Lender wants Hansen & Horn receivership terminated

A lender of Hansen & Horn Group Inc. wants a Marion County judge to terminate the receivership directed to oversee the bankrupt homebuilder’s assets.

Lawyers for Salin Bank & Trust Co. filed the motion late last month, arguing there is no need to continue the receivership because creditor claims will be resolved through bankruptcy proceedings anyway.

Marion Superior Court Judge Heather A. Welch approved the liquidation of Hansen & Horn in March, after court-appointed receiver Richard Lux recommended the Indianapolis-based homebuilder’s assets be sold in an attempt to repay creditors. The bankruptcy is pending in federal court.

Hansen & Horn has assets of $7 million and liabilities of $14.5 million.

The judge in February, however, denied a request from a lawyer representing Indianapolis-based Salin to opt out of the receivership process.

Salin argues it has a total of $1.5 million in loans to Hansen & Horn for which there is no equity. Salin spokesman Roger Harvey, senior vice president of Bose Public Affairs Group, said the bank filed the motion to terminate the receivership because it wants to “control its own destiny.”

“We just want our properties back,” he said, “and we want to make the decision on how best to dispose of those properties.”

A lawyer for C&R Concrete, one of dozens of unsecured creditors owed money by Hansen & Horn, responded to Salin’s motion by filing an objection. Without the additional oversight of a court-appointed receiver, it’s more likely Salin and Hansen & Horn could negotiate to dismiss the bankruptcy, which might allow the homebuilder to return to doing business, attorney Eric Allen said.

“If they keep the bankruptcy enforced, that’s fine,” he said. “But what we don’t want is the bank to cut a deal with Hansen & Horn and leave the unsecured creditors out in the cold.”

C&R is seeking to recover $268,749 for concrete work done during the past three years. Altogether, Hansen & Horn is facing at least 20 claims brought mostly by subcontractors hoping to recover more than $1 million.

Judge Welch has not ruled on Salin’s motion to terminate the receivership.

Hansen & Horn has stopped building in more than 20 subdivisions in central Indiana, including the massive mixed-use Anson development in Boone County near Whitestown.

Founded in 1977, the company 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.