The company went into voluntary liquidation back in the summer of 2022, with directors Paul and Alan Young confident at the time that it would be able to pay off its debts in full, with interest, within 12 months.
However, by June 2023 those hopes were dashed after the business switched to an insolvent liquidation process, with its freehold factory still unsold.
The Leamington Spa property was on Warwick Printing Co’s books valued at £1.48m.
It was initially marketed at £1.75m, with the price subsequently reduced to £1.45m, then £1.15m “due to a slump in the market for industrial units in the area”.
The latest report from liquidators Andrew Kelsall and Lee Green of Larking Gowen reveals that the property disposal has been further complicated, and the sale to a potential buyer for £1.025m delayed, after historical errors were discovered in the registration of a separate title for a strip of land within the boundary area.
The solicitor who handled the original filing has ceased trading, and the seller’s company was dissolved more than a decade ago.
“My enquiries confirmed that the strip of land in question is now owned by Crown Estates under Bona Vacantia rules. Therefore, in order to be able to sell the property in its entirety, I have had to instruct my solicitors to take steps to rectify this issue,” Kelsall stated.
“The buyer confirmed they were not prepared to complete on the purchase of the property without the title issue being resolved.”
Last month the company, via the joint liquidators, was effectively forced to buy the strip of land back from the Crown Estates for £39,000, with formalities around the transaction ongoing as the report was completed.
The situation has resulted in significant extra work for the liquidators and a request for an increase in remuneration.
Warwick Printing Company’s unsecured trade and expense creditors were owed £874,912.
Kelsall said the anticipated dividend to unsecured creditors was now estimated to be around 48.34p in the pound because of the increased expenses and an increased fixed fee due to the complexity of the case.
Preferential and secondary preferential creditors will be paid in full.
