20 April 2009

Canberra Cleaning

| DawnDrifter
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Hi all

Thought I would run this by Rioters that may be more in the know then myself.

I have a commercial cleaning arrangement with Canberra Cleaning and I have been trying to contact them(funnily enough to request an invoice to pay them) but all attempts to contact them have failed.

I have called their office line, and 2 mobile phone numbers of owner/managers there but all seem to be disconnected. Emails have not been responded too. approx 14 days without any contact at all

Now my real predicament here is not the contract itself(easy to find a company to replace them) but they have secure keys and access codes to the premises. Cost to change the lock is a pain as it is a ‘special’ type of key/lock system. Codes can be modified easily enough.

So

    1. Does anyone know if Canberra Cleaning as a business has failed and they didnt tell anyone?
    2. They forgot to pay their phone bills?
    3. If they have failed, what is the best way to commence proceedings to get the keys off them?

Cheers

DD

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DD, thanks for the update, Im sure a few of us were curious as to what happened. I hope the guy has a speedy recovery and customers may be as understanding as you were about the unfortunate situation. Just part of being self-employed I guess.

ok some closure
.. assumption is the mother of all you know whats
I did get a call yesterday from the boss of Canberra cleaning, the poor bloke had some critical surgery and was off line, along with the business, during this period for recovery etc
the cleaning was/is still occurring as per contract but the invoice/payment is the only thing that has to be sorted out

cheers for all the help

Visited the Erindale business park reception on friday afternoon and apparently the management has been out for a fortnight but coming back(from god knows where) on Monday. Will be interested in their story if/when they get back to me. They do still have a office there + signage so gives me hope that the business is still alive

Might be worth a try DD. The signage has changed there and is now Erindale Business Park. There is a receptionist at the centre who may know if you can’t get to the actual office of Canberra Cleaning. The CC sign was still there last time I visited the petrol station at Erindale.

I will use the registered post suggestion, its a goodie and cheap option to confirm if someone still is at the business address

on both the contract and website the address is
Canberra Business Park,
2 Lansell Circuit, Wanniassa, ACT, 2903

probably should get off my ass and rock up there in person

If common sense and standard civilised dealings fail, Small Claims\Civil Dispute tribunal.

DawnDrifter said :

Have sent them an email with return receipt attached..

Be careful with this, If you actually read the specification for email, rfc 2822 I think. Delivery is not guarenteed, there are many legitimate ways according to the standard that an email may not be delivered.

As for the return receipt this is even worse, I know that I personally have an outlook rule that automatically rejects sending read receipts and many others do as well.

In this case Registered post is your friend, Express post are only guaranteed to the letterbox, no one has to sign for them.

Ms Drifter:
ABN’s are a tax office concern, and aren’t required to release any more information to the public than is on that website.
http://www.abr.business.gov.au/content.aspx?page=FAQbusiness for clarification,

You’d want Office of Regulatory Services, part of the ACT Government, as business name registrations (and who they are registered to) are a state & territory concern.
http://www.ors.act.gov.au/BIL/WebPages/BusNames/bnames1.html
But expect them to take a fee for giving you the “Extract of a statement of business name registration”.
The extract should contain:
The Business name; description of the nature of the business applicants;
the place which is the principal place of business; the proper name, and any former proper name and the address of each applicant; the date started trading as that name;
if the business name is a name adopted by the applicant or
applicants in substitution for another name — the other name;
and the length of registration.
(IE: all the handy stuff for legal proceedings)

But if you want to start up proceedings, Section 31 of the Business Names Act gives this advice. (http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/a/1963-12/default.asp for full law and context of this section)

31 Service of documents
(1) Service of a process or other document on someone (the proprietor)
who carries on business under a registered business name is taken to
be personal service on the proprietor if—
(a) the document is left at a registered place of business of the
proprietor with someone who appears to be at least 16 years
old and to be employed at the place; or
(b) the document is given to a resident agent of the proprietor; or
(c) the document is left at the registered address of a resident agent
of the proprietor with someone who appears to be at least
16 years old and to be employed at the address; or
(d) the document is sent by prepaid post, addressed to the
proprietor, to a registered place of business of the proprietor;
or
(e) the document is sent by prepaid post, addressed to a resident
agent of the proprietor, to a registered address of the agent.

(I’m not a business lawyer, or even someone who runs a business, and its been a while since I was involved in anything like a private enterprise debt-chase. You should probably seek more current advice if you taking these paths)

According to the ASIC free search, the new ACN was registered in October 08, and is still current. Registered office is in Kingston.

For ~$20 you can order a full company search online through any of the places listed on the ASIC page, which will show you the full registered and trading addresses, as well as the full names and addresses of the director/s.

ah ha knew i would get somewhere asking you blokes
the plot thickens, I checked the ABN/ACN on the contract and it differs to that on the website (cuedos to Skidbladnir)
the details are
– ABN 15 133 555 441
– ACN 133 555 441

I looked that one up on the ABR and it is the same trading name and the abn is current too… progress? so I may make a phonecall or 2 and try track down some details.. hope the abr ppl can help

thanks for your help and ill try keep you updated here

Actually I lie, a site phone number is listed, once you follow the above logic and go a step further.

Short of popping into the ACT Regulatory Services Office (Fair Trading) or actually pulling ASIC records for you as backup I’m only working on assumptions here…
The ABN/ACN on your linked webpage was already deregistered by the timeframe for key handover, the change of ownership (ie: legal personality / ACN) story, and bit of cross referencing on affiliated ABNs, it looks like it might have just been a partnership (M J Desmet & A T Stokes) that dissolved
No idea if it was a business failure as you suggest, but it looks like one party left a Director role prior to the shutdown purely from the title of the ASIC filing.
If they’re still using the trading name, or drawing up contracts under the deregistered ACN, I have no idea if that is legal.
(Maybe check the paperwork you have again, and confirm the ABN or ACN?)

Googling for some of their other business trading names shows that at one point the cleaning company operated from a residential address in Fisher, (which is now the primary business address of a self employed sparky according to Whitepages).
Allhomes doesn’t list a recent sale for the property, which doesn’t exclude the property being rented, it is possible that one of the partnership still lives there, just _with_ the sparky.

I can’t provide you a direct phone number for the house, though. Maybe send a letter there too?

Maiden Cleaning can’t be beaten assuming you’re talking about a reasonable size area. Talk to Louis, 0412263267. Not necessarily the cheapest, but brilliant work, honest as, and always go the extra mile.

old canberran said :

Ruby Wednesday said :

Oh well. I wonder when a cheque becomes stale.

12 months afik

15 months actually, for the CBA anyway.

old canberran9:09 pm 20 Apr 09

Ruby Wednesday said :

Oh well. I wonder when a cheque becomes stale.

12 months afik

Do you have a postal address for them? If so send them a registered letter. That way you have proof that you made every best effort to contact them in regards to your concerns. If they don’t response within a reasonable timeframe (use best judgement on what is reasonable) then cancel the cheque and change the locks. By using registered post (keep the receipts \ numbers) it’ll make your life easier if they come after you in the future. (Registered post receipts have solved problems for me in the past)

Good idea VY it should cover the cost.. See what happens when you try be nice.
Have sent them an email with return receipt attached.. gave them 7 days to respond or consider the contract cancelled, bugger em if they dont reply

hope there is someone out there that is reliable and can be trusted

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy6:50 pm 20 Apr 09

Use what you owe them to pay to get the locks changed.

Ruby Wednesday6:48 pm 20 Apr 09

Something about cleaning companies! I had someone through VIP do our end of lease clean in January. Still haven’t cashed the cheque. I called VIP to follow up with them, and the number I called was not the people who attended and my message wasn’t returned. Oh well. I wonder when a cheque becomes stale.

Hmm good info
i signed 29/1/09 and keys were 2 weeks after – fits into the name change timing(they also mentioned the change of ownership) but not the de-registration!

According to ASIC, they gave up being Canberra Cleaning to instead become “ACN 127 726 078 PTY LTD” and applied to voluntarily deregister their ACN & ABN in October last year.
(Paperwork processed in January 09)
http://www.abr.business.gov.au/search.aspx?SearchText=48127726078

When did you give them a key?

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