Opening a case with FSCS.

JKB2016

I`m after advice please.


I am looking to start a claim against a property investment company as I lost a lot of money in 2007.


The company would "Secure" deals with builders for a reduced value of an off plan property, they would then take a finders fee from the clients and introduce you to mortgage brokers to help with a re-mortgage.


So you have a property with a market value of say £150k, the company would secure a deal for say £130k and you would pay them a couple of grand for the privilege so to speak.


One of the properties I bought was in Florida , the financial crash took affect, the builders went bust and I lost the deposit that was sent to the states.


The company who introduced me also liquidated, money gone, depression ensues (!) and me and my family where left with many difficult years to try and recover to which we still haven`t fully recovered (certainly not financially).


For many years I`ve tried to push it out of my mind as I thought it was gone but a claims company has been in touch recently as they have opened cases and won for many people who lost money with this company (not sure if this is true as I`m too cynical these days). They have been taking these cases to FSCS and they take a 25% fee of any monies claimed back.


They sent me a pack of information on what I need to get together to start the claim. I jumped up in the loft yesterday,got a large box of mixed up paperwork and spent the whole day piecing together the information and to my surprise I have been able to put together a large amount of information and supporting evidence which shows a timeline of everything that happened and proof of what happened. invoices, receipts, bank statements, contracts etc


It got me thinking on what the claims companies role is in this and can I do myself what they are offering to do. If I am putting the information together will they basically package it, send it off to the FSCS and take a 25% fee. I appreciated it`s probably a bit more involved than just sending the information in but if I could do this myself I could potentially save a hell of a lot of money.


So my questions are -


Can I start my own case with the FSCS?


Has anyone on here done something like this themselves?


With me never doing something like this, could I potentially risk winning the case through lack of knowledge and would it be better to take my chances with the claims company?


Any help would be much appreciated.

dunstonh

Can I start my own case with the FSCS?

yes.

However, the FSCS only applies to regulated financial services companies that are no longer trading. The activity you describe does not sound like something done by a regulated company. The investments themselves are certainly not the type that is regulated. So, unless you received advice to do what you did from a regulated financial adviser, then you will not have access to the FSCS (nor would the claims company as all they do is send the complaint to the same address you would use if you were doing it yourself).

So, was a regulated financial services company involved?

JKB2016

Thanks for the reply.


The case revolves around a group of linked companies with one of the them being a mortgage brokerage who were regulated and no longer exist.


The investment company provided the "You just can`t lose, absolute no brainer" property deals and then passed the clients on to the recommended broker to re-mortgage the family silverware.


I`m not exactly sure yet but it looks like the directors of the investment company and the brokers were either the same people or from the same family, certainly very close ties.

dunstonh

The case revolves around a group of linked companies with one of the them being a mortgage brokerage who were regulated and no longer exist.

Mortgage brokers do not have investment advice permissions.

I`m not exactly sure yet but it looks like the directors of the investment company and the brokers were either the same people or from the same family, certainly very close ties.

That is a common scam.

I would suggest you try yourself. you dont need a claims company to do this. However, if they did not hold investment advice permissions then the FSCS wont consider investment advice cases.