamie was full of positive chat.....anything on the record? Even if not, summarise it now and email it to someone, to here perhaps, to date it.

 

1 hour ago, Shiloh said:

 

[Kelvin]

Irrelevant now of course but I googled Isotex and buildhub and there is some discussion about them on from a few years ago and there are some red flags even then. 
 

When we decided to go with Heb Homes I couldn’t find anything negative about them. Not that this means everything but it’s a tick in the yes column. Subsequently they’ve turned out to be quite poor in our experience and I’ve also more recently found out I’m not alone. It is why I’ve been happy to share my experience on here and name them as buildhub is publicly searchable. A lot of these companies are relatively small so getting feedback on them is quite hard. 

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, Ralph said:

advantages and disadvantages

Care to summarise your +/- ?

 

[Dave Jones]

you had to pay cash ?

[Surfiejim]

4 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

 

you had to pay cash ?

Bacs transfer to their account. Pretty  standard nowadays !

[Dave Jones]

No consolation I know but a shame so may people still get had when its soo easy to protect yourself.

[Surfiejim]

1 minute ago, Dave Jones said:

No consolation I know but a shame so may people still get had when its soo easy to protect yourself.

what should we have done?