Investors in Bradford’s landmark Gatehaus complex say they have been left high and dry after development company Asquith Properties went into administration.

Asim Malik, owner of Advanced Lettings which manages some of the flats in the award-winning building, said he had advised friends and family to invest in the development.

But he now feels he has let them down after the company returned keys to what he claims are uninhabitable apartments.

Buyers of flats at the Leeds Road development were promised a two-year rental agreement whereby Asquith would find tenants for the apartments and pay an agreed sum as a monthly rent.

The flats would be handed over to the buyers at the end of this period.

But with a year of the contract still to go for many investors, the firm, which has gone into administration, has handed back keys to some flats which Mr Malik said “look like they were never even finished in the first place”.

Several of the apartments are damaged and the entrance to the car park is flooded by what Asquith described in a letter to buyers as “previous tenants’ neglect and product failures on pipe fittings”.

Mr Malik said: “Who is going to want to live here?

“I encouraged many of my friends and family to buy there because I thought it was a good investment.

“I manage 15 of these properties and about 25 of my family and friends have invested but they are in such a state that I’d say about three of those flats are occupied.

“Asquith stopped honouring the rental agreement months ago and now there is nothing the buyers can do.

“A lot of people have put their lifetime’s savings into this place.

“People weren’t even told how bad the apartments were or what the situation was, it’s a nightmare.

“I’ve got no sympathy for Asquith. I wish I’d never got involved with it.”

Another investor Sal Nair, of South-ampton, said: “To say I feel let down is a massive understatement.

“We’re already out of pocket because they only paid one year of our two-year rental agreement. And they’ve sent out a blanket letter so I don’t even know whether my apartment has been affected by the flooding.

“I am very angry about it.”

Bradford businessman Shamsher Malik also owns one of the flats.

He said: “It’s just a shambles. I feel like I’ve been robbed, they haven’t paid my rent for four months and I have a family to support.”

Steve Ellis and Ian Green, of Price-waterhouseCoopers LLP, have been appointed joint administrators of Asquith Properties Limited.

They were unavailable to comment on the investors’ specific concerns yesterday.

But in a statement issued by PricewaterhouseCoopers about the administration of Asquith, Mr Ellis said: “Despite financial support from its bankers and the shareholders, the company has encountered severe cash flow problems as a consequence of escalating development costs on the Gatehaus development project and an inability to realise value from its land and property assets due to the troubled UK property and development finance markets.

“Curtailment of these developments has generated significant losses as the projects cannot now be funded.

“The company’s remaining property and land assets in Bradford and Queensbury will be marketed to recover value for creditors and we would invite any interested parties to contact us as soon as possible.”