CUSTOMERS of troubled electrical retail chain Powerhouse may have to wait weeks before they find out if orders will be honoured, or if money paid will be returned.

The shutters were down at the store on the Middlebrook Retail Park, yesterday, with a sign advising people to call an advice line on 0845 603 4037 for more information.

But administrators from BDO Stoy Hayward must first calculate the amount of debt the company had accrued during its final disastrous months, which had seen Christmas sales decline year on year by 39 per cent followed by a year-on-year fall of 15 per cent in the first six months of 2006.

It also emerged yesterday that the company was the subject of a legal action in the High Court, brought by landlords of Powerhouse sites around the UK, who were owed millions of pounds in unpaid rent.

The action, which had begun in May, is understood to have been the catalyst for the board meeting decision to put the company into administration A total of 23 staff in Bolton were sent home with redundancy forms when they turned up for work on Wednesday, with the move repeated across the UK, as 650 staff at 50 Powerhouse stores were told their jobs no longer existed.

John Hannett, general secretary of Usdaw, said that the union would attempt to secure payments due to them.

He said: "We will work closely with the administrators to make sure our members get the payouts they are entitled to."