Crown Land Securities

tractor-boy_2

Stay away from these companies, at the moment there are in the region of 50 so called land banking companies eg. CLS operating in the uk and around 30 are being investigated by the DTI and FSA.

ajaa

I applied for a competition to win £10,000 of land from a company called Crown Land Securities and from this I received a Call and they tried to sell me some land near to Tumbridge Wells. I decided to go down to see the land and the address they gave me was slightly different to the Purchase Order they sent me!. I used my Tom Tom for the Post Code and it took me 2 miles from the actual Village that they had provided me the Address for - which was a village called Ashurst!. The Village did not have a Pub as they stated was next to the land, but the Address was clearly in this Village!.

He did not answer my Question about using my own Lawyer to do the Paperwork and he never answerd that one and was hesitant about this. Also wanted me to pay for all of this within 10 days which is very hard selling at the best of times. Also the documentation provided on the Land was poor, with no documents from the Land Registre, No plans of the break down of the plots in this land and no proper survey reports and environmental reports and surveys.

The killer is their Head Office Address, as he wanted to meet me but at a later stage and after my purchase (pushing for 10 days completion on). This was stated as 95 Wilton Road in London and I went to this address and it was a Stationery Shop with masses of private P.O Boxes inside. This is not mentioned in their Address at all and so they are clearly hiding lots of things.

This is their Plan - Buy lots of Big Plots of Land and sell them in small plots with no information about the Plot and for a massive Profit. I have bought a piece of Land through Scala Land and I have been to see them in the City and they are extremy impressive and this lot are just cowboys in comparrisions. They also informed me that it will take 4-5 years minimum to receive planning permission on and the Crown mob were saying 18 months!!.

Do not Buy from them, as when I raised some of my above questions - I never heard from them again!!.



Alan :mad: :mad:

Rayos wrote: »

Hi - my first post on here. I was browsing the Daily Telegraph website and saw a banner ad for Crown Land Securities www.crownlandsecurities.co.uk and a competition to win some land. So I entered. Have now had a salesman ("Senior Portfolio Advisor") call me and explain the deal (£8000 for a small plot of land without planning permission). This is termed Land Banking and investors gamble on planning permission being granted. I wanted to ask if anyone has used this company or heard anything about them. I feel this may be a scam, but the fact that this was via Telegraph site makes me wonder. Many thanks for any responses.

ajaa

I applied for a competition to win £10,000 of land from a company called Crown Land Securities and from this I received a Call and they tried to sell me some land near to Tumbridge Wells. I decided to go down to see the land and the address they gave me was slightly different to the Purchase Order they sent me!. I used my Tom Tom for the Post Code and it took me 2 miles from the actual Village that they had provided me the Address for - which was a village called Ashurst!. The Village did not have a Pub as they stated was next to the land, but the Address was clearly in this Village!.

He did not answer my Question about using my own Lawyer to do the Paperwork and he never answerd that one and was hesitant about this. Also wanted me to pay for all of this within 10 days which is very hard selling at the best of times. Also the documentation provided on the Land was poor, with no documents from the Land Registre, No plans of the break down of the plots in this land and no proper survey reports and environmental reports and surveys.

The killer is their Head Office Address, as he wanted to meet me but at a later stage and after my purchase (pushing for 10 days completion on). This was stated as 95 Wilton Road in London and I went to this address and it was a Stationery Shop with masses of private P.O Boxes inside. This is not mentioned in their Address at all and so they are clearly hiding lots of things.

This is their Plan - Buy lots of Big Plots of Land and sell them in small plots with no information about the Plot and for a massive Profit. I have bought a piece of Land through Scala Land and I have been to see them in the City and they are extremy impressive and this lot are just cowboys in comparrisions. They also informed me that it will take 4-5 years minimum to receive planning permission on and the Crown mob were saying 18 months!!.

Do not Buy from them, as when I raised some of my above questions - I never heard from them again!!.



Alan :mad: :mad:

Rayos wrote: »

Hi - my first post on here. I was browsing the Daily Telegraph website and saw a banner ad for Crown Land Securities www.crownlandsecurities.co.uk and a competition to win some land. So I entered. Have now had a salesman ("Senior Portfolio Advisor") call me and explain the deal (£8000 for a small plot of land without planning permission). This is termed Land Banking and investors gamble on planning permission being granted. I wanted to ask if anyone has used this company or heard anything about them. I feel this may be a scam, but the fact that this was via Telegraph site makes me wonder. Many thanks for any responses.

si-mate

ajaa wrote: »

I applied for a competition to win £10,000 of land from a company called Crown Land Securities and from this I received a Call and they tried to sell me some land near to Tumbridge Wells. I decided to go down to see the land and the address they gave me was slightly different to the Purchase Order they sent me!. I used my Tom Tom for the Post Code and it took me 2 miles from the actual Village that they had provided me the Address for - which was a village called Ashurst!. The Village did not have a Pub as they stated was next to the land, but the Address was clearly in this Village!.Alan :mad: :mad:

There was a pub in Ashurst but it went many years ago. Land is only worth agricultural money (up to £8,000 for prime grade 1 arable) unless there is planning permission already granted or there is a good chance that permission would be achieved.

planning_officer

HenryJames wrote: »

The sites are well identified and researched.

Absolute rubbish. And yes, I do know what I'm talking about - I have had many first hand experiences of these companies in my job. They buy up agricultural land and sell it at vastly inflated prices - if this land ever had a good chance of gaining planning permission for development, it would have been bought by a major developer, but in reality these areas of land are NOT well researched - they are often in Green Belts, AONBs etc and very poorly located for new development. As long as the companies are not promising that planning permission would be granted, they are acting on the right side of the law - although in my opinion it's a highly dubious practice and pretty unethical. The fields in question then get left unattended by the new owners, becoming overgrown and unkempt. It's a very sad and moneygrabbing practice that leaves unwitting people out of pocket, owning useless bits of land in the middle of a field and it severely degrades the state of our countryside.

There have been many instances of such companies buying land in the District I work in and I've had the honour (?!) to investigate them all - they are ALL in such poor locations, in the middle of nowhere, in AONBs, attractive countryside, all of them in the Green Belt, and miles away from public transport links - in short, extremely poor locations for new houses and I can safely say they would never stand a realistic chance of being granted planning permission.

One of these companies had a stall at the Ideal Home Show a couple of years ago and they were raided by the DTI: http://overseascafe.com/OverseasDetails/Advice.aspx?Article=e131b6ca-f9ab-47c1-b595-063f03cc973a

Whilst they're not a 'scam' they are highly dubious. Always speak to the local planning authority before ever considering buying such a plot!

planning_officer

Just noticed this ridiculous post earlier in the thread!

HenryJames wrote: »

You are clearly not a believer in this. That is ok.
It works ...

No it doesn't! Well, only for the sellers of the land... does that give away your identity?

HenryJames wrote: »

By the time building starts I already have my return! and yes several sites have been granted PP.

Rubbish!! To reinforce Doozergirls's post earlier, there is NO evidence that ANY of these 'divided' sites have EVER been granted planning permission. Perhaps you would like to tell us where these imaginary sites are?

HenryJames wrote: »

I am intitled to my opinion just as you are. You think this system does not work, I know it does ...

Again, it only works for the people selling the land - it makes them rich, but does nothing for anyone else. The new owners are duped into buying these plots (the marketing of the plots is largely directed at ethnic minorities in East London - at least, that's where all our informal enquiries come from). The neighbouring land owners have to look at overgrown and disused land in the future and the local planning authority are faced with huge difficulties in pursuing any enforcement action - due to the huge numbers of (new) land owners involved! If you think any of these sites in the open countryside and in Green Belts are ever going to get built on, you are sadly deluded my friend.

I repeat, it's a very unethical practice.

planning_officer

Another interesting article here for those that are interested. The UK's biggest landbanking company has been declared illegal by the FSA!

http://www.planningwatch.org/?p=23

Oh, HenryJames - I notice the haydenjames website is no longer operational.... hmmm - Also, would you like to explain this quote from the above article:

"More than 4,500 people were persuaded by UKLI to invest £69m in small plots of land, none of which has been given planning permission. They paid around £15,000 for each plot, some of which have been valued at a few hundred pounds."

Yeah, of course it works :rolleyes:

planning_officer

HenryJames wrote: »

... don't just listen to some guy on this site and who has no idea of what he is talking about.

er, pot... kettle...

ajaa

I applied for a competition to win £10,000 of land from a company called Crown Land Securities and from this I received a Call and they tried to sell me some land near to Tumbridge Wells. I decided to go down to see the land and the address they gave me was slightly different to the Purchase Order they sent me!. I used my Tom Tom for the Post Code and it took me 2 miles from the actual Village that they had provided me the Address for - which was a village called Ashurst!. The Village did not have a Pub as they stated was next to the land, but the Address was clearly in this Village!.

He did not answer my Question about using my own Lawyer to do the Paperwork and he never answerd that one and was hesitant about this. Also wanted me to pay for all of this within 10 days which is very hard selling at the best of times. Also the documentation provided on the Land was poor, with no documents from the Land Registre, No plans of the break down of the plots in this land and no proper survey reports and environmental reports and surveys.

The killer is their Head Office Address, as he wanted to meet me but at a later stage and after my purchase (pushing for 10 days completion on). This was stated as 95 Wilton Road in London and I went to this address and it was a Stationery Shop with masses of private P.O Boxes inside. This is not mentioned in their Address at all and so they are clearly hiding lots of things.

This is their Plan - Buy lots of Big Plots of Land and sell them in small plots with no information about the Plot and for a massive Profit. I have bought a piece of Land through Scala Land and I have been to see them in the City and they are extremy impressive and this lot are just cowboys in comparrisions. They also informed me that it will take 4-5 years minimum to receive planning permission on and the Crown mob were saying 18 months!!.

Do not Buy from them, as when I raised some of my above questions - I never heard from them again!!.



Alan

BillTrac

ajaa,

we heard you the first time..lol