Purplebricks will now be announcing its full year results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2021 in the first week of August, rather than mid-July as originally planned.

The online estate agency says that the delay is to allow sufficient time to complete the audit, which this year has included additional procedures as a result of new processes and controls implemented by the company since the last audit.

The board says that it continues to expect to report revenue of approximately £70m and an adjusted loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of around £8.8m as previously announced in a trading update on 25 May 2022.

Purplebricks’ trading update in May, which stated that the full year results would be published on 14 July, revealed that since the announcement of its interim results in January, the company has seen a continuation of lower volumes of new instructions coming to market.

These market conditions have impacted the level of net instructions which for the full year ended 30 April 2022 were 40,141, down from 58,043 in 2021.

Purplebricks’ cash balance at 30 April 2022 was £43.2m, reflecting the lower instruction volumes and exceptional costs in line with guidance.

The company’s full year results for 2021 showed revenues of £90m, EBITDA of £12m, and cash balances of 74m.

May’s trading update followed a rather turbulent period for the online estate agency, caused in part by regulatory failings.

EYE revealed in November last year that Purplebricks had failed to properly serve legally required documents to tenants explaining their deposits have been put into a national protection scheme.

Purplebricks, which also reported recently that trading conditions have been “challenging”, is currently being investigated by Propertymark for potential tenancy law breaches.

Purplebricks recently confirmed the appointment of Helena Marston as its new chief executive officer.

Marston was due to start as chief executive on 4 April, but her appointment was delayed, subject to due diligence checks, which have now been completed.

Marston, previously the company’s chief operating officer, took over from Vic Darvey who quit in March.

With a few weeks of Marston taking over, Purplebricks dismissed a number of field agents for failing to meet their sales targets – some receiving less than an hour’s notice.

EYE was informed that Purplebricks was able to dismiss staff without a notice period because none have been employed for more than two years so full employment rights have not yet kicked in.

A Purplebricks spokesperson told EYE: “As part of our drive to deliver industry leading standards of service, we continually manage staff performance. This means that some of our field agents have recently left the business.”