Tiny home buyers left stranded after Brisbane builder collapses

Liberty Oz Pty Ltd, trading as My Little House and Container Domes and Shelters, was placed into voluntary administration on June 15, leaving tiny-home buyers across Queensland chasing answers and money after paying deposits for builds that never arrived. The collapse hit hardest in the Brisbane northside market, where compact housing is often sold as a fast fix for family overflow, aging parents, or backyard living.

For Kerrie and Brendan Carney, the purchase was supposed to be simple: a two-bedroom tiny home for their 24-year-old daughter on their Sunshine Coast property. They said they did their homework, read reviews, and believed they were dealing with a reputable builder. Instead, they say they are among dozens of families left in limbo after paying more than $43,000 in deposits and still not receiving the home.

The delivery date kept slipping. The Carneys said they were first told January, then March, then June 15, the same day the company entered administration. That sequence turned a planned backyard home into a stalled order, with no finished structure to show for the money already handed over. In a market built on custom fabrication and upfront payments, the delay left customers exposed in exactly the place they were trying to create security.

The company’s collapse also widened the financial damage. Customers were left out of pocket, and the builder was said to owe Queenslanders millions. For families that had treated the purchase as a practical housing solution, the failure did more than blow out a timeline. It wiped out the plan itself, leaving daughters, parents, and other household members stuck in the same living arrangements they were trying to move beyond.

The Brisbane case fits a broader pattern in Australia’s tiny-home sector. In 2024, My Tiny Home Kit customers said they had paid money upfront and never received homes. Consumer Affairs Victoria later alleged that Melbourne entrepreneur Spencer Porter accepted $1.3 million for tiny homes and failed to supply them in a reasonable time. A later ABC update said the same business may have owed customers more than $3.4 million and may have been trading insolvent for almost a year.

Another Queensland buyer, Donna Corbin, paid $42,000 for a $52,000 tiny home that was promised in three months and was still waiting a year later. Her case, like the Carneys’, shows how quickly a tiny-home purchase can shift from a tidy housing solution to a stranded deposit and an unfinished plan.