Trust Property Management fails to find a buyer

Trust Property Management, whose CEO Benjamin Mire is facing disciplinary proceedings from his professional body RICS, is no longer up for sale.

It was put on the market on September 10 last year through Bluebox Corporate Finance, but earlier this month this process came to an end.

Julian Finegold, a Trust director, announced on February 4:

“Following a detailed exercise, the Company and its advisers have concluded that the Company and the shareholders would be best served by continuing operations independent of any third party and, accordingly, this exercise has now come to an end.”

Mr Mire, who sat on property tribunal part-time while frequently appearing before it as a property manager, was the subject of a Judicial Conduct Investigations Office hearing in 2013.

He resigned his judicial appointment during the investigation, but in an exceptional move, the JCIO made clear that he would have been sacked in any case. It said:

“Mr Mire had failed to observe the standards that could reasonably be expected of a judicial office holder and that this failing was sufficiently serious to justify his removal from office.”

In July 2014, the Leasehold Advisory Service barred any of Mr Mire’s companies, including Trust Property Management and Benjamin Mire Chartered Surveyors, from advertising on the quango’s websites.

The then LEASE chairman Deep Sagar referred to “34 different determinations by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal purportedly involving Mr Mire, TPM or BMCS”.

“By an expert review on my behalf of the determinations and representations, I have concluded that 24 determinations have clear and recent conclusions of poor professional practice.

“Thus LEASE Conferences Limited should not knowingly offer its platform to these firms, as its objectives are to improve professional standards and service consumers, including leaseholders.”

Earlier this month, Mr Mire failed to obtain a judicial review into the decision by RICS to go forward with a disciplinary hearing into his conduct.

He cited “anguish, apprehension and £3 million in losses” since being removed from his judicial appointment at the property tribunal.

He also unsuccessfully argued that the RICS investigation had an “impact on his human rights”.