MC Strategic
Advisory Group
Melbourne · Victoria
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Clear advice when the pressure is on.

MC Strategic Advisory Group acts for company directors, business owners, builders and homeowners facing the matters that do not wait — a liquidator's demand, an ATO notice, a building project that has gone wrong, a contract that needs to be corrected before it is signed. We work with you and, where the matter requires it, with your lawyers and insolvency practitioners. You are told plainly where you stand, what the options cost, and what to do next.

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Insolvency & restructuring Taxation & ATO Building & construction Commercial & property
Areas of expertise

Four areas, worked in depth.

Most matters arrive with a deadline already attached. These are the areas where that deadline is met day to day, and where the statutory timeframes and the evidence a decision-maker will want are known before the file is opened.

01

Insolvency & restructuring

Liquidator demands and insolvent trading claims, voluntary administration and deeds of company arrangement, small business restructuring and safe harbour, statutory demands and winding-up proceedings. The work is built around one question a court or a liquidator will eventually ask: what did the director know, and what did they do about it.

Director defence

  • Insolvent trading claims under s 588G
  • Defences under s 588H — expectation of solvency, reliance on a competent person, reasonable steps taken
  • Safe harbour under s 588GA: better-outcome course of action, advice from qualified entities, books and records, and a contemporaneous compliance log
  • Public examinations and liquidator information demands

Company pathways

  • Small business restructuring under Pt 5.3B — the $1M liabilities cap, employee entitlements and lodgements brought up to date
  • Voluntary administration and DOCA under Pt 5.3A
  • Informal creditor workouts and standstills
  • Statutory demands: the 21-day window and s 459G set-aside applications
  • Solvency assessed on the cash-flow test — Southern Cross Interiors, Quick v Stoland
02

Taxation & ATO negotiation

Director penalty notices, including lockdown and remittable analysis. GST, PAYG withholding and superannuation guarantee liabilities. Penalty and interest remission. Payment arrangements and commercial settlements. The first step is always the same: establish what was lodged, and when — because that single fact decides whether the debt can still be remitted.

Director penalty exposure

  • DPN triage inside the 21-day window from the date of issue, not receipt
  • Lockdown versus remittable — the lodgement position is the dividing line
  • PAYG withholding, GST and superannuation guarantee charge
  • Resignation, new-director and illness defences under s 269-35

Debt & enforcement

  • Payment arrangements, upfront-plus-instalment proposals and standstills
  • General interest charge and penalty remission requests
  • Garnishee notices, recovery holds and departure prohibition orders
  • Objections, private rulings and disputed assessments
03

Building & construction

VCAT Building and Property List proceedings, DBDRV conciliation and certificates, defective and incomplete works, contract, variation and termination disputes, and settlement deeds. Variation claims are tested against the contract clause first and the legislation second — most fall over on notice and written consent before the cost is ever argued.

Contract & variations

  • HIA and Master Builders standard-form review
  • Clause compliance mapping — notice timelines, written consent before work starts, itemised cost breakdown
  • Prime cost items and provisional sums, and the limits on adjusting them
  • Progress claims, delay and extension-of-time claims, suspension and termination

Disputes & defects

  • Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (Vic) implied warranties
  • DBDRV conciliation and the certificate that opens the door to VCAT
  • Scott Schedules and defect scheduling with building experts
  • Rectification cost, delay and consequential loss claims
  • Points of Claim, directions hearings and compulsory conferences
04

Commercial & property

Leases, assignments and business sales. Joint ventures and shareholder arrangements. Debt recovery and enforcement of security. Contract review before you commit — which is materially cheaper than the dispute that follows a clause nobody read.

Transactions

  • Retail and commercial leases, assignments, surrenders and make-good
  • Business sale and purchase — restraint, adjustment and employee transfer terms
  • Joint venture, unitholder and shareholder agreements
  • Franchise, supply and subcontractor agreements

Recovery & security

  • Letters of demand and recovery strategy
  • PPSR registration, review and enforcement
  • Personal guarantees, indemnities and director exposure
  • Settlement deeds, releases and payment terms that hold
The window

Most of these deadlines are 21 days, and none of them pause.

A statutory demand, a director penalty notice and a winding-up application all run on fixed statutory periods. The options available on day two are not the options available on day twenty. That is the single reason to call early.

Call now
DAY 0 DAY 7 DAY 14 DAY 21 Every option open Most options open Few options left Set aside, negotiate, restructure, appoint Evidence becomes harder to assemble Defend a presumption of insolvency DEADLINE
Why clients engage us

Specialised, fast, and priced before it starts.

Speed

Urgent matters are assessed the day they arrive. Demands, notices and hearing dates carry deadlines, and we work to them.

Specialisation

Insolvency, director penalty and construction matters are core work here, not the occasional file.

Industry depth

Experience across construction, hospitality, retail, education, transport and property. No time spent explaining your industry.

Fee certainty

Fixed-fee and staged costs agreements wherever the work allows, agreed before anything begins.

How an urgent matter runs

The first week decides most of it.

This is the sequence an urgent file follows, from the first call to the day it closes.

Day 0

Initial discussion

A call without obligation. We identify what has actually been served, the date it was served, and the date the clock runs out. That date sets everything that follows.

Days 1–3

Position assessment

Financial position, lodgement history, contract and correspondence reviewed. The realistic options are set out with their cost and their consequence — including the option of doing nothing, where that is genuinely one.

Days 3–7

Scope and costs agreed

A written scope and a fixed or staged fee before work proceeds. Where counsel, an accountant or a registered liquidator is needed, that is identified now, not later.

In the window

The response is filed or served

The defence, application, payment proposal or rebuttal goes out inside the statutory period, drafted to be read later by a liquidator, the ATO, VCAT or a court.

After

Negotiation and resolution

Most matters settle. Terms are documented properly — deeds of settlement, payment arrangements, releases — so the matter closes rather than returning.

Who we act for

Directors, owners, builders and homeowners.

Company directors

Facing a liquidator's demand, an insolvent trading claim, a director penalty notice or personal guarantee exposure.

Business owners

Carrying tax debt, a statutory demand or a failing contract, and deciding between restructuring, administration and an orderly wind-down.

Builders & homeowners

On either side of a domestic building dispute — variations, defects, delay, termination, DBDRV and the Building and Property List.

Fixed fee

Defined pieces of work — a contract review, a demand response, a costs-agreed advice — quoted as one amount before work starts.

Staged

Longer matters broken into stages, each priced and authorised on its own, so the spend never runs ahead of a decision you have made.

Initial discussion

Without obligation. If the matter is not one we should take, we say so at the first call rather than the first invoice.

Contact us

Speak with us early — the options are always better before a deadline passes.

If a notice, demand or hearing date has been served on you, have the document and the date it arrived to hand. Initial discussions are without obligation.

Call now — direct Tap to call
Office

Level 7, 21 Victoria Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Hours

Monday to Friday, and by arrangement for urgent matters

ABN

20 991 252 465

Send an enquiry

Tell us what has been served and when. We respond to urgent matters the same day.

Sending an enquiry does not create a client relationship. For a matter closing inside 21 days, call rather than write.

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