Institutional shareholders in Home Reit (HOME ) are meeting to discuss their next step in the crisis engulfing the homeless accommodation provider.

Investors gathered this afternoon at the City of London offices of FTI Consulting, the real estate investment trust’s PR firm, to hear Home Riet chair Lynne Fennah claim the board was working ‘at all hours’ to salvage something for shareholders.

It looks increasingly doubtful whether Home Reit shares will return from their seven-week suspension after the board last week put the business up for sale, having received an unsolicited bid from a company founded by a former employee at its fund manager Alvarium.

Home revealed it faced a £20m property improvement bill as well as a rent strike by charity tenants on top of a potential police investigation into its accounts.

Today’s one-hour meeting, from which media were barred, was described by attendees as ‘calm’ but unproductive.

Fennah is said to have pointedly ignored a question about whether she and her three fellow non-executive directors would refund any of their fees.

The non-execs on the independent board, who receive £167,000 a year in total, are under intense scrutiny after failing to spot the alleged ‘slum conditions’ affecting around a quarter of Home’s properties, which were highlighted by a whistleblower in October.

They also missed the alleged property over-valuations and conflicts of interest between Alvarium Home Reit Advisors and property developers, exposed by short-seller Viceroy Research in a devastating report in November.

Although the board and Alvarium rejected Viceroy’s claims, auditors BDO were immediately ordered to redo their review of the 12-month results to 31 August, a task they have yet to complete, meaning the annual report is now six months late.

According to one investor, Fennah, a former chief financial officer at Empiric Student Property (ESP ) who earns £50,000 a year for her part-time role as Home’s chair, admitted the board had only seen a small number of the trust’s properties as Covid lockdowns and social distancing had restricted their ability to do due diligence.

Alex Baker, a 34-year-old portfolio manager at Alvarium Home Reit Advisors, also gave a presentation. Baker joined Alvarium from Fiera Real Estate UK last summer as an assistant portfolio manager but was promoted in November as Gareth Jones, one of the original portfolio managers at its October 2020 flotation, announced he would be taking sick leave. It is understood he stopped work this month.

Co-manager Charlotte Fletcher, who joined the team shortly after launch, was off on maternity leave but returned in December.

Fraser Perring, the author of the Viceroy Research report, did not attend the meeting due to train delays, he said on Twitter.