Landlord for the homeless Home Reit is forced to delay results AGAIN

Crisis-hit homeless housing company Home Reit has had to postpone its annual results again as its accountant requested more time to complete work on its accounts.

The company, whose shares were suspended this month after failing to publish figures late last year, said auditor BDO “would not be able to complete its work and internal review process” before the January 31 deadline.

It partially blamed BDO for requesting “substantial” amounts of data related to its portfolio, which includes more than 2,400 properties.

Home Reit had planned to release its results for the year to the end of August on Nov. 28, but it delayed the numbers after it was attacked by Viceroy Research, a hedge fund run by notorious short seller Fraser Perring.

Viceroy questioned Home Reit’s business model and ability to collect rent, saying management were “vultures” who were “not the people to be entrusted with taking care of the vulnerable.”

While the company labeled the allegations “baseless and misleading,” the report led to a more detailed scrutiny of its accounts and caused its share price to fall by 51 percent before being suspended from the London Stock Exchange.

Home Reit said the numbers would be released “at the latest” by the end of January. But this too will be missed.

Meanwhile, investment advisor Alvarium hired Simpact, a social housing manager, to help monitor its properties and with things like liaising with tenants and collecting rent.

Simpact’s appointment came after Home Reit revealed last week that two of its largest tenants have not paid rent since November amid a dispute over property maintenance and renovation costs.

The company said Simpact would also help re-allocate underperforming properties to ‘more suitable’ tenants following an assessment, although this was not expected to impact residents.

Alvarium, a London-based asset manager, has also tried to distance itself from trust in the wake of the scandal.

A few weeks ago, the company decided to sell the part of the company responsible for managing Home Reit ahead of a planned listing on the US stock market.

The trust is also facing a legal battle with law firm Harcus Parker seeking compensation for shareholders for claims they have been ‘misled’ by the company and employees. The claim is believed to involve institutional and private shareholders and could amount to hundreds of millions of pounds.

Another activist investor has also targeted the company. Boatman Capital, which made headlines for attacking defense group Babcock, previously called on Home Reit chair Lynne Fennah and audit committee head Marlene Wood to quit, citing their positions as “untenable.”