A RANGE of of property-related businesses have been left out of pocket by the collapse of law firm Pagan Osborne, which was bought out of pre-packaged administration by Thorntons at the beginning of this month.
In their preliminary report, joint administrators Tom MacLennan and Iain Fraser of FRP Advisory, said that the firm had a total of 53 creditors at the time of its collapse with the total owed coming to just under £185,000.
While many of the outstanding sums were low, such as a staff expense of £10.20 and £32.28 owed to Edinburgh waste management business Changeworks Recycling, significant sums were owed to organisations operating in the property sector.
Registers of Scotland, the government body that maintains records of property transactions, was owed the largest sum at just over £34,400 while estate agency Mapeley Steps was owed just under £30,000.
Other sums include £18,900 to real estate advisers CBRE, £8,422 to Perth-based County Property Searches and £5,502 to Tourmyhome, an Edinburgh business that makes videos for use in property marketing.
The administrators said they expect there to be “sufficient funds to make a distribution to unsecured creditors”, although they did not comment on how much would be paid for every pound owed.
They added that the firm, which suffered from the downturn in the property market, ultimately failed because it could not pay off subprime loans with “exorbitant annual interest rates” taken out in the past few years.
The firm turned to short-term debt after struggling to pay off a £1.2 million loan agreed in 2013.
With the exception of chief executive Alistair Morris, all Pagan Osborne partners transferred to Thorntons, which has launched a redundnacy consultation with Pagan Osborne's staff.
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