Owed money by Australian Off Road? Two companies now sit behind the AOR name. Only one is in administration.

Rhost Pty Ltd went into voluntary administration on 15 September. If you know the company at all, you almost certainly don't know it by that name. You know it as Australian Off Road, or AOR: the off-road caravan brand Steve Budden started in a carport in Maleny in 2000, and built into a 100-employee Sunshine Coast manufacturer over 26 years.

That much is straightforward, and Rhost's own warranty paperwork says so directly: "Rhost Pty Ltd (ABN 97 111 822 283) trading as Australian Off Road (AOR)."

Here is what isn't straightforward. ASIC's own register currently shows a second, separate company holding several of those same trading names. And the AOR trademark itself has belonged to that other company since 2021, years before anything about this looked like distress.

Rhost Pty Ltd is the company in administration. AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd is not.

Owed money, waiting on a deposit, or chasing a warranty claim?

Your position depends on which company actually holds the obligation to you, and that isn't automatically the company whose name is on the caravan.

Rhost Pty Ltd's own insolvency notice, published by ASIC on 15 September, lists five trading names: Australian Off Road, Australian Off Road Campers, AOR Service, Trax Adventure Company, and Trax RV.

A live search of ASIC's business names register today shows Rhost currently holding five names of its own: Australian Offroad Campers, Australian Off Road Caravans, Australian Off Road, AOR Service, and Trax Adventure Company.

The same live search shows AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd, a separate company, currently holding four names: Trax Adventure Company, Australian Offroad Campers, Australian Off Road, and AOR Service.

Four names, in other words, currently appear under both companies at once. AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd registered for its first ABN and, on 3 September, registered four customer-facing business names that are also still registered to Rhost, twelve days before Rhost's administration. AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd itself is not new: ASIC's register shows it was first incorporated in 2019. What's new is the ABN and the business names, not the company.

ASIC's own guidance on business name transfers explains that this kind of dual listing can happen for up to 28 days while a transfer is processed, with the previous holder's registration still showing as registered until it's cancelled. Today falls inside that window, counting from 3 September. The public record reviewed here does not establish whether that is what's happening, or when, if at all, Rhost's registrations will be cancelled. The Open Register will recheck this after that window closes.

One name did not carry across to AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd's current list: Australian Off Road Caravans, which appears only under Rhost. And one name, Trax RV, appeared on yesterday's ASIC insolvency notice for Rhost but doesn't currently appear on either company's live business-names-holder listing. What that means isn't clear from the public record, and this article doesn't guess.

The trademark tells a longer, plainer story. A direct search of IP Australia's trade marks register shows the AOR word mark has been registered to AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd since 2021, with no recorded assignment since. Rhost Pty Ltd held its own, earlier AOR-related mark, which lapsed in 2024 after its renewal went unpaid, more than two years before the September 2026 administration. The current registered AOR trademark, in other words, has sat outside Rhost for years, not weeks.

None of this establishes wrongdoing, or that AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd was created for any purpose connected to Rhost's administration. The result is that a customer, dealer or creditor searching "Australian Off Road" today can land on a separate company that is not in administration, even though the Rhost contracts and warranty documents reviewed for this article identify Rhost as the manufacturer and contracting company.

Four AOR trading names currently sit with two companies. Only one is in administration. Source: ASIC business names register, IP Australia trade marks register.

Australia's ROVER register shows all six current Australian Off Road vehicle type approvals as In Force and held by Rhost Pty Ltd, as of 16 September. AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd holds none. A vehicle type approval is part of the regulatory pathway that allows a vehicle to be entered on the Register of Approved Vehicles and supplied to the Australian market, not a sales licence in itself. Whatever else is unclear about the two companies, that regulatory position is entirely with the company in administration.

AOR's standard manufacturer warranty is a Rhost Pty Ltd obligation: one year from delivery, covering the caravan's body and chassis.

AOR also introduced an extended-warranty program through AWN Insurance. Its own website says the additional five years of cover became standard, bundled in automatically, for new owners only from April 2026. Existing owners could purchase that extended cover separately: AOR's site lists it at $1,540 (RRP $2,100). Owners under five years from purchase could buy cover extending up to 10 years from the original purchase date; owners under ten years could buy cover extending up to 15 years from the original purchase date.

That means being in year two or later of ownership does not, by itself, establish that AWN is responsible for your claim. Check your warranty documents rather than assuming from how long you've owned the van. If you have an AWN extended-warranty policy, AOR's own instructions say claims require AWN pre-approval before any repair. If you only have Rhost's manufacturer warranty, and no separate AWN policy, the company responsible for that warranty is now in administration.

Either way, the designated claims channel Rhost's own warranty policy names, the MyAOR HelpDesk at myaor.com.au, is not currently resolving for us, along with its prod. and test. subdomains. That's a practical problem for lodging any claim right now, separate from whether the claim itself will ultimately be honoured.

Rhost Pty Ltd, trading as Australian Off Road, entered voluntary administration on 15 September 2026 under Nick Keramos and Bill Karageozis of DVT Mcleods. A separate company, AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd, has held the AOR trademark since 2021 and currently also appears as the registered holder of four business names that remain registered to Rhost, a position that began 3 September 2026. Every current vehicle type approval remains with Rhost. AOR's standard manufacturer warranty is a direct Rhost obligation; its AWN extended warranty is automatic only for new owners from April 2026, and was a separate purchase for earlier owners. No recent creditor-enforcement, tax, lease or secured-lender proceeding connected to the collapse was found in the court searches conducted for this article, and no government grant or tender history was found either.

The record does not establish why the business names and trademark sit where they do, whether AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd will take on any of Rhost's trading operations, what caused the administration, Rhost's total liabilities, how many customers or creditors are affected, or what happens to unresolved deposits and warranty claims. It does not establish wrongdoing by any person or company. It does not establish what happened to the Trax RV name specifically. And a search finding no litigation or grant history is not the same as a guarantee that none exists; it means none was found in the sources checked.

If your contract, invoice or receipt identifies Rhost Pty Ltd, ABN 97 111 822 283, your claim is against the company now in administration. Check the legal company and ABN on your own paperwork rather than relying on the Australian Off Road or AOR brand name.

Check your warranty documents to see what cover you actually have, rather than assuming from how long you've owned the van. If your only cover is the standard 1-year manufacturer warranty, that claim sits with Rhost. If you hold an AWN Insurance extended-warranty policy, whether it came standard because you bought new from April 2026 or you purchased it separately as an existing owner, that claim sits with AWN, and its process requires pre-approval before any repair.

If you're a trade creditor or supplier, keep your purchase orders, invoices, delivery records, statements, and any security or retention-of-title documentation. Check those documents to establish which legal entity actually owes you; if they identify Rhost Pty Ltd, ACN 111 822 283, your claim is against the company now in administration.

No recent creditor-enforcement, tax, lease or secured-lender proceeding connected to the collapse was found in a search of the Queensland Supreme and District Court civil registry, the Federal Court and Federal Circuit and Family Court, and the federal bankruptcy register, run against Rhost Pty Ltd, Australian Off Road, Australian Offroad Campers, AOR Holding Co Pty Ltd, and the individuals Steve Budden and Russell Evans. Two old matters exist and are unrelated to the collapse: a 2013 customer damages claim against Rhost, discontinued in 2014, and a 2006 personal-injury claim against the AOR business when it operated as an unincorporated partnership, resolved by mediation in 2007. A search of AusTender, Queensland state manufacturing and export grant programs, and Sunshine Coast Council's full awarded-contracts records found no government grant funding or supply contract history for Rhost or AOR.

No liquidator's or administrator's first report to creditors had been published at the time of writing.