Bronwen Investigates... Land Scams! - Posted on 5/22/2009

(Part 1 of the 'Bronwen Investigates...' series)

Note: the names and smaller details of this story have been changed - and I lie to you not - to protect my own ass.

The story:

In March 2009 I received a call from a company claiming to be from a reputable-enough-sounding property firm. Not only was I told by ‘Wendy' on the phone that I'd expressed an interest in their services (which I had not), she actually proceeded to try and sell me land investment. The pure passion the woman was expressing in her voice regarding these ‘investment opportunities' meant that we were on the phone for around forty minutes (I was actually rather enjoying her used carsales technique – “of course, absolutely, 100%!"), ending rather abruptly - on her part - when I refused to give out my address. I promptly got a call back from her ‘PA' apologising and telling me I'd receive a call on Tuesday.

I am directed to a website which has links to BBC News articles from 2002 and 2003, with titles such as ‘UK land prices rocket'. I find this to be very misleading on the company's part, as news from 2002/03 isn't exactly news, and has little relevance to the financial situation the country is in now.

I decided to do some further research on the company and was able to find their company number, registered address, and the sole director's name - let's call him Cecil Cemetary, from somewhere English. He is the director of five other companies, including; again I'm not going to tell you here.

A quick google search on one of the companies comes up with an article on South Northamptonshire Council's website warning residents not to buy plots of land from these people, as development opportunities on the land are ‘severely limited'. It soon becomes clear that the chance of making a profit from these ‘investments' are practically zero.

Skip to Tuesday: I get a call back from Happy Days (again, not real name, did you guess?), portfolio director of the company. A good old chat ensues and I express an interest in a particular area of South Northamptonshire; Happy is more than happy to discuss deals on plots of land there and tells me their current land value will rise to between 300 – 600% over the next 36 months. Surely this is too good to be true?

I ask Happy if there are contact details for the local planning office in the area, and being the caring sort he tells me the council will not be able to tell me any information and if they had their way ‘would not approve a garden shed' let alone property developments. In fact, the Council are unlikely to give me any information at all and there's no need to contact them as all the paperwork can be done through the company's free legal service. Of course (absolutely, 100%!).

After a few more questions Happy finds out I am a journalist, and is suddenly quite hesitant to give me any more answers. He does however say I will be receiving an email and a call back from him in an hour. I got neither and have not managed to get through to Happy since.

South Northamptonshire Council:

I give the council a ring and am directed to Ken Vaughan, who deals with planning permissions in the area. Ken is able to highlight just how big the problem really is, with this particular company and various other names (apparently they change them a lot) selling plots of land in various areas where planning permission is restricted.

Ken said: “It's unbelievable what sort of scale the problem really is now.

“The plots in the Esketh Estate in Towcester were bought overnight, and there's absolutely no chance of them getting planning permission.

“Well, I say no chance, but anyone looking to buy these plots can be given six reasons why it would be refused.”

Not only are the plots unsuitable for development, but they are lying unused and empty, neglected by their owners.

Ken said: “They are turning into an absolute eyesore. And when you have 48 different owners, how on earth legally can we stop this.

“People in South Africa are buying these plots. You can serve a section 215 notice, (untidy notice) in an attempt to get them to tidy it up, but who do you serve when a lot of the owners aren't even in the country?”

“And then if we can't get in touch with anyone, the Council have to compulsory purchase the land.”

Ken told me that although the police had been involved and had investigated the sales of the plots of land, there was little they could do to stop more plots being sold.

He said: “It turns out it's just verging on the edge of legal, so there's nothing they can do.”

More lies:

Happy also told me that 40,000 homes were planned to be built in the Towcester area over the next 12 years. Although this part may be true, Ken tells me that the land for those homes has already been approved and set aside, so to imply otherwise is genuinely misleading and deceptive again, on the company's side.

The company number, mentioned on the company's website, is registered to a limited company which I can provide details for if asked.

The Bromley address belongs to an accountancy firm called – well again, I have all the details to hand, including their address and telephone number.

When asked where the company was physically located, Happy first tells me Bristol, and then gets mixed up and tells me London.

The London address belongs to something called the ‘Executive Office Group' which both rents out physical office space and ‘virtual offices'. When asked whether the company is actually physically based there, I am told ‘that is the office, yes'. A couple of differently phrased questions later, I still don't get an answer either way.

The End?

Further contacts and details are all at hand, so why am I posting this here? Because honestly, I hit a dead end and failed to successfully get in touch with any of the people who'd bought the plots, despite looking some of them up on the UK land register. I didn't feel like a letter would be welcome, and besides it'd just be opening old wounds for the people involved.

I have however, sent the original document with all my findings, to Watchdog. Watch this space.