Grant Bovey runs Imagine Homes, a company that built itself up on the buy-to-let boom, buying properties off-plan, shoving tenants in them and selling them on to landlords. The Rat and Mouse has had a few comments and emails in recent weeks wondering how it's doing. We didn't know. We asked around. We heard a few rumours. But nothing we could absolutely trust. Now, here's PropertyWeek, with news that Bovey and HBOS - a relationship considerably complicated by a £37.5m equity injection in September last year - are "realigning". The piece is pretty vague about the details of what that means, although both parties are quick to reassure that there's been no falling out... they're still very much in love. There is, however, this:

To combat the crunch, Bovey’s arm of the business plans to launch a service whereby it will guarantee to a vendor that it will pay a buyer’s mortgage for five years as long as they stump up 20% equity.

Guarantee to a vendor? Is anyone else having trouble understanding this? While I go away and try to puzzle it out, you have a great weekend. And remember, things really could be worse.

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