Penyards Country Properties, the regional firm which went into administration earlier this year owing over £1m, has rebranded as Domum.
The domain, domum-property, was registered in August by Paul Grant of No 17 Marketing – the firm that bought Hampshire-based Penyards out of administration in May in a pre-packaged sale.
It was said at the time of the sale that the name Penyards would not disappear. The firm, which was founded by Graham and Lisa Evans, had eight branches serving parts of Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire, and was a prolific advertiser in local newspapers.
The sale was handled by administrators Begbies Traynor, which sold the firm and its assets for £180,000 to No 17 Marketing. The new owners did not take on the debts of Penyards, which included £322,000 owed to HMRC, £232,000 owed to Lloyds Bank and £131,000 owed to newspaper publishers Newsquest.
Paul Grant is also managing partner of law firm Bernard Chill & Axtell.
After the pre-pack sale, No 17 Marketing traded as Penyards, with advertising stating that the company was in partnership with Bernard Chill & Axtell.
Yesterday, Grant confirmed to EYE that Penyards has now rebranded.
He said: “We were limited under the Penyards name, because the firm only handled sales. As Domum, the business offers sales, lettings and property management.
“The name is Latin for ‘house’, and the word also has close associations with Winchester.”
He added that Mr and Mrs Evans have no connection at all with the business.
Domum’s site says it has seven offices, all in Hampshire.
It is currently advertising its fees for instructions of £1.5m-plus at between 0.75% and 1.25% plus VAT – which, on a £1.5m property would range from £11,250 (£13,500 with VAT) to £18,750 (£22,500 with VAT).
On homes worth between £401,000 and £750,000, its fees are between 0.6% and 0.95% plus VAT.
“It is currently advertising its fees for instructions of £1.5m-plus at between 0.75% and 1.25% plus VAT…”
Oh, dear – not a good start to be making if you can’t get your basic Legislation compliance right…
Never mind – their multitudinous customer “reviews” indicate they’re at the top of their game…
…VERY quickly.
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They purchased some from PB and paid a ridiculously high referral fee (allegedly), well actually not at all. I made it up. Like most reviews and claims made these days in exchange for a small slap on the wrist by the ASA.
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Informal chat more like
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Isnt it amamzing too, how a change of name can slowly but surely erradicate the bad news and negativity surrounding a failed company that is displayed across the first page of Google for Penyards… of course being a marketing company, they will know that a name change was pretty much an essential move.
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The most concerning information within this article relates to the significant sums owed by Penyards. How come HMRC let £322,000 slip through their fingers when they are quick enough to chase me for less than £10k!
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Boring but true; the Evans’ did not start Penyards, Mike Patterson did, they just acquired it some years ago. Yes I know it is technically Penyards Country Properties but the public facing side was always Penyards.
It was a firm I loathed and admired in roughly equal amounts. They were undoubtedly successful in the end, after some very iffy years, through a combination of great marketing, self promotion (latin for networking) and chutzpah (latin for bulls*!t). We wont go into the loathing bit, or kick a man (or woman) when they are down and only have a large domum left to retire to.
It is a weird fact that they never, to my knowledge, significantly changed their corporate image or board design, unlike most of us, so it is a lesson to all that if it aint broke…….
Please tell me how you can owe £131,000 to Newsquest we rightly get a ‘reminder’ if the monthly account is late! The answer to bigG’s question is you dont owe HMRC enough, small fish are easier to catch and dealing with lots of little people instead of a few big ones improves the ‘results’ when you are in front of a Parliamentary committee.
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No real marketer would put a hyphen in a domain name.
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Yes he is a marketeer…no hang on a solicitor..no hang on an estate agent…
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You boy! Yes, you at the back!
How many times have I told you. The rule to remember for domus while reading is that it has a special form for the locative (domi), and does not require prepositions to express to home (domum) and from home (domo).
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Well said, country’s going to the dogs, still it looks like a solicitor dreamed up the name ………….. Deus, da mi vim!
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For those who don’t know, Paul Grant is managing partner of solicitors Bernard Chill & Axtell who are frantically trying to sell conveyancing as part of the agents fee…as well as being a marketing man and owning No 17. Its a solicitors property shop in disguise…do you remember those from the 80’s. I wonder how they fared!?
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£180,000 for 8 offices, sounds like a great bit of negotiating by Begbies Traynor!
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There are three related articles in the EYE Archive relating to this – just search ‘Penyards’ to get them on your screen.
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