Milton Keynes-based agent Douglas Duff has ceased trading after 23 years in operation.
In a note to clients, director Andrew Clarke said that the business was being wound up in response to professional indemnity claims made “in respect of one surveyor’s valuations made in an eight-month period in 2008” and a lack of effective supervision by two of the firm’s former directors”.
He added: “The surveyor in question had been subject of a TUPE transfer from a predecessor business. I stress that none of the company’s current employees and directors have done anything wrong or negligent. We have been left ‘holding the baby’, so as to speak.”
Douglas Duff said it had consulted with accountants, solicitors, professional indemnity brokers and the RICS.
Clarke said: “I can only apologise again for any inconvenience that this news may cause you, and to assure you that these are not circumstances of our own making.”
The winding up is being handled by accountants Mercer & Hole.
joanna.bourke@estatesgazette.com
