Local home builder placed in receivership

A receiver appointed to manage the assets of the financially troubled Hansen & Horn Group Inc. will recommend to the court in February whether the Indianapolis-based home builder should remain in business.
 
Marion Superior Court Judge Heather A. Welch on Friday selected Rick Lux of R.P. Lux Co., an Indianapolis-based real estate services firm, to operate the company as it attempts to avoid bankruptcy.

The judge’s order directed Lux to determine whether Hansen & Horn should stay in business, be partially liquidated or be completely liquidated.

Lux is scheduled to make his recommendation to the court on Feb. 22.

In the meantime, Hansen & Horn is not permitted to enter into new contracts or transfer assets outside the ordinary course of business, unless the receiver approves the transaction, the judge’s order said.
 
The judge’s decision to appoint a receiver came one week after President Ward Horn admitted Hansen & Horn is insolvent.

A lawsuit brought by one of the home builder’s suppliers, Indianapolis-based C&R Concrete Inc., prompted the receivership. C&R is seeking to recover $268,749 in concrete work done during the past three years.

In all, Hansen & Horn is facing at least 20 lawsuits, brought mostly by subcontractors, that seek to recover more than $1 million.

Adding to the company’s financial pressures is a judge’s decision in another lawsuit to have lender Monroe Bank place a 90-day hold on Hansen & Horn’s account after it failed to pay a $183,000 judgment. A hearing on that matter is set for Jan. 26.

Hansen & Horn is building in more than 20 subdivisions in central Indiana, including Duke Realty Corp.’s mixed-use Anson development in Boone County near Whitestown.

Founded in 1977, the company has regularly ranked among the top residential construction companies in the Indianapolis area over the past decade, building more than 200 homes during several of those years.