Letting Agent Proposal To Strike Off

[stooly]

Hello,

 

I am a private landlord who used a letting agent to fully manage my property, however, they seem to have stopped trading around April this year judging by the following:

 

1) Phone calls/Emails no longer answered

2) Premises empty

3) Website no longer relates to an estate agent

4) I did not receive rent owed to me for April (thereafter rent was paid direct to me by tenant)

5) Companies House info on the agent states: Status: Active - Proposal to Strike off

6) As of 18 May 2010 a London Gazette first notice appeared

 

 

Due to other events that have occurred with the agent I am owed just over £5000 and so I am investigating ways to retrieve the money.

 

With regard to point 6 above I understand that the company will be dissolved 3 months from said date so the clock is ticking for me to recover the money.

 

I have sent a letter before action to the business premises, registered office and the address of the Secretary via recorded delivery so know that they got to at least the Secretary address though I have not received any reply and am due to start court action now. Before proceeding with this I thought it would be helpful to gain any advice from this wonderful forum!

 

So far I have checked with the Property Ombudsman, ARLA, and other official letting and estate agent organisations but neither the branch manager nor the Ltd company name of the agent was a member of any organisation other than NAEA but that finished in April 2008. I have also tried to see if insolvency proceedings against the Ltd company name have already started at county court but so far nothing.

 

Am I better off waiting for information on who the official receiver is to try and claim my money back and where can I find information on who this is from? Any other advice/info appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance!

Edited June 11, 2010 by stooly

[Vanderpelt]

As someone who works in an ORs office, if you wait till they are brought in, it will probably be too late to get money back as most of their company work is simply to put the company to bed (as there are no assets to sell).

 

You could go to their website (The Insolvency Service Website) to find the office local to you and see what the situation is.

 

all in all you seem to be doing the right thing, but it looks like your out of pocket.

[stooly]

Thanks, I shall see what light they can shed. Looks like the proposal to strike off has been suspended now judging by this on CH website;

 

DISS16(SOAS) 12/06/2010 COMPULSORY STRIKE OFF SUSPENDED

[stooly]

According to an enquiry made through the insolvency service website the company is not going to go through any formal insolvency proceeding (i.e. administration, liquidation or receivership) and no administrator, liquidator or receiver will be appointed to deal with the company's affairs.

 

Looks like small claims court it is then.

[HP Mum]

May I ask which agent it was ? You can pm me if it is not possible to say publicly ?