Private investor Joseph Ackerman has had a major property portfolio he owns, which was worth £175m at the peak of the market, placed into receivership.

GVA Grimley and Vail Williams have been appointed as LPA receivers on the two portfolios known as Liberty 1 and 2 which Royal Bank of Scotland sold to Ackerman and then leased back in 2006.

Royal Bank of Scotland has also been forced to take back on its own balance sheet the lease liabilities which were tied up in the original deal following the default.

A Royal Bank of Scotland spokeswoman said: “On Liberty 1, an LPA Receiver has been appointed on the freeholds and long leaseholds in England and Wales. In Scotland, a repossession process is underway and is expected to complete late December this year."

The deals to buy the Liberty portfolios, made up of RBS branches and offices, were among the biggest deals ever taken on by the secretive Edgware-based investor Ackerman, who mainly invested before then via the auction rooms.

Three banks lent on the deals: Royal Bank of Scotland itself, Britannia Building Society, and Bradford and Bingley.

The portfolios, which have dropped in value in line with the market considerably since 2006, were owned across a number of subsidiary companies. Ackerman was expected to sell on a number of the Liberty properties in auction rooms. It is unclear how many properties he managed to offload.

Ackerman bought the Liberty 1 portfolio, made up of 300 properties and then worth £100m, in 2006. The portfolio was part sale-and-leaseback and part lease liabilities on offices and high street retail.

Ros Goode in GVA Grimley’s national recovery team is the lead LPA receiver of Liberty 1, a GVA spokesman confirmed. Ackerman beat off competition from Mapeley and Delancey to buy the portfolio.

He then bought the £75m Liberty 2 portfolio, also made up of a mixture of sale and leasebacks and lease liabilities, in December of the same year.

Matthew Samuel-Camps, partner in valuation at Vail Williams Southampton office, is lead receiver on the Liberty 2 portfolio.

Samuel-Camps said: “I am LPA receiver of a portfolio known as Liberty 2. It is owned by a number of companies. I was appointed on 18 September. The portfolio is in the order of 80 properties nationwide.

“It is very early days and we are still reviewing the portfolio but our intention is to manage the portfolio in the short to medium term.”

On top of the receivership process, Royal Bank of Scotland has taken back the lease liabilities tied up in the two original deals and is now re-marketing them as it does not want to hold the liabilities on its own balance sheet.