Discount real estate brokerage company Foxtons North America Inc. listed $40.9 million in total liabilities and $488,000 in assets in a bankruptcy court filing.
About $35.4 million worth of liabilities is attributed to a loan by Heven Holdings Ltd., the parent company of London-based Foxtons. Heven Holdings is owned by Jon Hunt, 51, who is also the founder of London-based Foxtons and CEO for Foxtons North America.
Officials at the U.S.-based Foxtons company, which has operated in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, announced on Sept. 26 that they had terminated 350 of the company’s 380 employees, and later announced that the company would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and planned to sell its active property listings to another brokerage company. In response to the mass layoff, two former employees filed a lawsuit alleging that the company violated federal law by failing to provide sufficient notice and benefits to the terminated employees.
Foxtons’ Oct. 5 filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey states that the company owes $37.7 million to Heven Holdings and $1.8 million to London-based Foxtons Ltd.
The company also reported an unsecured claim of $3.1 million by Enterprise Fleet Services for a fleet of leased autos — Foxtons had a fleet of company-branded cars that it made available to its agents
A separate bankruptcy filing listed Foxtons assets that the company seeks to sell at auction, including 4,273 active listings, a database of potential sellers that includes a database of active seller leads, a database of past sellers, canvassing data, a database of active buyers, a database of Realtors who have worked with Foxtons, a list of past buyer applicants, a list of Realtors who have worked with Foxtons, and the company’s customer relationship management application. The databases and lists include contact information, according to the filing.
Foxtons has estimated its commission due on sales contracts at $2.3 million, according to documents filed with the bankruptcy court.
