KEY POINTS:
Some investors in troubled property business Blue Chip have raised questions about the new roles of former high-ranking executives at Blue Chip and its management arm Bribanc.
Nick Wevers, former Blue Chip chief executive, and Tony Woodworth, former general manager of Bribanc, are managing Blue Chip's short-stay tenancies.
Their business, First Street, is managing more than 200 apartments around Auckland's CBD.
Nineteen firms connected to Blue Chip's New Zealand franchisee went into voluntary liquidation last week, causing fears among more than 4000 clients.
But now some investors have queried the involvement of Wevers and Woodworth, taking over managing the mainly short-stay apartments for Blue Chip landlords.
Wevers and Woodworth left the Blue Chip stable of companies some years ago and said yesterday that they had already been able to help people and their involvement was purely a commercial deal.
First Street is on level 10 of an office block at 17 Albert St and on December 15, Bribanc contracted it to manage Blue Chip's short-stay properties.
Not everyone is delighted about the arrangement and some think it is too close for comfort.
Wevers and Woodworth say this is wrong and they have not worked for Blue Chip or Bribanc since 2004 and 2006 respectively. They say they have the skills and expertise needed to manage properties.
Wevers left Blue Chip in late 2004 after just a few months heading the business and a high-profile spat.
At the time, Wevers refused to comment on his resignation but Blue Chip founder Mark Bryers, who took over as managing director in September 2004, was reported as saying at the time that Wevers left because his skills and background were not appropriate for the role.
Before Blue Chip, Wevers headed the much larger NZX-listed real estate empire Capital Properties and is a former national president of the Property Council. Woodworth left Bribanc in 2006 and said he knew questions had been raised about First Street's role.
But he defended the business, saying he and Wevers were the best people to manage the apartments.
Units First Street is managing are in the waterfront's Lighter Quay, Hudson Brown and The Landings, both at Quay Park; Tetra House on Wakefield St, Madison off Symonds St, Ascent Apartments on Nelson St and in other blocks.
"We're trying to help people with a problem," Wevers said yesterday, adding that the only reason he and Woodworth were working on a Sunday was because of the sheer volume of work.
First Street had been besieged with calls for help from many angry and upset investors, Wevers said.
Rates, property insurance and body corporate fees had gone unpaid and many apartments had been vacant for weeks or months, Wevers said.
Rent had been unpaid for up to three months in some cases.
In other cases, apartments had been rented but tenants were not paying rent, he said.
"It was not good, not good at all."
Woodworth said he was a Blue Chip investor himself and was owed three months' rent on his Lighter Quay apartment, amounting to about $6000.
Most worrying of all, Woodworth said, were moves by rival agencies and property managers pitching for the management business.
This had just added to the landlords' confusion.
"A lot of investors are getting confused because people are hassling them from every direction," Woodworth said.
Wevers said the landlords were spread throughout New Zealand and lived in Whangarei, the Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill. Woodworth said the investors had put in around $200,000 to $500,000 each and came from all walks of life and included lawyers, retired farmers, dentists, labourers, teachers and parents with young families.
* Today, Jeff Meltzer who is liquidator of 19 firms associated with Blue Chip's New Zealand franchisee, is due to release his initial report and set a date for a creditors' meeting in Auckland, expected to be in early March.
