Lendy’s head of development says he was unaware of overvaluations
Lendy’s head of development has told the court he was unaware of overvaluations at the collapsed peer-to-peer lending platform.
P2P property platform Lendy entered into administration in May 2019, leaving over £160m outstanding on the loanbook, with at least £90m of those funds in default.
Administrator RSM has previously said it had to unpick “significant issues in the company’s underwriting and administration process”.
Read more: An update on P2P platform administrations
According to The Mouse in the Court, Alan Darling, who joined the platform in 2016 as head of development, told the High Court that he was “not aware” of properties being overvalued and that at the time the team would not lend any funds if they “didn’t believe the valuation was correct”.
When asked if borrowers were misled over how easy repayments would be, Darling, who continued to work for Lendy post administration until at least July 2020, said that he was not aware of giving “false hope” to anyone.
Read more: The ongoing legal cases that could shape the future of P2P
In December, the latest progress report from RSM revealed that Lendy investors were collectively paid out £1.98m in the six months to 23 November, while administrators’ fees increased by £499,397 over the period.
Over the six months, RSM said it had recouped £2.52m in gross realisations, £1.7m from development finance loans and £800,000 from property bridging loans.