Modulous delays entering administration as CEO forms new business

Failed modular housing business Modulous still hasn’t formally entered administration almost two months after it sacked its employees and filed a notice of intent to do so.

Despite Modulous’ chief executive Chris Bone saying on 9 January that the business would formally enter administration the next day, nearly two weeks later paperwork hasn’t been filed.

All 50 staff at the off-site housing firm were made redundant at the end of November and it issued a notice of intent to enter administration.

However, likely administrators Opus Restructuring LLP say they have not been appointed and the notice of intent to enter administration has been extended “a few times” according to the Insolvency and Companies List (formerly known as the Bankruptcy Court).

Two weeks ago, Bone told Housing Today the company collapsed with approximately £4m in unpaid debts and would enter administration on 10 January.

Meanwhile, on 9 January a new company called Modulous Technologies Ltd was registered on Companies House, with Bone listed as a person of significant control. 

Housing Today understands that former Modulous employees feel frustrated both at the delay to the company entering administration and at the formation of a new company at this time. 

Former employees believe they were not properly consulted in the run up to being made redundant and that because the administration process hasn’t been formally started yet, they are ineligible to claim government support.

Modulous staff say they haven’t received salary payments for November and say pension contributions went unpaid for the four months prior to their sacking.

Started in 2018, the housing business consisted of a physical kit of parts that could be used to deliver housing, and a digital design tool called TESSA – an acronym for Tech Enabled Solutions for Sustainable Architecture – which launched in October. 

It is the latest modular business to fail, following Ilke Homes, House by Urban Splash and last year’s closure of Legal&General’s modular arm.

Modulous was initially backed by venture capital investors including Regal London and Cemex Ventures, having raised £10m of Series A funding in September 2022. However, the company subsequently reported a loss of £9.5m, with a turnover of £91,000.

>>See also: ‘It’s been a torrid time’: Modulous boss Chris Bone on the offsite housing firm’s collapse

>>See also: Modulous set to go into administration

>>See also: Briefing: Modulous, the MMC provider without a factory

In early January Bone blamed “the vagaries of the venture capital markets” for the firm’s collapse, claiming it had had £30m of pledged funding, but when one funder pulled out and the remainder prevaricated the business “couldn’t bridge the gap”.

Bone is listed as the chair of another firm, Optimise Limited, registered to the same address as Modulous, which entered administration and was liquidated in 2020.

Efforts to reach Bone were not responded to by the time of going to press.