01 What has actually happened, and when
Two separate processes, in two different courts, converging on one builder.
Aliya Pty Ltd, which trades as Aliya Homes and is based in Bundoora, was wound up by order of the Supreme Court of Western Australia on 13 August 2026. Kelly Dale Meyn and Dermott Joseph McVeigh of Avior Consulting were appointed liquidators by the Court on the same day, and the formal notice of the winding up order was published the following day.
That order came seven weeks after the Building and Plumbing Commission immediately suspended the company's domestic building registration and the personal registration of its director, Arun Tanwar. The two events are separate. A suspension can also sit on the register for a long time with nothing published beside it, which is what happened to another Victorian builder that went into liquidation a week after this one. A winding up on a creditor's application is a question of whether a company can pay its debts. A registration suspension is a regulatory decision about whether a practitioner should be working. They are decided by different bodies, on different tests, and one does not prove the other.
There is also an earlier chapter that belongs in any fair account. In 2025 a different creditor, Allianz Australia Workers' Compensation (Victoria) Limited, applied to wind the company up in the Supreme Court of Victoria. That application was dismissed in July 2025. It is on the public record, it did not succeed, and it should not be read as evidence of anything other than that an application was made and refused.
02 What the BPC alleges, and what has not been decided
The distinction matters, and it is the whole of this section.
The BPC alleges that Aliya Homes and its director demanded and received money from homeowners without ensuring the building work was covered by domestic building insurance. Further grounds in the immediate suspension notice relate to alleged breaches of the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 at sites in Essendon, Pakenham, and Breakwater in Geelong.
An immediate suspension is the strongest step the regulator can take without waiting for a hearing. It is issued on a public interest ground to prevent further consumer harm while an investigation continues, and it is expressly reviewable.
Public interest suspensions are the BPC's most powerful tool and are only used in the most serious of cases.
"The practitioner's registration is immediately suspended in the interests of the public pending a show cause process. The immediate suspension took effect at 3:14pm on 24 June 2026. The immediate suspension will remain in place until otherwise revoked by instrument in writing by the Authority or unless otherwise ordered or stayed by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT)."
Two registration numbers were suspended for the director personally, DB-L 40896 and DB-U 47303, alongside the company's CDB-U 53747. The BPC has said the company may appeal the immediate suspension to VCAT. Whether any appeal has been lodged is not on the public record at the time of writing.
03 The warning that was on the public record in February
Five months before the collapse, and anyone could have looked.
This is the part of the story that is useful to a reader rather than merely interesting. In its June media release, the BPC recorded that it had already acted against this builder months earlier.
The BPC has previously taken action against Aliya Homes by restricting its ability to do building work up to a maximum of $16,000 since February 2026 as they posed a financial risk.
A domestic builder capped at $16,000 cannot lawfully build a house. For a company presenting itself as a home builder, a restriction at that level is not a technicality; it is a statement by the regulator that the business posed a financial risk to consumers. That was five months before the winding up order.
Why the restriction never appeared on the disciplinary register
Here is the trap, and it is worth understanding because it applies to every builder in Victoria. Site Inspections reviewed all 939 entries on the BPC Compliance and Enforcement Register. The only records for this builder are the two immediate suspensions from June 2026. The February restriction is not on that register at all.
That is not an oversight. The Compliance and Enforcement Register publishes disciplinary proceedings, meaning findings that a practitioner has contravened the law or is no longer fit to practise. A restriction placed as a condition on a registration is a different instrument, and it shows on the licence and registration check rather than the disciplinary register.
04 What a suspension does to your contract
Suspension and liquidation affect your position differently.
A suspension stops the builder working. Under the BPC's notice, the suspension prevents both the company and the director from carrying out domestic building work, and it stays in place until the Authority revokes it in writing or VCAT orders otherwise. A suspended builder cannot lawfully continue your build, and a registered builder is required for domestic building work above the statutory threshold.
Liquidation is a further step again. Once a winding up order is made and liquidators are appointed, control of the company passes to the liquidators. They decide what happens to the company's assets, its books and its contracts. In this matter the liquidator has said publicly that the picture is still being assembled.
The estimated number of affected customers is currently unknown. We are in the process of obtaining access to the company's books and records, which will help us assess the company's next steps re: unfinished projects.
If your build is affected, the practical position is that the company that signed your contract is now under the control of liquidators, and the registration that allowed it to build is suspended. Both of those facts change what you should be doing this week, which is the subject of section 06.
05 What happens to your domestic building insurance
Insolvency of the builder is one of the triggers the cover exists for.
Domestic building insurance, sometimes called builders warranty insurance, is the cover that responds when a builder cannot complete or cannot rectify because they have died, disappeared, or become insolvent. A winding up order is the clearest form of that last trigger.
The complication in this matter is the nature of the allegation itself. The BPC alleges that money was demanded and received from homeowners without ensuring the work was covered by domestic building insurance. If that allegation is ultimately made out in any particular case, the owner in that case may find the policy they assumed existed was never taken out.
Whether a claim succeeds, and what it covers, turns on the policy and the facts of the individual build. Two things commonly decide the outcome: whether the work is characterised as incomplete work or as defective work, and what state the works were in on the day the builder stopped. Both are evidentiary questions, and both are easier to answer with a documented record than from memory.
06 What to do this week if you are an affected owner
The site changes. The record of it does not, if you make one.
When a builder stops, a site does not stay still. Weather gets into an unfinished building, materials walk, trades return to collect what they say is theirs, and eventually someone else starts work. Every one of those events makes it harder to establish what was actually built and what was actually paid for.
That last step is the one owners most often leave until it is too late. The condition of a partly built home on the day the builder stopped is the baseline for a domestic building insurance claim, for any dispute with the liquidator about what was completed, and for whoever eventually finishes the job. Once another trade is on site, that baseline is gone and cannot be reconstructed.
07 Timeline
Every entry below is drawn from a primary record. Sort and filter to follow one thread.
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19 August 2026MediaCompany website still live and taking enquiriesSix days after the winding up order, the company's website remains online, invites enquiries, and continues to describe the business as "Victoria's Most trusted Builder". Recorded here as an observation with its date, not as an allegation of intent. Websites routinely outlive the companies that built them, and the liquidators now control the company's assets.
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18 August 2026MediaCollapse reported; BPC confirms investigation continuesThe Herald Sun reports the liquidation. A BPC spokeswoman confirms the regulator is aware of the winding up and that its investigations are ongoing. The liquidator says the number of affected customers is currently unknown. The Herald Sun reports the winding up application was brought by Brilliant Homes Breakwater Pty Ltd, and records that Mr Tanwar has been contacted for comment.
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14 August 2026CorporateNotice of winding up order publishedFormal notice under subsection 465A(2) of the Corporations Act 2001 and regulation 5.4.01B is issued, recording the appointment and the company's status as In Liquidation.
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13 August 2026CourtWound up by the Supreme Court of Western AustraliaKelly Dale Meyn and Dermott Joseph McVeigh of Avior Consulting are appointed liquidators by order of the Court. The company's ASIC status changes the same day.
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30 June 2026CourtApplication to wind up the company lodged with ASICNotification of an application to wind up the company is received by ASIC, six days after the immediate suspension took effect.
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29 June 2026RegulatorBPC announces the suspension publiclyThe media release names the company and its director, sets out the allegations, names Essendon, Pakenham and Breakwater in Geelong, records the February restriction, and asks affected consumers to come forward. It also records the right to appeal to VCAT.
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24 June 2026RegulatorImmediate suspension takes effect at 3:14pmThe company's CDB-U 53747 registration is immediately suspended in the interests of the public pending a show cause process. The decision date recorded for the company is 24 June 2026; for the director, 22 June 2026. Both suspensions take effect at the same time.
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27 May 2026CorporateBusiness name "Aliya homes" registered to the company's ABNRecorded for completeness from the Australian Business Register. A business name registration date can reflect a first registration, a renewal or a transfer, and no inference is drawn from it here.
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February 2026RegulatorBPC restricts the company to $16,000 of building workThe restriction is imposed because the company posed a financial risk. It is a condition on the registration rather than a disciplinary finding, so it appears on the licence and registration check and not on the Compliance and Enforcement Register.
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2 July 2025CourtEarlier winding up application dismissedAn application brought in the Supreme Court of Victoria by Allianz Australia Workers' Compensation (Victoria) Limited, action S ECI 2025 02936, is dismissed. Included because it did not succeed; an application that fails is not evidence against the company.
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7 March 2025RegulatorRelated company penalised $4,000 over a DBDRV orderBuildforme Homes Pty Ltd, registration CDB-U 54084, receives a penalty of $4,000 and a reprimand following a VBA show cause process concerning a site at Truganina, for failing to comply with a dispute resolution order made by Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria within the specified timeframe, a ground under section 179(1)(da) of the Building Act 1993. The Herald Sun reports Buildforme as another of Mr Tanwar's companies; the register records the company only.
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25 February 2022RegulatorRelated company penalised $2,000 over a direction to fixBuildforme Homes Pty Ltd receives a reprimand and a penalty of $2,000 following a VBA show cause process concerning a site at Strathmore, for failing to comply with a written direction to fix within the required timeframe, in contravention of section 37H(1) of the Building Act 1993.
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21 February 2014CorporateAliya Pty Ltd registeredACN 168 181 100. The company's own marketing later described the business as having 15 years of expertise.
08 The wider enforcement picture
This suspension was one of a rising number.
According to figures reported by the Herald Sun on 18 August 2026, the suspension of this company and its director was one of 24 occasions on which the BPC used its immediate suspension power during 2025 and 2026, described as a six-fold increase on the previous year. The same figures record $2.12 million in penalties, an increase of 55 per cent, and 103 suspensions, cancellations and disqualifications compared with 49 the year before.
The Commissioner has attributed the increase to powers introduced in July, saying the regulator has increased its use of its full regulatory toolkit to address non-compliance, and that most builders do the right thing while those who do not can expect the BPC to act.
Get a defects report for your insurance claim
09 Sources
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BPC media release, "BPC suspends Aliya Homes and director Arun Tanwar effective immediately"
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BPC Compliance and Enforcement Register, entries for Aliya Pty Ltd, Arun Tanwar and Buildforme Homes Pty Ltd
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Notice of winding up order and appointment as liquidator, subsection 465A(2) of the Corporations Act 2001 and regulation 5.4.01B
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ASIC published notice, application for winding up order, Aliya Pty Ltd, plaintiff Allianz Australia Workers' Compensation (Victoria) Limited, S ECI 2025 02936
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Australian Business Register, ALIYA PTY LTD, ABN 63 168 181 100
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Giuseppe Tauriello, "Aliya Homes collapses into liquidation amid watchdog probe", Herald Sun
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Victorian Building Authority news archive, mirror of the 29 June 2026 BPC media release
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BPC Compliance and Enforcement activity page, checked for published enforcement statistics
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Building Act 1993 (Vic), sections 37H and 179
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Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (Vic)
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