SYH4free (sell your house for free) scam or real?

Minnymouse_2

They will have no excuse by then not to offer references etc for perusal by new Vendors.....as it is no-one knows if any sale has completed.

They ask for their 1% payment by credit card or other methods - BEWARE! There is also the possibility of them emptying your Bank Account .....

100mel

If you read through this thread I think it will tell you all you need to know - avoid this company at all costs. As previous posters have pointed out - why would someone pay 2% to a company for a house they have not seen when they can contact agent for free with properties listed on rightmove etc and why would a seller want to transfer monies to someone not authorised under FSA without any legal safeguards

In my case I asked Michael R why someone would be paying him 2% for a property in my price range which is first time buyer territory - I didn't get an answer. Property investors do their own research and contact you directly - they are at least direct in offering you 75% of asking price! - but they are not going to be paying him 2%

Sounds like one for Watchdog

Minnymouse_2

Agree totally 100Mel.. the more information people can give each other on their methods the better - so keep it coming.

Someone could be duped by them and we want to avoid that.

As long as you are being strung along by them they are quite charming on the phone! Their second batch of legal info is slightly more professionally presented too - someone must be using the spell check now!

Only by sharing information can we do something about this long term - we can just tell them to go away and protect ourselves or try and protect others as well. This is a great forum for doing that!

100mel

Agreed - if I hadn't found this thread I would not have had the benefit of learning a great deal - I got the information pack too but digital printing is really high standard these days and once again we could be taken in by this. Normally I think that I am reasonably forthright on the phone but the tactics of these people - persistence, answer to every question by taking you off into another direction do have the effect of wearing you down - putting the phone down doesn't come naturally to a lot of us and I think these people play on that by keeping you talking - I had another one call me saying that I had agreed to a survey via Michael (I hadn't but he wouldn't let go)

Frankly there seem to be so many scams around and it is only by sharing info that we can hopefully stop ourselves and others getting taken in

I'd love to sell my house but I'll stick it out the conventional way !

devondale

Hi - Yes your right the information pack is quite good, but after reading and reading it again you will find that there is no legal print in there (ie-member of, OFT, Ombudsman etc). We so nearly parted with our money, it was only by chance that we put their name in google and came to this website, we just thank our lucky stars and you guys for all the information given by yourselves. Had no phonecall for 3 days since puttin phone down on michael, maybe they have given up on us. Maybe this is one for watchdog.

Minnymouse_2

Anyone dealing with them at present - string them along for a while if you can!
Make excuses - have another local buyer coming to view, just missed out on the house you wanted to buy, difficulty in getting new mortgage etc - anything! It could be helpful for all concerned in this! They may be a nuisance ringing you but tell them Nothing about your concerns - be wide eyes and gullible like they want you to be. So long as you sign nothing and hand over no money, you are fine! You are under no pressure to do anything in a hurry....drag it all out!

CathP_2

Hi Guys - wish this forum had been in here in October before we paid out money to these people. Had nothing but trouble from the moment we paid the money - we actually tried the "our Solicitor will hold the money in their account" but got nowhere so we negotiated them down to 0.5%. Took me over a month to obtain their buyers Solicitors details. My Solicitor sent off contract but has heard nothing back - going to ring them myself on Monday to see if their client does actually exist. Also, they have not paid us the 10% fee they are supposed to pay you as a "gift" once the percentage fee has been paid and their contractual documents have been signed. Everytime I ring I get a different story. The lastest one was Friday when they tried to tell me I am not entitled to it as I only paid them half a percent - where does it say that in their contract?!! Nowhere!! My husband had telephoned them on Wednesday and was told a cheque was on its way - which I had been told on 3 previous occasions!! When I kicked off I was transferred to someone else and told he would make an exception for me, I expressed my concern that I do not believe a buyer exists - he appeared shocked and said he would investigate he didn't ring me back as promised just as I thought. I am now after hearing from another poster on here that they are being investigated by Trading Standards. I have today posted complaints to my local Trading Standards office and also to Consumer Direct. I will also be contacting Watchdog. We were due to emigrate in May but that's now looking unlikely and we will be losing more money as we have deposits for things. Lesson now learnt. If there is any news - good or bad I will post it on here. Again wish this forum was here previously - we did think we had checked every avenue. We are not normally gullible but really needed a quick sale - feel really stupid now but I refuse to let these b*st*rds grind me down.

CathP_2

Forgot to say - when we paid our 0.5% fee up front we received a receipt which stated that the money was paid to "Property Solutions" which I found out on Friday was dissolved on the 4th of January 2010! 2 months after we paid the same!

devondale

hi there cathP.
You are not gullible, you have just been took in by some very good sales pitch, good talkers. There is a lot of people out there in the same situation as yourselves unfortunately, but the more that trading standards hear of this company the better for everybody and maybe a possible chance of getting your well earned money back. Please keep us all informed on how you get on with trading standards and good luck.

100mel

Devondale is right Cath P - professional con artists which these are make us feel like idiots for being taken in - the reality is that they have refined their sales technique over a period of time so that we feel that they could really be offering something - they know how to push the buttons because after all we wouldn't be selling a house if we didn't want and need to to move on

Try not to beat yourself up - just keep pressing Trading Standards to stay on their case - you could drop Watchdog an email too via website

Don't know how close geographically you might be to their supposed address - maybe the personal touch might get a result?

Best of luck