Perth house relocator linked to $6m losses still trading

James Sinclair Thomson’s Perth house-relocation business was the subject of a Consumer Protection WA warning in July, after nine formal complaints accused him of taking deposits without delivering homes and leaving contractors and tradespeople unpaid. Three months on, Thomson, who trades as Perth House Relocators, JT Projects and JST Projects Australasia, is still operating. On Thursday, WA Nationals leader Shane Love told state parliament his office had received “significant additional complaints regarding Mr Thomson, which far exceeded the volume reported by Consumer Protection,” and pressed Commerce Minister Tony Buti on what action had been taken against him.

Why it matters

Love’s question went beyond one operator. He told parliament that house relocators and modular home suppliers can handle large sums of client money while sitting outside the registration framework that applies to licensed builders, including home indemnity insurance protections. He pointed to Bella Modular, a separate WA modular home supplier that allegedly owed around 60 families, contractors and suppliers more than $4 million collectively before it went into administration, as a second example of the same gap.

Among those affected by Thomson’s business, one homeowner, Leanne Green, has a house that remains uninhabitable, an example cited in parliament of what happens when a relocator takes payment for finishing work that is never completed. For homeowners, the practical risk is that paying a relocator or modular supplier for transport, council approvals and finishing work does not carry the same consumer protections as a contract with a registered builder. Buti told parliament the maximum penalty under the Australian Consumer Law for conduct of this kind is $100 million for a company, with a lower cap for individuals, though no penalty has been imposed on Thomson or his businesses to date.

The numbers

Consumer Protection’s July warning followed nine complaints linked to Thomson’s business, which the regulator said had left around 40 people roughly $6 million out of pocket collectively. Buti told parliament three further complaints have been lodged against Thomson since that warning, on top of the nine the regulator had already logged. Love separately cited Bella Modular’s administration, in which around 60 families, contractors and suppliers were allegedly owed more than $4 million collectively, a case he raised to argue the shortfall around Thomson’s business is not an isolated one in WA’s construction sector.

What’s next

Buti told parliament he has asked the WA Building Commissioner for advice on the matter, without specifying a timeframe or scope for that review. Love’s further questions to the minister, including whether Consumer Protection has logged complaints beyond the three confirmed and whether Thomson has kept advertising or accepting work under his various business names, remain unanswered on the public record. Thomson told WAtoday in June that he denied the allegations against him. No further enforcement action against Thomson or Perth House Relocators had been confirmed as of Thursday’s parliamentary exchange.

The exchange sits alongside a separate push in state parliament this week on construction-sector oversight, including the planning rule changes covered in this week’s granny flat and parking reforms story. Both cases point to the same underlying question for WA regulators: whether the registration and insurance settings built for licensed builders are keeping pace with operators, like house relocators and modular suppliers, who sit outside that framework while handling comparable sums of client money.