Sarah Collins and Jonathan Marston of Alvarez & Marsal Europe LLP were appointed joint administrators on 18 June.

The administration affects Devonshire Homes Limited only and does not extend to other Devonshire Homes-branded developments or associated companies.

The builder’s live sites include The Grange in Bideford and St Michael’s Reach in Penzance.

Latest accounts for the year to September 2024 showed the company slipped to a pre-tax loss of £137,024 on turnover of £52m, reversing profits of more than £1.2m the previous year. The business employed around 77 staff.

Accounts signed by chairman David Heathcoat-Amory blamed much of the deterioration on a development that fell outside the company’s core strategy of building standard house types.

The company bought a partly built scheme comprising bespoke, architect-designed timber-frame homes and completed the purchase within a week. It subsequently admitted it had “significantly underestimated” construction costs because it had never built such homes before.

The project generated an in-year loss of £156,099 and prompted a provision of £1.12m to recognise a total forecast loss of £1.28m.

A separate change in accounting policy relating to affordable housing income also resulted in a one-off £341,902 reduction in profit after the company restated margins at The Grange development.

Devonshire Homes traces its roots back to 1984 through parent company London and Devonshire Trust, which acquired Langworthy Construction in 2008 and rebranded it as Devonshire Homes. Since then, the business says it has delivered more than 2,000 homes across the South West.