Emoov is preparing to call in administrators, it has been reported, with the possibility of an announcement today of a pre-pack purchaser.
Sky News said that the company was yesterday on the verge of appointing accountants James Cowper Kreston to act as administrator.
Last evening, however, Emoov boss Russell Quirk said he could not update us further.
According to the Sky News report, “sources said that a pre-pack administration, through which a buyer acquires some of a company’s assets while leaving its liabilities behind, could be announced” today.
The report says that while the identity of any buyer is unclear, Russell Quirk is said to be determined to continue leading the business.
Last month Quirk hired broker Arden Partners to find a buyer.
However, it appears that “few parties were prepared to consider a solvent take-over”, says Sky News.
Quirk has in recent weeks set up two new companies, according to Companies House.
He set up Properganda on October 1. It is described as being in public relations and communications.
A week earlier he set up Russell Quirk Ltd, which appears to have three arms to it – estate agency, PR and communications, and management consultancy.
There are signs of a fall-out as to the crisis at Emoov.
Sarah Holdsworth of Prime Property Management (Essex) yesterday told EYE that a tenant had warned her earlier this week that they might not be able to pay the rent on time, if at all, because their employer, eMoov, could go into administration, and that unless the company is sold by today, they won’t be paid.
Last Saturday, Quirk told EYE that his business was emphatically not in administration, but he admitted to difficulties and said that it was “tragic” that it had come to this.
Sources at Emoov have spoken of a staff meeting and an inventory being taken at head office this week. They have also voiced concerns about today being pay day.
Staff were urged in an email from sales manager Jack Malnick to keep working this week, saying that if they didn’t, “then we don’t have a business, we won’t get bought and we won’t get paid”.
https://news.sky.com/story/online-estate-agent-emoov-faces-repossession-11566731
Comments (35)
Schadenfreude !
Gesundheit!
The problem with Crowdcube it’s heavily geared towards the promoter .Effectively a licence to come out with a whole load of guff with impunity which quickly becomes embedded as fact .
For example “The £100m merger” being bandied around by Emoov so much it appears like a fully fledged cast iron professional valuation you can hang your hat on.
Anyone asking awkward questions is quickly reported and policed Removed under the”catch all”of personal attacks It’s a disgrace
Let’s not forget Quirk drunk at the well twice .There are no checks and balances With AIM companies there is at least a nomad to protect investor’s interests
What Now?
If a flatpack these are usually done over a weekend and the new beast appears on Monday Morning,Think DTZ
if Headphones Quirk thinks he will be able to dust himself down and carry on as normal the public will soon let him know that wont be the case .Doubt very much he will be on Bricks and Yopa Xmas card list either
Rather than dance on the Emoov grave, there could at least be a bit of compassion for the 100’s of people that will probably have no job at the most expensive time of the year.
It won’t be the only agent to go bust over the next few months due to financial mismanagement and a poor business plan but that isn’t the fault of the staff.
Will people all laugh at the high street agents that close their doors?
I dont think anyone is laughing at those that will lose their jobs. The situation should be a wake up call though to those who are thinking of leaving high street agency for that LPE job where they are being told the grass is greener. How many of these “local” reps have spent that last few months slamming high street agent in the hope of signing vendors up?
I do feel for the employees as i am sure that senior people will be well looked after. But as i always say to people changing job, why are you moving and what are you going to gain?
Personally, I feel for the hard working staff and the small investors who perhaps felt that after purplebricks perceived success and a convincing pitch, they couldn’t lose. These aren’t always greedy people rather with such low interest rates maybe felt it was a great opportunity. Someone needs to regulate these funding pitches. Some are worse than the adverts which follow and which are sanctioned by the ASA – informally of course.
The MD’s of supposed industry disruptive start-ups are simply exploiting a situation.
Low interest rates motivate people with a few quid which is earning nothing in the banks to clamber over themselves to risk heavy personal investment in what they’re told is the golden goose. The guy saying he’s got the golden goose is simply seeing opportunity!
Investors believe that return is coming, and when it does it will be big, in the meantime the guys who control these ventures are busy preparing to float so they can cash in on 40% of their shares, thus making themselves even more wealthy. Then suddenly “shock, horror” the money has all gone!
Nothing wrong with being entrepreneurial, nothing wrong with being paid for success, plenty wrong with manufacturing a situation in which investors place trust, but only you benefit, and plenty wrong with investors not doing their homework and believing everything they see. These people almost deserve each other!
(I don’t necessarily mean this case as I don’t know enough about Russell or his company, i’m speaking generally).
Anyway I’m looking for investors in my new company “Coop”
For too long Chickens have had full share of the egg laying market! With your investment we at Coop are sure we can lay eggs better. We hope to lay our first batch in five years using unsustainable methods at your continued expense.
Sign up early to avoid disappointment, we can always disappoint sometime in the future and deal with that then.
Remember our motto…
Cluck Cluck where there’s muck!
If anybody is thinking of buying part of Emoov based on their #1 positions in Google then I recommend they take expert advice for the following reasons…
1. Positions from the Organic results can disappear overnight.
2. Valuing based on what people are paying for ppc is assuming people aren’t overpaying.
3. #1 positions don’t necessarily guarantee traffic or quality of traffic.
If anybody is thinking of buying part of[Purplebricks] based on their #1 positions in [Trustpilot] then I recommend they take expert advice for the following reasons…
1. [1* reviews] can disappear overnight.
2. Valuing based on what people are paying [up front] is assuming people [won’t find out that they are] overpaying.
3. #1 positions don’t necessarily guarantee [service] or quality of [service].
You’re welcome 🙂
Excellent!
Anyway, what are they thinking of ‘Pre Packing’? theres hardly any assets in the company.
The name. No one wants.
The stock, no one wants either.
The only thing left is the Channel 4 advertising package.
The company doesn’t and will never make profit.
So the Valuation of the company is Zero.
I have a Dream….
No…… I don’t.
Due acknowledgement to the Genuine People working there who may not paid ….4 weeks before Christmas.
Raising money on unregulated funding platforms from naive investors.
Ever year saying the next or the year after will be the year they break profit and never does.
Now looks like the company is going to fold.
Some will say it’s just sales and he was selling a dream ….. Others will say something different which will probably not be allowed to be printed here.
I notice my comments have also been censored.
I have said this before. The FCA should be regulating these crowd funding platforms.
I would label this type of platform as an investment. The FCA regulate all other investment products and they should investigate this.
PPITE
Interesting reading here on that very subject –
propertyindustryeye.com/regulator-set-to-review-crowdfunding/
and even more interesting reading if you follow the link to the FCA site afterwards.
Where will the next lot of investment come from??
For so long as there are Fools there will be those who are able and willing to relieve them of their money.
The evolution of crowdfunding and peer to peer lending is as a result of market forces in the credit crunch. The solution appeared to help businesses and ideas that were starved of funds by the then and now righteous and diligent main banks. Fast forward to today where everyone has an ‘idea’ and can float it on the internet, people believe the hype as they make the decisions for themselves. These investments can be very small, £10 here £100 there so the pain isn’t felt. But those who do invest properly will start squealing and that’s when things will start changing. Therefore it is unregulated but is on the radars of the authorities.
The platforms make the necessary disclosures which protect them; the issue is that everyone has watched Dragons Den and The Apprentice, have swallowed a few management speak terms and are all now entrepreneurs. They have believed the hype around property and are always pointed toward PB and told about them being a proof of concept……
The old fables are as true today as they have always been ‘a fool and his money are easily parted’
And as my old mate Aristotle said 2300 years ago ‘It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way’ He didn’t have to watch Dragons Den to work that one out…
Finally we near the end of Mr Quirks vanity project. Costing thousands of investors their money and hundreds of people their jobs. For years the likes of Emoov have banged on about superior tech helping their vendors, yet when constantly asked to explain what this tech is, there is never an answer.
Estate agency is a people business. Our valuable staff communicating with vendors and purchasers. Emoov, Tepilo, PB etc dont understand this and that is why they fail
With regards to your last paragraph, there’s a key difference between pb and Emoov. Emoov agents literally just go out and value and get the instruction. Their head office then take over getting the advert done, vendor contact and dealing with the offers. The original agent has nothing to do with the vendor once the instruction is gained, and that to me is a massive failing because he/she won’t feel that sense of ownership/responsibility or build a relationship with the customer and understand their needs.
Your right there is a difference in that case. between PB and Emoov…..
When I sold a house with PB the only time i heard from one of their staff was at listing stage…….after I signed up I never heard from a single member of staff…..calls went unreturned…..and they relied purely on tech….at least Emoov give you another point of contact….not that i think thats the right thing to do either,….
Ok, so to confirm midsagent, you are stating that the difference between Purplebricks and Emoov, is that the “local” Purplebricks “expert” will at least pretend that he or she will be involved, whereas the Emoov person will confirm at the outset that they wont be involved at all.
Sounds like a great way to waste £1500.
I would respectfully suggest that any fee taken for any instuction since the amalgamation should come under very close scrutiny.
It is not a case of simply cutting loose the deadwood and debts, starting afresh. The trust and faith that has been put into distrupting the industry is simply huge, let’s hope there is a proper investigation of all that has gone on
We have already had to remove a number of comments on this story today. Please take care not to overstep the mark with what you write.
Has Mr Quirk or his legal advisors been in touch by any chance ?
Nick, if someone has misled the public then the public have a right to know.
I agree with Nick. But… quirks and bricks propaganda has probably cost the industry tens of millions in revenue.
How many nurses would that have paid for in tax .
Govt might wake up one day and realise the words TECH and DISRUPTER are in most businesses, actually code for BULLs##t .
Ignoring the savings being made on the whole from using online, homeowners are saving a fortune from reduced commissions are they not because of the competition from online? Money getting spent on other things maintaining the tax revenue.
Nothing like a bit of competition to benefit the consumer. Let’s not pretend traditional agents hold the high moral ground.
Cyberduck46
Which method of charging a fee is do you feel is more moral ?
1. No sale no fee
2. Pay regardless but we wont tell you the likelihood of achieving a completed sale
And whilst we are talking about morals how moral do you feel Mr Quirk has been in his dealings with his clients, his staff and his investors ?
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
#doyourownresearch
Are there “Pay Upfront Administrators” or “No Sale No Fee” in that world?
I assume RQ has gone down the really cheap and nasty route as after all…. paying a fair fee to motivate people to do their best for you is not something he promotes.
Like he has appointed Bodge-it & Scarper Accountants, who charge £995 upfront, but you have to explain why you’re in the ****.
I said to friends that administration would coincide with payday as obvious as it is scandalous.
Can we now have an overall report into the £ invested in ‘disruption’, the number of years ongoing, the loss revenue to traditional agents and what investors have achieved?
Who do you want to do that?
NotAdoctor32
Why would the “who” make the slightest bit of difference?