Property agent Dylan Harvey Residential fails with £6.5m in deposits

Published 05th Aug 2009

About 500 investors who put down deposits of as much as £20,000 for apartments in the North West have been hit by the collapse yesterday of a Lancashire-based property company.

Dylan Harvey Residential (DHR) has been placed into administration, which is being handled by Mark Getliffe and Diane Hill, insolvency partners at the Manchester office of CLB Coopers, the accountancy firm.

DHR acted as sales agent for several apartment schemes in Manchester and the North West.

The creditors include 500 residential property investors, who paid about £6.5 million in deposits of between £5,000 and £20,000 apiece. Most were for off-plan apartments in developments that had not been started because of the downturn in the property market.

The developments in Manchester included Clippers Quay in Salford Quays, Zararchie Tower and Bengal Mill in Ancoats, and phases two and three of the Fresh Salford project.

About 350 investors paid £2.6 million for flats at Clippers Quay, while 120 deposits totalling £1.4 million were put down for properties at Zararchie Tower and 49 worth £378,000 on homes in Bengal Mill.

An online petition calling on DHR to refund deposits was set up last year by disgruntled investors unhappy with the company’s reluctance to do so.

The administration does not affect the Mann Island development in Liverpool, which is part of a separate joint venture, or the commercial office space business and other companies within the wider Dylan Harvey Group, the parent company of DHR. The business was one of a group of companies set up in 1996 by Toby Whittaker and named after his two sons.

Mr Getliffe, of CLB Coopers, said: “We are working hard to finalise the full financial position and explore all the options in respect of any value which can be recovered for creditors.”

Creditors wanting to make a claim should e-mail dylanharvey@clbcoopers.co.uk or call CLB Coopers on 0161-245 1095.

Dylan Harvey Group said that after the loss of significant deposits paid to now-insolvent developers, DHR was no longer viable as a going concern. It intends to propose a Company Voluntary Arrangement within the administration process in an attempt to ensure that all unsecured creditors are given the opportunity to realise the value of funds paid to DHR.

Dylan Harvey Group’s key lending facilities have been restructured and the group has introduced cost-cutting measures.

Source: ' Times '

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