KEY POINTS:
The liquidator for 20 Blue Chip-related companies says the true legal position surrounding some investors' lost deposits is "grey" at the moment.
Jeff Meltzer is expecting a large turnout today at the Ellerslie Events Centre, where liquidators will hold creditors' meetings in two sessions for many of those left out of pocket following the collapse of the structured property investment scheme.
The first meetings at 10am are for investors who own apartments but who lost the guaranteed income they were supposed to get from their Blue Chip investment product.
These relate to companies such as ART Apartments, Auckland Residential Tenancies, and property manager Bribanc.
The second session at 2.30pm is for those who invested through another eight companies, many of whom have lost deposits on apartments yet to be completed.
There are another seven companies which had no assets and liabilities so do not require a creditors' meeting. The liquidators have already said that the 20th company to fail - Mide Ltd, which owes an estimated $11.6 million - has such big losses that they will do away with a creditors' meeting.
The companies owe an estimated $71 million in total.
Meltzer has urged creditors to arrive early, as all who attend must go through a registration process.
He said there was a question mark over what had happened to the deposits of investors in developments that didn't go ahead.
Some, such as the St Martins apartment development off Symonds St in central Auckland, were being completed by different developers unconnected to Blue Chip, who had sold to other investors. The original deposits were not held in trust. "So there is a question as to [the] ability to trace and ownership and double sales," he said.
"Is it a double sale, or is it a sale from two different developments? And what we have to do as liquidators is look at the legal position of it. There's a huge amount of emotion around, and I can fully understand it and I sympathise. But we have to look at what is the true legal position. And it's a bit grey at the moment."
Meltzer said he would be able to give creditors an update on the "glimmer of hope" he offered them earlier this month. He said then there was a possibility of some funds being made available as early as May.
The liquidators will also hold creditors' meetings for investors in Invercargill and Christchurch on April 8.
Meltzer said there was a large number of Invercargill investors, and the idea of video link ups with South Island investors was abandoned in favour of face-to-face meetings.
There is frustration for investors in some other Blue Chip products who are not entitled to attend the meetings. They invested through Blue Chip-related companies which are not in liquidation.
