Homepoint Estate Agents Limited, which had branches in Wolverhampton, Stourbridge, Walsall and Birmingham, has been put into liquidation, leaving landlords and tenants out of pocket.
It transpired that £118,145 was owed to tenants who had lodged deposits with the company, while £459,553 in rent which the company had collected from tenants, had not been passed on to the landlords.
Dudley Trading Standards is now investigating the collapse of the firm, headed up by Ajit Singh Pooni, of Ilmington Drive, Sutton Coldfield, which owed money to 328 creditors, including a large number of tenants who had submitted deposits for properties they were renting.
Despite the fact that it is a legal requirement that deposits are placed into a government-recognised deposit protection scheme, the report to creditors says that in many instances this had not been done.
In addition, the report said that the company had also collected rent money from tenants, but not paid it to landlords.
Major creditors include HM Revenue & Customs, which is owed £72,078 in unpaid VAT, and Lloyds Bank, which is owed £160,347, which includes a £50,000 loan through the government’s Bounce Back scheme. Pooni himself is also seeking the repayment of a £287,924 loan he gave to the company, and a further £107,520 owed to himself and his wife.
Cllr Nicolas Barlow of Dudley Council said: “Our trading standards officers are currently investigating concerns raised in regards to this company and we are therefore unable to add anything further at this stage.”
Comments (22)
Soon up and running again as http://www.pointtohome.co.uk
Informed Homepoint’s client base had been transferred to a new company called Point to Home, which was being run by Mr Pooni’s wife Charnjit Kaur Sidhu. The new company is trading from Homepoint’s former office in Bridge Street, Walsall.
I wonder at what point I would struggle to check online to ascertain whether rent payments have been received.
Currently have 4 so very easy to manage.
Perhaps at 50 properties it might become an issue.
LA are best used for large portfolios.
Very few LL have those.
LA miss out on a lot of easy business because they refuse to use the invoicing business model.
Their choice!!
LA miss out on having to deal with nightmare landlords because they refuse to use the invoicing business model.
Corrected that for you.
LA who refuse to use the invoicing business model don’t know how much business they are missing out on. I only quote my circumstances.
Multiply my circumstances by the other hundreds of thousands of LL who self-manage and that is an awful lot of business. I have NO idea of how LA business models work but I know I am NOT prepared to allow my rent and deposits to be used as cashflow to sustain LA business. Such cashflow until invoices are paid should be provided by the LA from bank loans. That is how every normal business operates. There is also a bit of an issue as regard management fees. A straight percentage on gross rent doesn’t account for things like S24 etc. A fee based on net rent would be the only acceptable LA fee I would pay. You can see why I have never wanted to use a LA. I have kept all the fee income in my bank or rather I keep in cash away from prying eyes. Of course I understand self-management isn’t for everyone. LA are then very useful!! But I prefer to be a hands on LL and have greatly benefited because of it But of course there isn’t a correct way one way or the other. LL have the choice. I certainly wouldn’t suggest that any LL choosing to use a LA was wrong. Just for me not my preferred method of operation. I say good luck to LL risking using LA. Just NOT a risk I am prepared to take. Feel very sorry for those LL who have had their monies stolen. Even more galling they have to pay the tenants their deposits and could find they have to pay 3 times the deposit because the criminal LA didn’t register the deposits. Talk about rubbing salt into a wound!!!!!!!!!! I would imagine many of the LL who have had their rents stolen by this criminal are already suffering from rent defaulting tenants Even more financial stress. Perhaps these LL might consider the burden of self-management is worthwhile to avoid criminal LA. That is a business decision for LL to make!!
RICS rule 8 and the ARLA equivalent does not allow agents to rob Peter to pay Paul. Having built ICAEW accredited client cash accounting systems that look after about £29b annually, your fears are unfounded unless you are fishing around for the cheapest deal from agents no-one should trust.
I appreciate what you state but on the basis of the criminal LA being discussed by fears I suggest are well founded.
I accept that this criminal LA is an exception.
But to me the exception proves the rule for me.
So even with all the efforts made to prevent criminality nothing would convince me to have my deposits and rents managed by any LA.
Cases such as this criminal LA can only lead to more regulation.
One bad apple can ruin things for good LA.
So I’m afraid all these supposed accounting rules won’t make any difference to LL.
These losses must be stopped 100% to persuade LL to use LA.
You sound just like the type of landlord I will readily quote 15% management fees to, take it or leave it. If you base all your decisions on worst case scenarios how do you sleep at night? how do you dare cross roads? Eat food?
Keep your houses under self management and leave those of us that do a good job to service those that live in the real world.
Ha ha ha you are exactly the sort of LA that will be out of business such is your arrogance.
You don’t seem to get that without LL you have no business.
As such you do what we LL want or we go elsewhere.
The LA offer is very poor which is why so many LL refuse to use them.
You are behaving as an apologist for this latest criminal LA.
It is no wonder that LL refuse to use people like you.
You need to change your attitude or find yourself out of business in the coming years.
But thankyou for confirming your arrogance.
It has made me a lot of money by forcing me to self-manage.
You clearly haven’t smelt the coffee much like all those IFA that suddenly found themselves unemployed following regulatory changes.
Indeed 90% of IFA found themselves unemployed.
You will be one of the 90% if you carry on with your arrogant attitudes.
There is NO divine situation that will force LL to use you.
Think on!
So much for CMP then!!!! Why would any sane LL allow any LA to touch deposits or rent!? There is no need. Rents can be paid direct to LL bank accounts and deposits are held in LL bank account via mydeposits. Other insurance backed deposit schemes are available! Every month a LL can pay the LA invoice for the relevant management costs that month. No risk then of a criminal LL running off with LL and tenant funds. These are my terms of business. Consequently I self-manage as no LA was prepared to accept my terms. Their loss!! Over the 11 years I must have saved myself over £45000 in LA costs. Perhaps LA might like to consider their usual business model and adopt an invoicing one. They might attract cynical LL like me to become clients! The current regulations don’t seem to be working which is why I am still persuaded that my attitude is correct in not trusting LA. It is clearly a great shame that those LA that do comply with all required regulations are being tarred by this most most recent occurrence. But LL I’m afraid have to consider their circumstances first. That means for many LL NOT using LA services. LA are potentially missing out on a lot of LL business due to their refusal to adopt an invoicing business model.
Or alternatively missing out on business they don’t want in the first place……
Thereby proving what arrogant ##### many LA are. They don’t deserve good LL business. My business in particular. Very easy to manage. But hey ho you’ve lost £45000 in business. Even more LA will be going out of business in the coming years and this won’t be the last criminal LA that does a runner. Something that I will never be affected by while I refuse to use LA who refuse to use the invoicing business model.
Some business isnt worth having. I imagine the lettings agent that turned your business away know what works for them and what doesnt.
There is no way on this earth you would get me to be on call for 8766 hours a year to save <47p an hour. To do it for 11 years? Each to their own
But that is what you do for LL who use you!!
No it isn’t, 46.6p/hour is what you are saving to be at the beck and call of your 4 tenants all day every day for 11 years.
An agent earns about 14p per hour per tenancy for 24/7/365, (56p for 4 tenancies), are charging that for only working 1/4 the hours you are committed to with the occasional call out that’s already been paid for.
I can’t comprehend anyone thinking not using an agent makes sense, but it is your time, your decision and your money.
As a managing agent of multiple properties your method just doesn’t work us.
My clients unlike you do not have the time to track and trace rent payments and produce rent schedules in preparation for section notices if matters were to go South.
You are self managing for a reason and make up only a very small percentage that feel that they can do things a better way but your own methods are working for you and that’s the main thing.
All the best.
The tenants won’t lose out as the landlords are legally responsible to register the deposits with one of the 3 Government approved schemes . The landlords could be liable to pay compensation to the tenants of up to 3 times the deposit plus the value of the deposit itself. A very expensive lesson for the landlords.
At least he didn’t buy an injunction to stop the matter being discussed…. with the money he’d misappropriated from client funds,
Top trump – Brass Necks
General question apropos nothing, in the context of client funds being filched by their trustee, is the word ‘misappropriated’ a euphemism for ‘Stolen’?
Since you’ve ask not necessarily. for as long as I have been doing client cash accounting innocent business owners have been getting into strife with their client cash accounts without stealing a £0.005p (i go back to 1/2p).
When Ros was at EAT/LAT i was always requesting she enquired which CRM system was being used when money went missing. The stress of missing money has driven at least one agent to take their own life, it wasn’t stolen the CRM system was possibly wrong or the agent was a very good liar
I’ve had an hour long call this morning asking how it’s possible to be not able to account for £1.3m and not notice.
The problem the industry has is seemingly I am the only one who knows or cares about this.
any agent principal who has a client account that doesn’t balance and they’re not nicking it is always welcome to call me for a chat ( There’s no charge for advice that helps people in a desperate place)
So Mr Pooni’s company owes hundreds of thousands of pounds in “missing” deposits and rent, as well as tens of thousands to HMRC yet he has the audacity to claim that the company owes him and his wife the best part of £400k. That man has some serious cahoonas.