Dozens of families say they paid for houses that were never finished. At the centre of the complaints is Fornelosluxsteel, a construction company from Barcelos that, on paper, looked in order: a valid construction licence (alvará) and, on a superficial check, little that stood out.
The case was the subject of a report by the programme Repórter Sábado, on the NOW channel, which brought together a group of customers who say they were wronged. We cross-referenced the public records to understand what was, after all, accessible in official sources. Today, anyone who opens the full Fornelosluxsteel report on ObraXRAY finds several serious signals and a clear recommendation: do not proceed.
In this article we bring together two different things. On one hand, the public and documentary records that we confirmed and cross-referenced: the licence, court proceedings, an enforcement of judgment, declared insolvencies, and the corporate history of the companies and the people. On the other, the accounts and allegations that came to light through the report and the affected customers. We always flag which is which. The accounts are not, in themselves, officially confirmed and are presented as what they are - testimonies and information we found, not guaranteed truths. Only what can be confirmed in a public source enters ObraXRAY's official report on the company. None of the facts described here constitutes, in itself, an accusation of criminal conduct - only a court can declare that.
Timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Incorporation of DOMIPOINT - Construção Civil, Lda, in Barcelos. |
| 2010 | DOMIPOINT, co-managed by Pedro Eiras (minority shareholder), is declared insolvent. |
| 2015 | DOMIPOINT is wound up. |
| 2017 | The company that would become Fornelosluxsteel is incorporated, then named Ângulos e Percentagens, Lda. |
| 2018-2020 | António Miguel Antunes Soares is among that company's shareholders. |
| 2020-2021 | The company adopts the name Fornelosluxsteel and converts into a sole-shareholder company. |
| 2021-2023 | AMAS, a French company linked to Pedro Eiras and António Antunes Soares (according to French records), is wound up by court order for insufficient assets. |
| 2022 | A public complaint refers to a turnkey contract negotiated with Pedro Eiras, but signed by the formal manager at the time, Vera Lúcia Alves Miranda. |
| 2024-2025 | Fornelosluxsteel accumulates several cases as defendant and an enforcement of judgment. |
| Sep. 2025 | Pedro Eiras formally takes sole management and 100% of the shares of Fornelosluxsteel. |
| May 2026 | Repórter Sábado exposes dozens of families who say they were wronged. |
Confirmed signals and allegations, kept separate
Confirmed in public and documentary records:
- Valid IMPIC licence (never suspended, according to IMPIC).
- Several court cases with Fornelosluxsteel as defendant.
- One enforcement of judgment.
- DOMIPOINT, co-managed by Pedro Eiras, declared insolvent in 2010 and wound up in 2015.
- Pedro Eiras as sole manager and sole shareholder of Fornelosluxsteel since September 2025.
- AMAS, the French company in which Pedro Eiras was a shareholder, wound up by court order (French records).
Attributed to the report and the affected customers (not verified by us):
- Unfinished works and construction defects.
- Allegations about payments, materials and threats.
- An alleged transfer of assets to another company.
- Accounts about lifestyle and assets held in relatives' names.
- Debts to Social Security and the Tax Authority.
- An insolvency petition filed by a customer (not declared by the court).
What the customers describe
In July 2025, a customer published a detailed complaint on Portal da Queixa. According to her account, in October 2022 she entered into a "turnkey" works contract worth 153,058.55 euros plus VAT, negotiated with Mr Pedro Octávio da Silva Eiras, who presents himself as the builder and representative of the company, even though the contract was formally signed by the manager at the time, Vera Lúcia Alves Miranda.
The customer reports that the work was not completed despite almost the full amount having been paid, that materials and construction solutions were changed, and that the build departed from the approved design - which, she says, prevents the habitability licence - and that, when she confronted the company, she stopped getting any response. She also states that she has not recovered any money nor received the keys and the technical documentation. The same customer says she is not an isolated case and refers to other similar accounts.
These are the accounts of one of the customers, recorded in writing before the case reached television. In May 2026, more accounts came to light.
The Repórter Sábado report (NOW)
On 23 May 2026, the programme Repórter Sábado, on the NOW channel, devoted an investigation to Fornelosluxsteel. According to the report, dozens of families accuse Pedro Octávio da Silva Eiras - identified by the affected customers and by the report as the person who handled the works - of having failed to complete light-steel ("LSF") houses promised on a "turnkey" basis, with designs and licences included. The report had a first part on Saturday, 23 May, and continues on Sunday, 24 May; we will update this article with the additional information.
When confronted, Pedro Eiras denies the accusations. He says the works stopped because customers failed to pay, not through abandonment or bad faith, and attributes part of the complaints to "people with nothing better to do". He admits having missed contractual deadlines - "we failed on deadlines many times" - but rejects any notion of fraud or of abandoning the works. On the "turnkey" point, he says the concept covers the house itself and depends on the bill of works, leaving out elements such as walls, access roads and landfill and, depending on the contract, the habitability licence itself.
The affected customers' accounts
Alexandra Barbosa (Barcelos). She sold what she had in 2021 to build her dream home and says she paid around 160 thousand euros. The work only started in October 2024 and dragged on. She says she suspended the workers' access after the supervising engineer detected the absence of the ventilation system (VMC) that was in the contract and the design, and that she ended up taking the work forward on her own. She filed for the company's insolvency; the petition was not granted by the court, which reportedly considered the situation regularised with the tax and social security authorities, and it is now under appeal.
"Andreia" (not her real name, south of the country). She describes a house with unfinished rooms, poorly executed external finishes and an unfinished roof, without the sandwich-panel tiling she says was agreed. She reports pressure and threats to pay more - "if you don't get me money I won't finish your house" - and speaks of "psychological violence". She says she was left in debt and living in the annex with her two children, estimating she needs 50 thousand euros to finish the work.
Carlos Sarmento. He signed a contract in 2024, worth around 150 thousand euros. A court-appointed expert assessment now recommends the complete demolition of the work, as it does not meet habitability conditions: profiles were found without fixing screws, and oxidised material. The work has been halted by order of the council and the contractual deadlines were not met.
Among the defects pointed out by the various affected customers are material without the specified treatment (magnelis) showing rust spots, the absence of the necessary landfill, the reuse of materials and the lack of the correct cladding of the structure (rock wool, plasterboard), in breach of the design approved by the municipal council.
What the regulator says
When questioned by the report, IMPIC - the institute that regulates the construction sector - confirmed that the company's licence has never been suspended since it was issued and that there were no administrative-offence proceedings. It also said it had received six complaints about the company in the last two years and that, in connection with those complaints, issues of contractual breach may be indicated.
This is exactly the point of this case. The licence is valid and, even so, there are six complaints with the regulator, several court cases and an expert assessment recommending a demolition. A valid licence says the company is licensed to build; it says nothing about what went wrong on site, nor about the past of the people who run it.
The money, the assets and the structure around the company
The report also raises questions about what may have happened to the money and the assets. These are points that do not enter ObraXRAY's official report, but they are part of the story that came to light.
According to the report, the company reportedly had debts to Social Security and the Tax Authority being paid in instalments, and a high insolvency risk, justified by a negative trend in sales and results. In the public records we cross-reference, Fornelosluxsteel has no tax or social security debts associated with it.
The report also points to an alleged transfer of assets from the construction company. It had access to an invoice of around 154 thousand euros associated with MBS Pro Car, Lda, a company registered at the same address as Fornelosluxsteel's former head office and linked to Vera Lúcia Alves Miranda - the partner-manager of Fornelosluxsteel until 2025 and, according to the report, Pedro Eiras's ex-wife. According to the report, that invoice was presented as an indication of a transfer of a large part of Fornelosluxsteel's assets to that other company. Several affected customers also say they made payments directly into Vera Miranda's account.
The affected customers further contrast these facts with images and accounts, presented in the report, of top-of-the-range vehicles, trips abroad and assets associated with relatives, including the house where they live.
There is also the operational side. The head office moved to Braga, and the report found those premises closed and with no one there. Part of the workforce was reportedly working on sites in Spain; some are said to have been housed in modular homes near the residence of the person in charge, who, when confronted, says those workers belong to another company, not his.
Several court cases
In public and commercial records of court proceedings that we consulted, Fornelosluxsteel appears as defendant in several recent cases - ordinary civil actions and creditor injunctions - in different jurisdictions: Viana do Castelo, Braga, Barcelos and Vila Nova de Famalicão. The largest is an action for 172,806 euros in Viana do Castelo (case 1472/25.6T8VCT, filed in April 2025), followed by an action for 78,819 euros in Braga.
There is also a more advanced signal: an enforcement of judgment (case 7335/25.8T8VNF, Vila Nova de Famalicão, October 2025). An enforcement of judgment is a more advanced procedural signal than an open action: it presupposes a decision or an instrument that already allows the creditor to move to the judicial recovery of the debt.
The civil case distribution data we cross-reference is only available from October 2025 onwards. Several of these cases are earlier and appear in individual public records. It is precisely because the information is spread across different courts and dates that almost no one cross-references it in time.
The current manager's corporate history
Fornelosluxsteel has a valid construction licence and, on its own, the company's record looked clean. This is where the thing that most distinguishes a serious check comes in: cross-referencing the history of the people who run it.
Mr Pedro Octávio da Silva Eiras, who took sole management of Fornelosluxsteel in September 2025, appears in the records linked to another Barcelos construction company, DOMIPOINT - Construção Civil, Lda, which he co-managed, as a minority shareholder and one of its managers. That company was declared insolvent in 2010 (case 141/10.6TBBCL, Barcelos Court, published in the Diário da República) and was ultimately wound up in 2015.
There is also a trail outside Portugal. According to public company records in France, Pedro Eiras was a shareholder in a French construction company, AMAS, wound up by court order between 2021 and 2023 for insufficient assets. The formal manager of that company, António Miguel Antunes Soares, is said to have been subject to a five-year ban from managing companies in France - a sanction that, it must be stressed, fell on him, and not on Pedro Eiras.
And that same António Antunes Soares appears, in Fornelosluxsteel's own records, as a shareholder of the company between 2018 and 2020, years before Pedro Eiras took full control. Around these companies that failed, in Portugal and in France, the same people recur. The common link to all of them is Pedro Eiras.
None of these records, on its own, proves anything whatsoever about any customer's build. But together - an earlier company that became insolvent and was wound up, a company wound up abroad, and now several cases and an enforcement of judgment at the current company - they sketch a track record that justifies, at the very least, asking questions before signing.
Why almost no one in Portugal cross-references this in time
Much of this information exists in public records, but it is spread across various sources, dates and names: the Diário da República, CITIUS, commercial registry publications, the civil courts' case distribution, and even records abroad. Some require specific searches and are not always free. And even when it is public, it is rarely organised in a way that is useful to a family about to sign a contract. Each customer looks, at most, at one certificate and at the licence; no one cross-references ten sources and two decades of people's history before a meeting in an office.
And there is a detail that makes this particularly hard: none of these public sources allows a search by the manager's name or tax number. All the indexing is done by the company's NIPC (corporate tax number). To discover that the person in charge of a current company has already run another that went insolvent, you have to know the name and cross-reference company by company, by hand.
How to check a construction company, and the people who run it, before signing
- Confirm the licence with IMPIC, but don't stop there. A valid licence says nothing about court cases or the shareholders' past. See how to check the licence and why, on its own, it is not enough.
- Search for proceedings and insolvencies on CITIUS and in the commercial registry publications, by the company and by the managers' names.
- Cross-reference the people's corporate history, not just the company's tax number: what other companies they ran, and what happened to them. This is where patterns of repeatedly failing companies become visible.
If you would rather not do this work by hand, ObraXRAY cross-references and interprets public and official data from 9 sources - including CITIUS, IMPIC, the Tax Authority, Social Security, ACT and corporate publications - and returns a risk score from 0 to 100 in a single report.
In short
On paper, Fornelosluxsteel had a valid licence and little stood out. What changes the reading is the combination: several court cases, an enforcement of judgment, the corporate history of the current sole manager and shareholder at another construction company that went insolvent, and the accounts of customers who say they paid for houses that were never finished. Those signals were spread across different sources, and almost no one cross-references them before signing. It is precisely this gap that ObraXRAY tries to reduce: turning scattered records into a clear risk verdict, before a family hands over tens or hundreds of thousands of euros.
Frequently asked questions
What is Fornelosluxsteel's tax number (NIF)?
Fornelosluxsteel Unipessoal, Lda has the tax number 514608226 and is based in Barcelos, since moved to Braga. It has previously used the names "Fornelosluxsteel, Lda" and, before that, "Ângulos e Percentagens, Lda": it is the same entity.
Is Fornelosluxsteel insolvent?
No. There is no declared insolvency of Fornelosluxsteel in the public records. According to the report, one of the customers did file for the company's insolvency, but the court did not grant it and the case is under appeal - that is, a pending petition, not a declared insolvency. The company does, however, have several court cases as defendant and an enforcement of judgment - a creditor with a favourable court decision to recover the debt.
Does Fornelosluxsteel have a construction licence?
Yes, it has a valid licence, and IMPIC confirmed to the report that it has never been suspended since it was issued. This case shows exactly why a valid licence, on its own, is not enough to trust a construction company.
Who is the person in charge of Fornelosluxsteel?
Since September 2025, sole management and the entire shareholding of Fornelosluxsteel belong to Pedro Octávio da Silva Eiras. Before that, the manager was Vera Lúcia Alves Miranda. According to the report and customers' accounts, Pedro Eiras was already identified by customers as the person who handled the works before that formal change.
How did Pedro Eiras respond to the accusations?
He denied them. He told the report that the works stopped because customers failed to pay, not through abandonment, attributed part of the complaints to "people with nothing better to do" and admitted having missed deadlines, but rejected any notion of fraud.
What was DOMIPOINT?
DOMIPOINT was a Barcelos construction company that Pedro Octávio da Silva Eiras co-managed, as a minority shareholder and one of its managers. It was declared insolvent in 2010 and wound up in 2015.
How can I check a construction company before hiring?
Confirm the licence, search for proceedings and insolvencies on CITIUS, and cross-reference the managers' corporate history. Don't stop at the licence: a valid licence confirms licensing, not the track record of compliance, the court cases or the managers' past. ObraXRAY brings these sources together in a single report.
What this article does not say
This article does not state that Fornelosluxsteel or Pedro Eiras committed any crime; only a court can reach that conclusion. Nor does it state that the company is insolvent: there is an insolvency petition filed by a customer, but we found no declared insolvency in any public source. The information about the French company AMAS and the sanction on its manager comes from public company records in France and has not been independently verified by us. The aim is to show that there were public signals of risk, scattered across various sources, that were worth checking before hiring.
This article is based on information made public by the Repórter Sábado programme (NOW channel, May 2026), on public customer accounts, and on records available in the Diário da República, CITIUS, the Ministry of Justice's Publications Platform and the civil courts. It is informational in nature and does not constitute legal advice. The company and the people mentioned have a right of reply.