Purplebricks has released a statement rebutting claims made within The Telegraph newspaper that it is planning to sell its beleaguered lettings business.

Its communications chief has this morning released the following: “The article that appeared in the Telegraph this weekend regarding Purplebricks’ plans to sell our lettings business is not true.

“Lettings is a crucial part of our growth ambitions at Purplebricks and we will continue to invest in this part of our business as we move into 2022 and beyond.”

The comments followed a piece by journalist Ben Gartside in The Telegraph claiming insider sources who revealed Purplebricks’ CEO Vic Darvey is hoping to sell the firm’s lettings business.

This included claims that the company is undertaking internal audits of the business, and has approached auditors to assess the business prior to sale, which Purplebricks has said are untrue.

Purplebricks’ lettings business has endured a difficult few months. In November its lettings chief Helen Ogden left the company after just eight months in post.

Deposits glitch

Just a few weeks before that the company admitted that an unknown number of deposits taken from tenants by the agency were not registered with any one of the three government-backed schemes – they’re operated by MyDeposits, Deposit Protection Service and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.

It later admitted that it had exposed its landlords to potential claims by tenants of up to £9 million following an IT glitch that saw thousands of tenants not sent statutory communications about their deposits at the beginning of a tenancy.