Property TV, the Sky channel, has gone into insolvency with a corporate voluntary arrangement in place.
HMRC appears to be owed some £118,000 by the channel, the only one in the UK dedicated to residential property and showcasing estate agents, homes, plus various experts and companies.
However, the business says it is determined to continue. The CVA is due to last no longer than 63 months and the business must pay all its debts.
Property TV got off to a difficult start when it crowd-funded on Crowdcube in 2015, but the pitch was closed down despite raising some £320,000 from 290 investors.
A second crowdfunding round was pulled by Seedrs a few months later in 2015.
The insolvency that has now been announced does not mean that the channel cannot still operate.
Last night, founding director Michael Hammond told EYE: “It’s no secret that Property TV has had a turbulent start to life.
“At the start of our journey Property TV looked to crowd-fund some of its seed capital. The raise went extremely well and as a credit to the idea and the business plan the crowd funding campaign was fully funded in half the time and we went on to over-fund significantly.
“During this period, unfortunately my co-director had financial issues that I was completely unaware of.
“When I found out, I asked him to step down as a director which he did and shortly after he was declared bankrupt.
“One of his creditors alerted the crowd funding platform to his financial position (prior to bankruptcy) between the period of the pitch fully funding and being able to collect the money.
“The platform was aware before I was. Although I quickly asked the co-director to step down, the platform felt they couldn’t move ahead and release the funds. Because of this the company lost over £300k of investment.
“Nevertheless, through private investment the company was able to launch and we quickly gained traction as the only channel in the UK dedicated to property and we’ve been fortunate to work with many established, exciting companies and notable individuals such as multiple members of the House of Lords.
“The company has seen significant developments over the last three years and has created many exciting new programme concepts with some of the UK’s leading property companies and business leaders.
“You can see on our website the level of contributors we have had on the channel.
“Unfortunately due to a number of clients’ poor payment record which subsequently turned in bad debts, the company was not sufficiently able to keep up on its HMRC liabilities and other creditors who were being managed to an acceptable level.
“During the winter of 2018 HMRC sought to recoup the company’s liability.
“I sought advice from an accountancy firm specialising in recovery of companies of this nature and we put forward two offers to HMRC which would have discharged the liability in three months and would have negated the reason to enter into the CVA.
“However HMRC opted to take the option of a CVA which was independently put forward after rigorous examination of the company’s future financial prospects.
“We voluntarily have agreed to pay 100 pence in the pound and it was approved by 100% of the creditors in the first instance.
“Property TV’s financial future has been independently scrutinised and those undertaking the examination were confident of an optimistic future. In line with that optimism our latest accounts show £150k profit.
“Property TV has hugely exciting plans for both content and financial success with not least support from its shareholders and clients.
“We hugely appreciate the support shown by our viewers too.”
First I’ve heard of this how was it supposed to work, how was it supposed to earn money?
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The same way Rummage4 will I guess.
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How does that work then know-all?
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PP – You know these people are worried when they bring up Rummage4 when it has nothing to do with the story
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Ah so honestly without selling agents’ data to unspecified 3rd parties and taking income away from agent clients.
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Seems like a well-run company !
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A lot of blame being placed on other people without any business plan for coping with anything other than plain sailing.
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Another disruptor that’s passed the begging bowl around until full then p****d it up against a wall without any idea where they were going! Soon there will be no more investors left!
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