Affordable Modular Buildings’ solicitors: cease-and-desist letter

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30 September 2026

Dear Kay and Alex

MATTER: IN THE MATTER OF MS KAY POWER & PORTABLE BUILDING GROUP TRADING AS AFFORDABLE MODULAR BUILDINGS

RE: CEASE AND DESIST LETTER

We refer to the above.

We act for Portable Building Group A.C.N. 655 549 247 Pty Ltd (our “Client”). This letter concerns publications concerning our Client, its business conducted under the name Affordable Modular Buildings, and Mr Tim Austin.

Our Client is aware of online material published by you, on your behalf, concerning you, or with your knowledge, authority, adoption, involvement or approval, including material which appears from the presently available screenshots and records to have been published by Alex [surname redacted]. To the extent any such material concerns your allegations and story, and was authorised, encouraged, adopted, benefited from, or not procured to be removed by you, it is also the subject of this complaint.

Our client instructs that the publications are false and defamatory. Our Client further instructs that Affordable Modular Buildings had not done the installation referred to in the publications and had ceased work with Expandify. The material has been, and unless removed will continue to be, available for publication, sharing, republication and dissemination online.

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1. PUBLICATIONS COMPLAINED OF

Website Publication

The website at thegrannyflatfiles.com.au, branded “The Granny Flat Files”, presents Kay Power’s story and states, in substance, that she had been waiting over a year and was terrified of losing her life savings. In the installation material, Affordable Modular Buildings and Tim Austin are identified. The website further asserts, among other things, that payment safeguards were unresolved and termination was threatened, and alleges that after Alex asked that communications be directed to Alex because of Kay’s health concerns, Tim Austin telephoned Kay, told her she could lose her money if she did not pay early, and that she ended the call in tears.

Facebook Group Publication

A Facebook group post visible at facebook.com/groups/945417076623572/posts/187258043912466/, and identified in the available screenshot with the author shown as Alex [surname redacted], asks: “Has anyone dealt with Expandify or Affordable Modular Buildings?” That post refers to others said to be experiencing extreme delays or defects, states that a website was built “just to keep track of this shit show”, and links readers to thegrannyflatfiles.com.au website.

Posts concerning Affordable Modular Buildings

Further posts headed “For anyone considering Affordable Modular Buildings”, appearing in the material supplied to us and also seemingly published by Alex [surname redacted], allege in substance that Tim Austin sought payment of almost $70,000 before the contractual milestone had been reached and before any project plan had been provided; that Alex told him to deal with Alex and not Kay because Kay was undergoing health concerns; that he called Kay anyway; and that he pressured her to pay while she cried.

Republication of Reviews and Linked Material

Further online publications republish, summarise or direct readers to one-star reviews and linked material, and state or imply that there were major delays, poor communication, disputes over extra costs, pressure, aggressive speaking, threats of cancellation, projects being cancelled, and that Affordable Modular Buildings’ responses were defensive, combative, and quick to make the customer the problem. Those publications also direct readers to review material said to be on Affordable Modular Buildings’ Google profile and back to thegrannyflatfiles.com.au website.

2. IMPUTATIONS

We are instructed that that the natural and ordinary meaning, and the potential defamatory stings and imputations, arising from the publications include, but are not limited to, imputations that Affordable Modular Buildings and/or Mr Austin:

(a) acted dishonestly, improperly or without integrity in dealing with customers;

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(b) demanded payment that was not due, or sought to obtain money to which they were not properly entitled;

(c) bullied, harassed or improperly pressured a vulnerable customer, including a person said to be undergoing health concerns;

(d) threatened cancellation or termination improperly in order to force payment;

(e) mishandled customers’ money, projects, approvals, installation arrangements or contractual dealings;

(f) engaged in poor, aggressive, combative or unprofessional conduct towards customers; and

(g) are untrustworthy, unsafe to deal with, and should not be engaged for residential building work.

3. SERIOUS HARM

The allegations conveyed by the publications are potentially grave. We are instructed that they have caused and will continue to cause serious harm to our Client’s reputation, commercial standing and business interests, including loss of custom, loss of commercial opportunities, ongoing online reputational damage, and financial loss. By naming our Client and Mr Austin and inviting readers to treat the publications and linked material as warnings, the publications are plainly capable of substantial and continuing harm.

4. DEMANDS

Our client requires your immediate compliance with the following demands:

A. You must immediately cease and desist from making, publishing, causing, encouraging, approving, adopting or republishing defamatory matter concerning our client, its business, or Mr Tim Austin.

B. You must immediately remove, and procure the removal of, the identified material from thegrannyflatfiles.com.au website, Facebook, and every other platform, account, page, group, website or service under your control or influence, including any substantially similar reposts, screenshots, comments, linked material and review republications.

C. You must provide written undertakings that the publications have been removed and will not be republished, and that no further publication of the same or similar allegations will occur in any form.

D. You must preserve, and take immediate steps to ensure the preservation of, all documents, drafts, emails, messages, direct messages, texts, notes, screenshots, call records, audio, metadata, website records, domain records, social media records, administrator records, hosting records and all other records concerning the creation, publication, editing, deletion, hosting, dissemination and removal of the publications. Nothing is to be deleted, altered, overwritten or destroyed.

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E. You must identify all URLs, webpages, posts, accounts, profiles, handles, groups, administrators, domain registrants, hosts, platform providers, and third parties involved in publishing, hosting, sharing or maintaining the material, whether directly or indirectly.

F. You must confirm in writing the precise steps already taken, and to be taken, to remove the publications, including the date, time and platform for each step and the present status of each publication.

G. You must provide a written apology and retraction, in terms to be approved by this office. If you are unwilling to do so, our client expressly reserves all rights in relation to the obtaining of appropriate corrective relief.

Full compliance with this letter, including written undertakings, must be received by this office no later than 4.00 pm on Wednesday, 7 October 2026.

If full compliance is not received by that deadline, our client has instructions to commence proceedings without further notice to you and to seek all available relief, including injunctive relief, damages, interest and costs.

This letter is sent in the hope that urgent compliance will avoid the need for immediate proceedings.

If not already done so, you should obtain independent legal advice without delay. Any response must be directed through this office only. You are not to contact our Client or Mr Austin directly in relation to this matter.

Please do not hesitate to contact the writer should you care to discuss the matter further.