ARPM liquidator replaced four months after property firm’s collapse

Agents waiting to hear whether they will get any of the money owed to them from collapsed property management fund Ash Residential face more delays after the insolvency practitioner assigned to its liquidation was removed earlier this week.

Creditor’s have decided to engage a new insolvency practitioner, Anthony Batty & Co based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire how that the previous liquidator, Harrow-based Umang Patel of Neum Insolvency, was removed following a creditor’s meeting.

It is now four months since ARPM’s founder Simon Duce signed off ARPM being wound up and liquidated.

Its collapse is believed to involve some 70 estate agents and 8,000 properties which ARPM held rents and deposit for prior to its collapse.

Money reimbursed

Many agencies, including several which contacted The Neg at the time, have had to reimburse landlord clients thousands and pounds, hoping that some funds will be repaid to them as creditors at a later date.

There is some hope that this will come to pass. In September Duce agreed to a members’ voluntary liquidation, one of three types of liquidation available to business owners, the others being a creditor’s voluntary liquidation and a compulsory liquidation.

The route chosen by Duce is the type chosen when a company is solvent but the person operating it no longer wishes to run it any longer.

This means Duce will have reviewed ARMP’s assets and liabilities just before making the declaration.

As we reported in September, many believe ARPM got into financial difficulties after charging too little for its service, making it vulnerable to financial shocks.