The UK's biggest rent-to-own firm, PerfectHome, has gone into administration, affecting thousands of customers.
The company lent customers money to buy household goods, which they paid off weekly with interest.
This sort of deal is commonly known as buying 'on the never-never'.
PerfectHome also gave general cash loans, and had around 30,000 customers in 2020.
However, since June 2021 it has not taken on any new customers.
PerfectHome became the UK's largest rent-to-own firm after Brighthouse went into administration in 2020.
If you are a customer affected, email mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
But now the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed that PerfectHome has stopped trading too.
The FCA said: "All existing agreements remain in place and are not affected by the administration. This means customers can continue to retain possession of their goods."
PerfectHome is now online-only, having closed all its physical stores.
The administration is being handled by Teneo.
A Teneo statement on the PerfectHome website said: "Customers will continue to receive the same level of service as they have throughout the wind-down and should not notice any changes as a result of the administration".
Companies that go into administration have not gone bust.
Instead, administrators will try to find buyers for all or part of the company and work out how to take the business forward if possible.
PerfectHome is a trading brand of Temple Finance Limited, set up in 2006. The firm was based in Birmingham but operated across the country.
Temple made a loss of £10.5million in 2021, and five of its directors resigned, according to its latest accounts. In 2020 it made a profit of £1.4million.
It has also not taken on any new customers since June 2021. This is because its biggest funder, Kaluga, pulled its funding, according to Temple's accounts.
PerfectHome and Teneo have been approached for comment.
In 2017 the rent-to-own sector was rocked by news that BrightHouse had been ordered to pay back £14.8million to customers .
The whopping repayments happened after the FCA found it had treated customers unfairly.
Regulators fined the firm for "irresponsible" lending, which included eye-watering interest rates as high as 69.9%.
The weekly payment store provided loans to customers to purchase electrical items such as televisions and washing machines has been struggling financially for years.
In April 2016 the FCA brought in a cap on rent-to-own charges after it emerged some customers were paying as much as four times the average retail price for essential household goods.
