Douglas & Gordon unsecured creditors 'unlikely' to be paid

Secured creditors of collapsed agency brand Douglas & Gordon are likely to receive most money owed to them but there is less certainty over unsecured debts, the company’s administrator has revealed.

Douglas & Gordon called in Grant Thornton as administrator in April after failing to attract much-needed investment.

Since then, the lettings book and brand has been purchased by former Douglas & Gordon chief executive James Evans through his Brewham Holdings brand.

Douglas & Gordon is now a trading name for Brewham Holdings Ltd but the administration of the old collapsed business continues.

A six-month update from Grant Thornton on the old Douglas & Gordon business showed 50 employees were made redundant while 15 within the lettings business transferred to Evans’ new venture.

Six employees were retained to help with the administration process but they have since been made redundant.  Staff wages of up to £800 per person and accrued holiday pay is included in estimated ordinary preferential claims worth £71,696.  

It is estimated that these will be paid in full.

The brand’s secondary preferential creditors include HMRC, with arrears owed for VAT, PAYE and national insurance contributions. No claim has been received but Grant Thornton estimates this to be worth £755,259. It said a dividend is likely to be paid to this cohort but it is unsure how much currently.

However, there are also 154 unsecured creditors with claims worth £412,379, but payouts to this group are described as “unlikely.”

This includes a debt worth almost £45,000 owed to Simca LLP, a company part-owned by Foxtons’ founder Jon Hunt.

Evans’ new business had previously committed to assisting in the completion of the Douglas and Gordon sales pipeline, worth £1.3m.

The update said the administrator would receive 15% of any completion money up to a maximum of £128,000, of which £124,064 has been paid so far.