The days of €800-an-hour insolvency practioners working on property assets may be coming to a close. Irish commercial property adviser HWBC has teamed up with the insolvency team of British property consultant Allsop to introduce fixed-charge receivership to the Irish market.

Instead of charging a per-hour fee, the 50-50 joint venture will provide active management of the properties and advise on an appropriate strategy to maximise the value of the distressed property. In return, they receive a fixed percentage of the final value realised on the asset.

HWBC Allsop has met with the Irish banks and Nama and has already won some instructions, initially in relation to hotel and petrol filling station investments. They will only act in relation to investments and will work on everything from sites to offices.

Allsop is the largest seller of auction properties in both the commercial and residential markets in the UK. It set up
its insolvency team in 1990
and is currently involved in
the receivership of three shopping centres, a distribution centre and a business park in Britain.

In Ireland property insolvency work has typically been billed on a per-hour basis. Last week Nama revealed it had received a tender of €800 an hour for a 500-hour assignment by one firm of insolvency practitioners.

In one case it is known that insolvency practitioners have been billing €450-an-hour for work on one developer's receivership, but that they have essentially handed control over to former management, paying them €250-an-hour to run the assets.

A source in one of the practitioners involved, speaking on the condition of confidentiality, said it was "not uncommon" for them to assign control of assets to management, even when the management caused the problems in the first place.