Repossession scams
Repossession scams in Manchester and Leeds have picked up in recent years. As you know, repossessions over the past 5 years have been at record levels. As with anything, where there are people in trouble… the dishonest and unscrupulous people of the world tend to come out of the shadows to prey on home owners who don’t know any better.
We’ve been working with home owners for some time now, in fact we talk with home owners every single week. We hear the stories of people close to repossession being taken advantage of by dishonest people claiming to be reputable “property investors”.
Not All “We Buy Houses” Companies Are Created Equal
You’ve seen other websites like ours that say “We Buy Houses” etc. Yes, we buy houses in Manchester and Leeds and other areas and I’ll walk you through how to spot potential scams vs. reputable house buyers in your area.
There are companies out there that buy houses from people who need to sell. But that’s where the similarities between ‘repossession scam’ investors and legitimate companies end. A small percentage of people try to take advantage of home owners in difficult situations.
Yes, we know there are some people who operate in ways that we don’t.
The Office of Fair Trading …
(Which has now been replaced by the Financial Conduct Authority) raised concerns regarding the practices of some “Quick house Sale” companies. The OFT’s main concerns were as follows:
- Unclear fee structures
- Reducing the price at the last minute
- Making misleading claims about a property’s value
- Falsely claiming to be a cash buyer
- Exclusive contracts, preventing sales to other buyers
Our company policy is stated here to answer these legitimate concerns so you can be sure that we do not operate in this way.
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“Unclear fee structures, for example imposing an unexpected fee following an encouraging initial valuation, as a condition for progressing the service.”
We don’t charge you any fees to sell your house. We agree everything with you up front and stick to it (as you would expect us to).
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“Reducing the price offered at the last minute after the seller is financially committed to the transaction.”
We don’t do this. We wouldn’t want you to do that to us, so we don’t do it to anyone else. We don’t make any promises we don’t intend to keep. We will do what we say we will do. We have had people try to pull this trick on us, so we know how it feels.
If we can give you what you need, in a way that works for us, we’ll do it. If not, we’ll tell you that we are unable to meet your needs. We would rather tell you ‘No’ than mislead you and waste your time.
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“Making misleading claims about the value of the property or the level of discount to be applied to the sale.”
We believe the value of a property is clear for most all to see and most homeowners already know how much their house is worth before they even talk to us. It’s easily available on the internet based on what other similar properties have sold for in the area in the last few months. We will tell you what we can pay and you can decide if it works for you or not.
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“Falsely claiming to be a cash buyer”
We don’t make unrealistic claims to have unlimited funds as we purchase multiple properties. We do sometimes work with investors who finance some of our property purchases. It would be dishonest of us to claim that we can buy everyone’s property as this is clearly unrealistic.
If we agree on a price for your house we will buy it and you will get the money due to you on completion as you would expect.
If we are unable to meet your price, we have other options where you can get the price you need but over an agreed period of time.
Each person’s situation is different and what is a good solution for one person is not necessarily good for another. There is no “one size fits all” offer that we can make for any property, (i.e. X% of the value).
We will try to meet your needs based on your particular situation.
We will offer you what we can realistically pay or we will tell you we are unable to meet your needs.
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“Using exclusive contracts, that prevent homeowners from selling to other buyers, with severe penalties for breach of contract.”
We won’t ask you to agree to anything you are not happy with and we don’t expect you to sign anything where you can’t sell your house to anyone else unless we have agreed to buy it and you have agreed to sell it to us. If we agree to buy your property on whatever terms we agree upon, any contract has to be in the best interests of both sides, yours and ours.
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“Saying the property can be sold quickly then taking a long time to conclude the sale.”
We will tell you if or when we can buy it and roughly how long it will take. Buying a property does take time where the solicitors have to do the necessary checks etc. There are ways of speeding things up so you can move quickly if necessary and we will tell you the best way to go about it when we talk to you. Again, we don’t make any claims that we can’t actually live up to.
Avoid Repossession scams. Do Your Homework And Do Business With Someone You Can Trust
We buy houses in the Manchester and Leeds and help people in repossession all the time so we have heard lots of dishonest things that happen to home owners who were duped by a scammer before they spoke to us.
What we always say is to do your homework. Ask any “we buy houses” company lots of questions before you do business with them to make sure that they’re real, that they’re honest, and that they can and will follow through with any offer they make you. Some investors make lots of offers and back out on the ones they don’t have the money to follow through on. With House and Flat Buyers, we only offer to buy properties that we know we can buy if our offer is accepted… no if’s, but’s or maybe’s.
If you’re in repossession and need assistance, or just want to know your options… visit your local repossession counseling service, or go to the government’s repossession advice website
www.gov.uk/repossession/get-advice
or Shelter
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repossession
If you’re looking to sell your house quickly…
We’d love to chat with you… learn about your situation and your house… and make you a fair offer for your house. As you know We Buy Houses in Kent, Essex, Northamptonshire, Befordshire, the Midlands and the surrounding areas.
The beauty of the whole thing is that we’ll make you an offer and there’s no obligation, no pressure, and no catches… you get the offer, you take as long as you want to look over it, pass the offer by those you trust, even speak to the other “we buy houses” companies if you want. We’ll be here for you when you need us and you can get started whenever the time is right for you.
If you’d like a fair no-obligation offer today…
Go Here and Fill in the Short Form.
After that we’ll give you a quick call, find out a bit more about the property, and let you know what we can do for you.