A five-branch estate agency, Hat and Home Limited, has entered administration after failing to maintain repayments on a six-year rescue deal involving almost £665,000 owed to HMRC. The company, founded in 2020 by Ben Gee, entered administration on 15 September 2026.
Creditors had approved a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) just seven months prior, in February 2026. This agreement required the agency to pay at least £9,520 a month for six years to address PAYE and VAT liabilities. However, Hat and Home made only four payments, totalling £38,080, before defaulting.
HMRC had submitted a creditor claim of £664,749.33. Following the collapse of the CVA, HMRC received a first and final dividend of 7.24p in the pound against its admitted preferential claim, amounting to approximately £42,670. The insolvency documents attribute the CVA's failure to weaker-than-expected trading and the company's inability to meet its financial commitments.
Hat and Home, which opened its first office in Wokingham in February 2021 and expanded to Crowthorne, Bracknell, Ascot, and Sandhurst, is understood to have ceased trading, with its five offices now closed. Joint administrators Chris Newell and Jo Leach of Quantuma Advisory Limited were appointed, having previously supervised the CVA. Steps were taken to market the company's business assets through a pre-packaged administration sale.