Buying house scam

Binho

Hello all...

I’m here seeking help, about a year ago a meet someone offering to be a mediator on getting me a house kind a agent, so he showed us the house we are meant to buy, requested all the papers to send to his broker for mortgage arrangements. Off course at cost where he requested 40% deposit to hold the property up front and the rest when signing the contract, mortgage papers etc...

Here’s where the nightmares begins, I made a deposit into a LTD company account, since then, all I hear is we are working on it, eventually when this person picks his phone up. Probably once every 30 attempts.

I don’t know what to do, at this point I only want my money back is there anything I can do to enforce that?

Please help !!!!! Any questions I’m here... thanks in advance

ThePants999

Short answer, you're probably stuffed. I can't overstate how unwise it was to transfer a large sum of money to a third party. Legitimate property transactions are conducted through solicitors, not "mediators" - people you can actually trust to send your deposit to. Chances are, this is going to be an extremely expensive lesson for you.

Now, I might be wrong, and I desperately hope I am, so all you can do for now is:
- send a letter stating that you wish to cancel your arrangement and requesting the money be returned, giving a reasonable time limit and warning that you'll proceed with court action if they don't comply
- when that time limit's up, file in court for the return of the money. The likely outcome is that you'll win, but find that this company closes and/or has no assets left to pay you, so you don't actually get anything from winning.

parking_question_chap

How did you meet this person?
Why did you pay them 40%?
Was it this chap?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA3zhzT1wDo

supa34

Wow, have you never purchased a property? You never pay any company or seller. You pay your solicitor who puts it in a holding account and transfwrs it once it's been sorted. I'm afraid you got conned. Contact the police and try to claim back what you can if it's still in the country.

Jonbvn

OP. Was this in the UK? Sounds like it wasn't.

theartfullodger

What paperwork do you have? Contract, receipt, email, anything?

Was it a very cheap price (if so you should have realised likely dodgy).

Do land registry deeds confirm company owns the property? (Only costs £3 online, 5 minutes)

Sue the Ltd company through the courts, if they exist, using details on companies house.

AdrianC

theartfullodger wrote: »

Sue the Ltd company through the courts, if they exist, using details on companies house.

Oh, look, they've just been dissolved, and you're an unsecured creditor - but they have zero assets.

babyblade41

I'm sorry it looks like you have lost a serious amount of money but really???
If you are completely unaware of what buying a house entails then maybe you should try renting until you get more au fait with the system.

You obviously hadn't applied for a mortgage so not sure what this OP is about and possibly not UK based

davidmcn

Binho wrote: »

I’m here seeking help, about a year ago

A year ago? And you've only just realised there might be something fishy going on?

Parkingfines

Wind up thread?

macman

OP is indeed in the UK based on his other thread re parking problems (which seem to pale into insignificance compared to handing over a 40% house deposit to some bloke he bumped into who kindly offered to help him buy a house).
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5945203/cel-vs-myself-moving-to-court