Details of estate agency’s closure revealed

Further details have emerged surrounding the fate of Leamington estate agency Smarter Housing. The company, run by Warwick graduate Adam Arnold, closed its premises and ceased letting homes last year following a string of complaints, court judgments and financial losses. Several students had difficulty obtaining their deposits, and many landlords have been left out-of-pocket.

Leamington landlord Dr Singh claimed that some landlords lost huge amounts of money when the agency failed to return students’ deposit money, saying: “I lost around £35,000 but I know some who’ve lost more.” Luckily for most students, their deposits were returned at landlords’ expense.

Singh went on to say that during July and August 2010, by which time Smarter Housing had notified landlords (but not tenants) on their financial situation, he changed all of his properties to other property management firms.

A _Boar_ investigation has uncovered more details of Smarter Housing’s demise. The name ‘Smarter Housing’ now belongs to Stephen Hughes, owner of another estate agent. Hughes was initially called in to take over Smarter Housing’s finances last year. “I tried to repair the [accounts] but after a short while realised it was past that point,” Hughes said. “There was a mismatch of money.”

When asked why the company was making losses, Hughes explained: “[Arnold] was running with too many staff. But there were a number of properties where students had stopped paying, so he was paying landlords from his [own] account. He didn’t have his finger on the pulse.”

The name ‘Smarter Housing’ has now been relinquished to Hughes, while Arnold’s company is now known as Telmark Properties. “Telmark Properties will now be the company that goes into liquidation and stops trading,” Hughes said. “I didn’t want him to be able to carry on trading under [Smarter Housing].”

However, a search of the Government’s registry of companies revealed that Telmark Properties has not yet ceased to be active, despite a credit check in August 2010 showing that it carried Smarter Housing’s debts and County Court Judgments (CCJs).

A total of six CCJs were awarded against Smarter Housing, amounting to a total of £3,626, when the name was owned by Arnold. At time of publication, the court system had not been informed whether any of these judgments had been paid.

Despite Companies House records showing that parent company Smarter Group Ltd was dissolved on 27 July 2010 and that Smarter Housing is no longer active under his name, Adam Arnold still claimed to be the CEO of the company.

In correspondence with the Boar, Arnold said that the Smarter Housing venture had not finished and that his entrepreneurial portfolio included: “Smarter Housing, Smarter Card and two other companies.”

Although the website smarterhousing.co.uk now only displays a brief message about server migration, another website, smarterhousing2012.co.uk, says Smarter Housing will be providing short-term lets for the 2012 Olympics. Arnold claimed the latter website is only for purposes of ‘search engine optimisation’.

The _Boar_ has also established that Arnold and Smarter Housing have been requested to provide documents to an investigator with the Company Investigations Branch (CIB) of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

However, when the _Boar_ contacted the CIB, Company Investigations Supervisor Chris Mayhew said that he was unable to confirm or deny that an investigation is being undertaken. He added that “where an investigation leads to legal action being taken the first point at which we would make a statement would be when any Court proceedings have commenced.”

Despite agreeing to speak to the _Boar_, Arnold did not answer phone calls at the arranged time, so no comment was available from him at the time of publication.