8:03 am, December 30, 2025
Administrators for failed online used car dealer Cazoo will settle a multi-million pound tax liability – but it’s still unknown whether 10,000 unsecured creditors owed nearly £76m will get paid.
A statement of affairs from Teneo, just published by the joint administrators of the former car dealership Cazoo, has revealed details on its progress.
It says HMRC is likely to be paid £8m in full in the next two months following the collapse of Cazoo, its associated property company and the holding company.
However, it’s not yet known what will happen to the 9,500 unsecured claims – totalling £75.8m – that have so far been made to administrators.
Cazoo customers and suppliers are likely to form a large part of that number, which administrators warn could rise even higher.
Customers will be looking to be repaid for warranty claims and other issues with cars they bought from the failed car dealership following its collapse, while suppliers will be hoping their bills can be paid.
Cazoo was launched by Love Film and Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman as an online-only used car sales business in 2019. It grew rapidly during the pandemic but racked up hundreds of millions of pounds in losses and never made a profit.
It floated on the New York Stock Exchange for an initial valuation of nearly $8bn (£5.6bn), but its share price collapsed some 99% in the following years before its collapse into administration in May 2024.
The amount of money left to pay creditors now remains uncertain due to a question mark over a multi-million-pound pot of cash held in a restricted bank account.
The report says administrators have access to £22.5m in cash from Cazoo’s main business, £23.7m of cash in its holding company, but a further £50m sits in a restricted bank account under the control of secured creditor Glas Trust Corporation Limited.
That £50m is not available to pay debts as the trust is acting on behalf of lenders and noteholders and it is likely to make a claim on the cash once ‘creditor priorities are resolved’.
Without access to that money, administrators are unlikely to have enough to satisfy the thousands of unsecured claims.
The fate of that money is still the biggest uncertainty in the Cazoo administration and without clarification the final dividend available is unknown.
The £50m cash pile is effectively frozen while administrators wait to see whether secured creditor Glas Trust submits and proves its claim.
The progress report does reveal, though, that preferential claims by Cazoo employees have been paid in full.
Administrators have also been paid nearly £5m for their work on the collapse.
In the report, they said: ‘The timing and quantum of any unsecured distribution remains uncertain and will depend on the outcome of the claim adjudications and final costs of the administration.
‘There remain several outstanding matters which may significantly impact the final outcome for all creditors.
‘As such, the final dividend payable to creditors may be outside of the estimates provided.’
Administrators sold the Cazoo name and online marketplace to Motors for £5m and it is now operating independently as a used car advertising platform for the motor trade. The current trading business is unconnected to the administration of the former used car sales firm.
The Cazoo administration is due to run until at least May 2026.
