"Fair and Honest Property Advice" - Are they scammers?

scriv

spyderbite.. an interesting perspective, but this is not quite the style of the 'honest whistleblower' wanting to help people.

I would not be inclined to trust any person or organisation who somehow has gained confidential data and then used it to send unsolicited emails to sell their services. And also someone whose profile is suspect on Linked-in.

All they have given us to entice us to part with £12 for an unproven service is an albeit useful and well written summary of all the issues and fees and costs which we know already and that any of us who have dealings with E&M could have provided.

Yes there is a serious breach of data here and E&M have got a problem - but I have no intention of compounding the issue and sending further info about myself to a dubious unknown identity.

robgul

What would be REALLY INTERESTING is if one of the email recipients actually bought the offered £12 panacea (with care on bank details etc) and published the contents here.

The possible upside, hinted at up-thread, is that the email contents and apparent rip-off exposures MAY get E&M to back-off on their aggressive approach.

00ec25

robgul wrote: »

What would be REALLY INTERESTING is if one of the email recipients actually bought the offered £12 panacea (with care on bank details etc) and published the contents here.

The possible upside, hinted at up-thread, is that the email contents and apparent rip-off exposures MAY get E&M to back-off on their aggressive approach.

well since you have already posted that you received the e mail the obvious course of action is that YOU SPEND THE £12 and post up its contents here yourself

the cynic in me thinks if you receive anything at all it will be obvious statements that any reasonable person could have come up with themselves anyway

kulajava

Hi - I also have a maisonette with the lease held by E&M. When I asked about extending the lease they quoted a crazy figure so I am looking into purchasing the freehold.
If anyone is in a similar situation could they PM me? Thanks

rjshook

Just to clarify - are you saying that you gave E&M an email that you only gave E&M (clarkster+em@somemail.com) and the message from FAHPA was sent to that same unique email address? If so, please ensure you make this known to the ICO and kudos to you!

rjshook

A very interesting thread. Several people have stated that they use unique emails in their registration with E&M. This lends strong credibility to a data breach from E&M by "Sarah Lane". Please file a report with the ICO.
As for the points that "Sarah Lane" makes against E&M - she is broadly correct. They are a bunch of scammers that do not pay attention to the details of your lease and use their position to leverage inappropriate fees.
it is important to note however that E&M is not usually your Landlord. They act as an agent on behalf of your Landlord.
READ YOUR LEASE CAREFULLY and understand the difference between Landlord/Lessor and Manager. They are often different and have differing rights and responsibilities. YOUR SOLICITOR MIGHT BE TOO LAZY TO CARE. So do your homework and don't be afraid to challenge your solicitor.
I have battled E&M, questioned their unnecessary fees and have won! You can too if you read and understand your Lease.
-Ryan

scriv

E&M have confirmed that there has been unauthorised access to customers' email addresses and have reported it to ICO and the police. They are investigating the issue to see how widespread it is, but believe it is restricted to emails.

Whilst agreeing with rsjhook that E&M is not usually your Landlord, but act on behalf your Landlord, they often share the exact same Directors and Officers and address and contact details - so although they are legally different entities, in reality it seems that you are often dealing with the same crew!

robgul

Googling "Tchenguiz" - and also this link brings up some interesting information about Thenguiz (the brothers) and on the intertwining of E&M with First Port (and its previous names OM & Peverel) - the link about the structure of the group companies is worth a look.

It is interesting, perhaps, that two people I know that have paid E&M fees related to their properties did NOT receive the email (despite E&M having their address) from Sarah Lane. Chance perhaps?

robgul

It may just be me but both E&M and First Port online payment systems have not worked for about the last 5 days? (FP did have a note on the payment page for a while - the others just failed the process)?? I have sent good 'ol cheques.

PatrickB

Hi Ryan, I would be very interested to know how you did this... please!