The owner of the company which walked off the €9 million Eyre Square refurbishment site in Galway has been issued with a default notice for unfinished work in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Pembrokeshire Housing Association (PHA) has confirmed that it issued the default notice earlier this week to Samuel Kingston, trading as Samuel Kingston Construction, following the suspension of work by the company on a £1.3 million housing scheme in Neyland.
The notice gives the company two weeks to return to the site to finish the scheme or the PHA will terminate the contract. The PHA said it had tried to alert Galway City Council to the situation with Samuel Kingston Construction in early June.
However, Galway City Council says it has no record of any contact from the PHA, but is now in discussions with it.
The PHA engaged Mr Kingston's company in mid-2003 on an 18-month contract to build 17 housing units with a completion date of March 2005.
Nigel Sinnott, director of technical services with the PHA, said the contract was part of a schedule agreed with various contractors for the housing association's annual building programme of about 60 to 80 new houses. However, only 50 per cent of the work had been completed by March, and Mr Kingston reported cash-flow problems.
Mr Kingston also cited cash-flow problems in Galway in April when more than 30 Irish and Polish employees walked off the site over non-payment of wages.
The PHA had paid him some 50 per cent of the £1.3 million sum at this point, and tried to assist him with the cash-flow situation.
Mr Kingston suspended the work at the beginning of May and then proposed that extra funds be paid to him to finish the job.
The PHA subsequently learned that a number of subcontractors employed by Mr Kingston's company on the site had been contracted to a separate company.
This company, registered as Kingston Development Pembroke Ltd, went into voluntary liquidation last month owing an estimated £500,000 to various creditors.
Mr Sinnott said that PHA had advised Mr Kingston that he could enter into adjudication into liabilities, but this offer was declined.
Malcolm Fraser, solicitor for Mr Kingston's company in relation to the Eyre Square project, said he had no comment to make on any other matters.
Galway City Council, which is taking legal advice over the company's departure from the Eyre Square site in the early hours of June 27th, has said it was unaware of the Pembrokeshire situation.
The company concerned was a different legal entity, operating as a sole trader in a different jurisdiction, a spokesman said.
The city council has rejected claims made by Samuel Kingston Construction Ltd earlier this week in relation to breach of contract, and has said it is willing to go into arbitration.
Samuel Kingston Construction Ltd has instructed its solicitors to "take such action as is appropriate" to recover damages from the city council for its "breach of contract", a charge the city council denies. A council spokesman said the contract awarded to the company for Eyre Square was not based solely on financial grounds as the tenders had had to meet a number of criteria.
The company had previously worked for Waterford City Council, and this was taken into account by the design team who recommended awarding the contract to the company.
Negotiations are taking place to seek an alternative contractor to finish the refurbishment.
However, the earliest date for resumption of work on the project is expected to be September-October due to tender and costing procedures.
