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This was published 9 years ago
Police and ACTPLA investigate builder dispute over allegations of forged contracts
By Matthew Raggatt and Georgina Connery
Friendships in the Canberra Indian community have been poisoned and a statement made to the police as a home owner and certifier claim their signatures on building documents were forged by a Canberra building company.
A lawyer for seven home owners in Gungahlin claimed his clients have been left more than $300,000 out of pocket and trade creditors were owed $220,000 by D's Homes.
The Singhal family: Ajay and his wife Shweta and their children Aanya,7 and Aditya,4. Credit: Melissa Adams
But the sole director of the company - which is now in voluntary liquidation - has denied any forgery and said he was launching legal action against home owners who had "ganged up" on him to avoid paying their debts, worth more than $300,000.
ACT Policing and the ACT Planning and Land Authority confirmed this week they were investigating complaints from home owners against sole director, Raman Dixit, but made no further comment.
Boettcher Law special counsel Rory Markham said he was first contacted by home owners frustrated by building delays in September. that led to the home owners discovering the alleged forgeries in documents retrieved from ACTPLA.
Ajay Singhal said he, like many other home owners involved with D's Homes, met Mr Dixit in 2013 at a dinner party through his Indian community connections.
He signed a $550,000 contract with D's Homes to build his house in Franklin and said he paid $417,375 to Mr Dixit - a figure supported by bank statements and receipts - before it was clear the home was not going to be finished.
Mr Singhal said money aside, the personal stress of fending off threats from unpaid tradespeople had been hard to bear.
"He was telling the tradies he couldn't pay because the owner had not made the payments to him, but by July 85 per cent of the payments were already made," he said.
Mr Singhal told police he knew at least one signature on documents was not his as he was interstate on the purported signing date.
A building certifier who worked on a number of D's Homes projects said he had never seen a document which had his signature on it, and he would be making statements to police and ACTPLA in coming days.
Mr Dixit, 40, said the first he heard of the allegations of forgery was when approached by the Sunday Canberra Times on Thursday. He denied he had ever forged any document and said there was no motivation for him to do so.
"They're minor documents, because the contract has been signed," he said.
"I don't have to do it, because I can only give it to the client and say if you don't sign it we won't be able to proceed.
"They are friends and trying to gang up against me and my company so they don't have to pay the debt they owe us."
Mr Dixit, questioned about Mr Singhal's claim, said he had often emailed documents to home owners which they could sign. Mr Singhal owed him at least $150,000 for work completed, he said.
D's Homes ceased building work from November after its nominee resigned, citing concerns about the home owners' allegations of fraud but Mr Dixit said any delays were due to home owners' failure to make due payments.