The House Crowd administrator awaits court clarity on distributions
More than £150,000 of uninvested funds have been returned to investors of collapsed peer-to-peer lender The House Crowd in its first year in administration.
However, administrator Quantuma has said that it is unclear how to distribute money to investors that was actually lent out and is now being repaid to the company, due to incomplete record keeping.
The defunct P2P property platform shut down in February 2021. The collapse was attributed to “ongoing financial issues” and the platform said at the time that there would be no material impact on investors.
The latest administration progress report for the period August 2021 to February 2022 showed that uninvested funds held in third party client money accounts held by Mangopay and Woodside Corporate have been reconciled.
Of these, £89,782 has been repaid to investors and the report said administrators are awaiting bank details for the remaining £12,500.
Additionally, £60,803 out of £169,773 has been returned to investors from pre-administration accounts, and the administrator is waiting for bank details to return the rest.
The outlook for invested funds in development and bridging loans remains unclear though due to “limitations inherent in The House Crowd’s books and accounting records.”
The report said the administrator has proposed a distribution mechanism to be considered in court and have separately filed an application to consider what they can charge for their work in securing and realising investor assets.
This work has been deemed separate to manage the administration of the company.
The report said £140,934 of administrator fees were incurred between August 2021 and February 2022.
Quntuma has previously predicted that the administration could cost more than £800,000 overall.
The administration period was extended until 24 February 2023 earlier this year.