Regina electrical company claims it’s owed thousands by homebuilder

Regina’s Vance Shordee said his electrical company has filed multiple liens valued at $106,000 on properties owned by Harmony Builders for work he says wasn’t paid for.

“Terms were extended from 30 days to 60 days and then they just got longer and longer. When I didn’t receive payment at the end of March, I decided I was going to lien everything because that was pretty much the last straw,” explained Shordee.

Shordee said he’d been promised a cheque for what his company was owed at the end of March. But when the pandemic hit, he said the owner of Harmony Builders tried to use that as an excuse.

Shordee has found it hard running a business while being owed that much money.

“I had to find my own money to make sure I paid my bills on it,” he said.

Shordee Services is one of several companies that have filed liens against Harmony. Shordee said he has seen the receivables for the company and it owes trades around Regina more than $1.9 million.

He said rumours abound about where the money went, but he doesn’t know anything for sure.

Harmony Builders did not returns calls requesting comment for this story.

“It’s no different than if I owned a convenience store and somebody walked into the store, grabbed $1,000 worth of merchandise, looked me in the face and said, ‘Hey, I’m not going to pay you this’ and walked out,” he said.

Shordee has worked with Harmony Builders for the past 12 years but in the last year and a half, things changed.

He said not paying the bills for work already done is the worst part.

“These customers trusted you with their money, they trusted you to pay the trades with their money and you didn’t do that,” said Shordee.

Shordee said this is the third time something like this has happened to his company in the last decade.

“Seems to be the same thing every single time — the builder could go under, by the time the mortgages and the property’s paid off there’s no money left for the trades, so, as a trade, I feel pretty unprotected,” explained Shordee.

He’s calling for legislation to protect trades.

There is “prompt payment” legislation in the pipeline at the provincial government, but the regulation changes haven’t been made yet for it to go into force.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been amended.