THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG


This blog was established to help get to the bottom of how the Collins & Bone Partnership reached the very sad situation it is now in, with its partner Liam James Collins having a bankruptcy hearing on 25th January (postponed)15th March 2012 (ditto), and finally bankrupted on 9th May 2012 (case # NEWC 1517 of 2011 BKT 3472187, Newcastle County Court, The Law Courts, The Quayside, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 3LA), and David Bone Jnr declared bankrupt on 31st May (case no 100 of 2012 Wigan County Court). The partnership used the following addresses:

25 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2 H9HW, UK

Eastern Villa, Station Rd. North, Forest Hall, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE12 9AE (owned by Liam Collin's parents, and now up for sale)

There are 3 specific goals of this blog:

• To find out what happened to the 1m+ GBP monies that C&B raised via PNs in late 2009, 2010 & 2011. I am excluding PNs issued to ex-CBS investors, but that said, this blog will be of interest to ex-CBS investors, and there is information that needs to be obtained from this set of investors wrt when PNs were issued to them, and their duration.

• To determine what, if any, criminal charges should be brought against the partners.

• To warn other investors off doing any business with the partners, their equally inept/unscrupulous extended family members, and supportive cohorts.

When you look at the PNs, there are no specific statements on the documents that specify how the monies were to be used - how you believed they were to be used is based on whatever e-mail/phone call foreplay you had beforehand with Liam Collins. That is why it is so important that the following information is collated for this category of C&B investors on an individual basis:

1) What did you believe you were investing in, and what was your basis for believing this?
2) What investment risks were you informed of?
3) What was your understanding of the purpose to which PN monies could be put?
4) What brochures and documents were you furnished with as prt of your due diligence?
5) What due diligence did you do?
This blog is being operated completely separate to Sally & Jasmine's blog (http://collins-bone-investors.blogspot.com), although we share the common goal of getting to the bottom of this mess in a professional manner. If you don't want to post anything on the blog in person, you can send an e-mail to me at lastdoghome@gmail.com - information conveyed in any such e-mails will only be posted on the blog on your behalf after any editting/your specific consent.


Ewart (The Editor)



Saturday 3 March 2012

C&B assets - negative equity

On 22/2/2012, the IFS web-site (http://collins-bone-investors.blogspot.com/) posted the list of C&B property assets. Of the 29 properties on this list, 15a Moira Street has been removed as it was repossessed by the mortgage company and sold in November 2011. This, coupled with:
  • the fact that the outstanding mortgage value on these C&B assets has increased by minimally 200k since 2008 (and this increase was measured only on 16 of the remaining 28 properties – there could very well be mortgage increases on the remaining 12 properties)
  •  that Novocastria Lettings has not been paying any monies to C&B in recent times for non-Loughborough based C&B assets
  • Loughborough based C&B assets being managed by Rami Hariri and, with very minor exceptions, all of the properties are vacant/not being rented (see http://www.landlords-uk.org.uk/properties.asp?id=19133)
, it is reasonable to assume that either:
  • rental income is not sufficient to pay the maintenance costs and mortgage payments, in which case the situation with C&B is totally hopeless.
and/or
  • Novocastria Lettings and/or whoever is managing the Loughborough properties has been keeping monies for themselves, in which case the bankruptcy trustee will be able to claw back these monies.
When Liam Collins sent an e-mail to all investors on February 28th making us aware that C&B had found 2 IVA practitioners that may be prepared to handle their case, the following dialogue occurred:

[ewart]: Since you have to have the information at hand now in order to be engaging an IVA practitioner, can you send me the latest C&B propertty spreadsheet with valuations, along with an indication of when the valuations were performed and by whom. You will see from the article I have written on my blog that on the currently IFS posted C&B property spreadsheet I have little or no faith in the current valuations. This statement is based on the fare market price that 15a Moira Street was sold for versus the valuation price on the spreadhsheet - they were very different (54k vs 90k respectively)!

[Liam]: If You use Mouse price or net house prices you will see that our figures are optimistic at best .... It is in everyone’s interest to sign the IVA proposal once we send it out.  If we do not achieve 75% all investments are lost.
[ewart]: I will not approve any IVA without, as a bare minimum, the following information being provided for each C&B asset:

    + The full address.
    + A proper going market value assessed for the property, not
       some web tool, performed by a qualified appraiser.
    + The name of the qualified appraiser who performed the
        assessment, and the date.
    + The outstanding mortgage on the property.
    + The mortgage rate being charged.
    + The rental income on the property on a month by month basis
        since the property was acquired. Whether there are charging
        orders on the property held by other creditors as a result of
        country court actions and, if so, the value of the money owed
        these creditors.
The only rationale for MX selling the properties on C&B entering  bankruptcy is if the rental income is not even enougth to cover the mortgage payments which, in the absence of any other date, is exactly what has been happening (read 15a Moira Street, read no monies coming in from Novocastria Lettings, read 200k increase in the mortgage value of 16 of the 29 properties between 2008 and October 2011 that I am so far aware of). If this is the case, and there is no reasonable basis for expecting rental income to cover mortgage payments within the forseeable futute, then keeping these properties on is draining more and more equity out of them, so the amount by which property prices would have to rise over the IVA term to recoup monies owed is impractical, as I suspect it already is.
[Liam]: The IVA practitioner will provide everything and based on the info provided you can make a decision. Getting RICS valuation will cost on average £300 per property so that is not possible. We can only use the sites which are reputable.


Because the C&B asset spreadsheet does not give the full address of the properties, in some cases I have not been able to identify the specific properties, but as per Liam Collin's suggestion of using http://www.mouseprice.co.uk/ estimated valuations, I have gone through the 28 properties and compiled the spreadsheet below. What this shows is that:
  • there is a negative equity of 115.927k based on mouseprice value estimations in the 28 C&B assets.
  • at least 77k more was paid for these properties 4-5 years ago than they are now worth based on mouseprice value estimations.
And the situation is likely much worse than this because:
  • Liam Collins has not dated the IFS posted spreadsheet, so we don't know how much worse the outstanding mortgage balances are on these properties.
  • It is known that some of these properties have charging orders against them as a result of investors having county court judgements in their favour - depending on how much money these investors are owed, no monies realised from any rise in asset values from these properties will be available to other creditors.
  • two of the properties I have not been able to identify specific locations for, and so the current C&B value estimations have been used which are invariably optimistic.
Given the above, and the table below, it clearly potty that C&B are still claiming to repay investors 100p to the pound.

The Editor



Property address
Current C&B mortgage value
Current C&B asset value
Charging orders
Last sold value (last sold date)
www.mouseprice.co.uk  website valuation estimate
56 beckford court, Manchester
106.314k
100k
<being investigated>
129.95k
(3/7/2007)
125.8k

Flat 1 25 shelton street, London
499.324k
550k
22/12/2008 –Restriction Michele Rathbone

19/1/2010 –Final charging order by Paul James Sparks

3/8/2011 –Final charging order by Toyota Financial Services Plc

24/1/2012 –Restriction Andrew Dixon
550k
(10/7/2007)
612k
2 abbeycroft close, Manchester
240k
265k
<being investigated>
270k
(9/10/2007)
268.3k
60 dundonald street, Preston
68.755k
100k
<being investigated>
80k
(12/10/2007)
72.9k
250 deane church, Bolton
94.267k
115k
<being investigated>
95k
(16/7/2007)
83.6k
15 dart street, Preston
107.483k
120k
<being investigated>
110k
(25/5/2007)
99.6k
206 plungington road, Preston
94.768k
115k
<being investigated>
98k
(21/5/2007)
89.4k
97 wharncliffe, Loughborough
181.934k
160k
<being investigated>
152.5k
(23/06/2006)
146.5k

113 station street,  Loughborough
152.439k
140k
<being investigated>
138k
(2/1/2008)
125.5k

36 langhorn close, Newcastle-upon-tyne
113.046k
125k
<being investigated>
105k
(14/7/2007)
100k
138 paget street, Leicester
132.848k
125k
Central London County Court, 24/05/2011,   £14159.26 + costs + ongoing interest, claim # 9QT48442
106k
(18/5/2006)
112.2k

101 queens road, Loughborough
166.843k
155k
<being investigated>
123k
(14/7/2005)
127.5k
91 shelthorpe road, Leicester
120.049k
110k
<being investigated>
100k
(4/6/2004)
119.3k
30 peacock avenue, Salford
97.361k
105k
<being investigated>
85k
(24/11/2006)
85.7k
73 cobden street, Loughborough
126.342k
125k
<being investigated>
112k
(16/11/2006
111.2k
2 dronfield road, Salford
116.814k
115k
<being investigated>
90k
(21/4/2006)
96.9k
2 peacock avenue, Salford
110.251k
115k
<being investigated>
92.5k
(12/7/2006)
89.5k
151 leicester road, Loughborough, LE11 2AF
147.6k
135k
24/8/2005 -Nemo Personal Finance Limited

22/2/2006 -Charge in favour of Progressive Financial Services Limited

24/5/2010 -Final charging order in favour of Davenham Trust Plc

7/4/2011 -Final charging order in favour of Arkle Finance Ltd

3/6/2011 -Interim charging order in favour of Toyota Financial Services
143.8k
(25/6/2004)
143.8k
9 carlton close, Loughborough
124.423k
120k
<being investigated>
<unknown> assume 120k
(??/??/????)
117.3k
81 king street, Loughborough
127.583k
125k
7/4/2011 -Final charging order in favour of Arkle Finance Ltd

3/6/2011 -Interim charging order in favour of Toyota Financial Services
71k
(28/3/2003)
105.1k
66 queens road, Loughborough
119.149k
100k
<being investigated>
91k
(25/6/2004)
106.1k
27 albert street, Loughborough
128.160k
115k
<being investigated>
116k
(1/6/2005)
124.4k
4 albert street, Loughborough
121.213k
115k
<being investigated>
115k
(28/4/2006)
113.8k
Flat 3 court B, Rose Cottage B, Nottingham Rd., Loughborough
77.508k
85k
<being investigated>
<unknown>
assume 85k
(??/??/????)
<unknown>
assume 85k
36 holderness road, location ?
77.906k
85k
<being investigated>
<unknown>
assume 85k
(??/??/????)
<unknown>
assume 85k
11 queen street, Salford
107.558k
110k
<being investigated>
95k
(29/6/2007)
89.8k
41 albert road, Preston
82.389k
110k
<being investigated>
94k
(24/8/2007)
84.7k
24 carnarvon, Preston
95.5k
105k
<being investigated>
110k
(6/2/2008)
101k

Total: 3.737827m
(which means a negative equity of 111.927k based on mouseprice value estimations)
Total: 3.845m

Total: 3.55775 (68k more was paid for these properties than the mouseprice value estimations)
Total: 3.6259m



1 comment:

  1. I have a charge against 138 Paget Street. as ordered by District Judge Taylor at Central London County Court 24 May 2011, £14159.26 including costs awarded together with any further interest becoming due, claim number 9QT48442. From your figures it looks as though that doesn't achieve anything meaningful for me.

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