Frequently-Asked Questions

An administration is the event in which an administrator is appointed to take control of the Company and to manage the Company’s affairs. The administrator must be a licenced insolvency practitioner.

The administration protects the Company from creditors taking legal action to recover any outstanding debts through a court provided moratorium.

The Joint Administrators will work together with the directors of The House Crowd to plan and to execute an orderly wind down of the loan portfolio. This aims to keep disruption to the business as minimal as possible and return monies to lenders/investors.

An administration ends automatically after 12 months, however, it can be extended if required by the Joint Administrators following consent by the court or creditors. The administration will continue until all loans have been resolved.

The Joint Administrators will write to all known creditors of the Company within seven days of appointment and invite them to make a claim via a proof of debt form which will be provided by the Joint Administrators. If you believe you have a claim against the Company, please contact the Joint Administrators using the details above.

Within 8 weeks of appointment, the Joint Administrators will be contacting creditors with details of the Joint Administrators’ proposals. This document will set out the Joint Administrators’ plans for managing the administration.

Creditors will receive a letter with access to a website portal from where they will be able to download the Joint Administrators’ proposals. The Joint Administrators’ proposals will contain essential updates for the creditors.

Please also note that the Joint Administrators also plan to issue updates to all concerned parties on a continuous basis via the Quantuma website, and other formats as considered appropriate.

As it is only the start of the administration, our answers are likely to be necessarily brief on certain details although these answers will develop as regards further detail over the coming weeks.

There is no need for investors to do anything. Investors should shortly receive an update from the Joint Administrators through The House Crowd’s platform with further information

The Joint Administrators are now responsible for the business of The House Crowd. Among other things this means that they will seek to operate the P2P platform and manage loans as normal. Information on the progress of the administration will be posted on Quantuma’s website as it becomes available.

Investors will continue to be bound by the terms and conditions which they have signed up to. Updates will continue to be provided through The House Crowd’s platform.

At this stage it is too early for the Joint Administrators to determine how much money they will be able to return to the investors, including when any payments will be made to them.

The Joint Administrators are now evaluating the status of The House Crowd’s loans and working to maximise recoveries, either in the short or longer term. We will continue to update the creditors and investors with the progress that we are making.

If you have any specific queries regarding the administration, please contact the Joint Administrators using the contact details above.

The House Crowd and its Joint Administrators are unable to comment on the tax status as this is a matter for HMRC. If investors have questions regarding tax on their investments, they may wish to contact HMRC or seek independent financial advice. It is important to remember that IFISAs do not have Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection. We will be communicating with HMRC to ensure that we have an agreed way forward. Once we have an agreed plan, we will update lenders further.

Consent was given by the FCA prior to the appointment of the Joint Administrators over The House Crowd. The House Crowd will continue to keep the FCA informed of all material matters during the course of the appointment.

The Joint Administrators will complete a reconciliation of the lender client accounts as soon as possible. Thereafter, the Joint Administrators will be in a position to process payments to investors.

If you are in a situation in which you require any uninvested funds to be withdrawn urgently, please email [email protected].

The Joint Administrators have been establishing the current position with each of the loans. We will seek to implement a reporting timetable as soon as possible and advise accordingly.

Lenders will continue to be advised of borrower repayments and The House Crowd platform will be updated in the usual manner.

We are aware that some companies may approach customers of The House Crowd, offering to help them bring claims against the Company. Be cautious if you are approached by one of these companies. For the vast majority of The House Crowd’s clients, there is no benefit in involving a third party in making a claim. Any customer who believes they have a complaint against the Company should contact the Joint Administrators in the first instance.

The activities of P2P firms are not covered by the FSCS.

No, the House Crowd will not be offering future loans for investment.

Yes, borrowers continue to be bound by the terms of the loan agreement facilitated by The House Crowd. If you have any questions please direct them to the Joint Administrators.

Where an investor has made a deposit that has not been deployed by THC into an investment product, these funds will be returned by the administrators providing we can clearly demonstrate that these funds belong to the investor in question.

A Special Purpose Vehicle (“SPV”) is the name given to a limited company that has been setup specifically for an investment or development project being managed by the company in question.

At the commencement of administration THC had two category of SPVs – House Crowd Development (“HCD”) and House Crowd Property (“HCP”).

The HCD SPVs are “borrowers” that have been provided with loans by House Crowd Finance (Security Agent) Limited on behalf of individual investors (“the lenders”) to complete property developments projects. The lenders’ expected return from the development projects derive from capital and interest repayments.

The HCP SPVs operate differently to HCD SPVs. HCP SPVs own properties which generate rental income from tenants. Retail investors own equity shares in individual HCP SPVs and receive dividend income from any available distributable reserves generated by the HCP SPVs.

It is not possible at this stage for the administrators to be able to predict the potential levels of capital and any interest that may be paid to each investor. However, the administrators expect to be in a position by the time they issue their proposals to creditors within 8 weeks of their appointment, to provide further information on the likely outcome for THC’s investors and creditors.

It is not currently possible to predict the outcome for investors from the developments. The administrators are working with the management of the development SPVs to evaluate each development in order to understand their funding requirements and likely profitability.

In relation to the development loan book administered by THC we confirm that all of the loans were already in default at the date of our appointment and remain so. Since our appointment we have been appraising each loan and its associated collateral in order to evaluate recovery prospects for investors. This process is ongoing and we will update investors on progress regularly through THC’s website www.thehousecrowd.com.

Where an investor has made a deposit shortly prior to the appointment of the administrators and this has not been deployed by THC into an investment product, these funds will be returned by the administrators providing we can clearly demonstrate that these funds belong to the investor in question. Where this is the case, the administrators will contact the relevant affected investors. We have established that THC was holding a relatively small amount of funds in this regard at the date of the administrators’ appointment.

None of the development SPV companies are in administration and remain under the control of their respective directors. If you are owed money by a development SPV you should continue to liaise with your usual House Crowd Developments contact accordingly.

If you are approached by a company offering to help you recover your money, you should proceed with caution. For most investors, there will be no benefit in involving a third party in making a claim.

If you have any questions about the administration process, please contact the administrators at [email protected].

All customers should remain alert to the possibility of fraud. If you are cold called by someone claiming to be from The House Crowd, Quantuma Advisory Limited or the FCA, please end the call and contact them directly. Find out more about protecting yourself from scams: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/protect-yourself-scams