£350K down the swanny

Eco_Miser

iglad wrote: »

Very sad indeed with that amount of money he should have gone to see a financial advisor, instead he or she looks things up on the internet.

Looking stuff up on the internet is a good idea.
Investing nearly all your wealth based on a single instance of what you find there is not.

Had the OP found this forum, or Monevator, or any of the other sites frequently recommended here, and invested in a well-known multi-asset fund through a well-known platform, all would have been well.
Unfortunately those funds and platforms are only well-known to investors; new-comers have no yardstick to measure credibility by.

poppy10_2

Hard to feel sorry for these gullible boomers. It's pure greed that makes them go for these obvious scams. From a generation that is used to getting money for nothing, they don't do even the most basic of due diligence before handing over huge sums of money. No sympathy

JC9

Eco_Miser wrote: »

Looking stuff up on the internet is a good idea.
Investing nearly all your wealth based on a single instance of what you find there is not.

This in a nutshell. Researching is crucial to most things in life if you want the best result.

Unfortunately, they deemed their quick and limited research as enough to make a decision. Sadly, investing such a significant proportion of wealth without sufficient knowledge or diversification will more often than not lead to a negative outcome. An extremely expensive lesson to learn.

libra10

poppy10 wrote: »

Hard to feel sorry for these gullible boomers. It's pure greed that makes them go for these obvious scams. From a generation that is used to getting money for nothing, they don't do even the most basic of due diligence before handing over huge sums of money. No sympathy

What a patronising generalisation!

Mortgage interest rates were around 12% or more, the internet, computers, ipads, mobiles hadn't been invented. Nobody had heard of tax credits, benefits etc. People received about 8 shillings per week, per child.

Yes, we certainly were 'living the dream'!

However, that is a subject for the discussions board.

eskbanker

libra10 wrote: »

Mortgage interest rates were around 12% or more, the internet, computers, ipads, mobiles hadn't been invented. Nobody had heard of tax credits, benefits etc. People received about 8 shillings per week, per child.

Yes, we certainly were 'living the dream'!

GC: House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!
TJ: You were lucky to have a ROOM! *We* used to have to live in a corridor!
MP: Ohhhh we used to DREAM of livin' in a corridor! Woulda' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woken up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House!? Hmph.
EI: Well when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a piece of tarpolin, but it was a house to US.
GC: We were evicted from *our* hole in the ground; we had to go and live in a lake!
TJ: You were lucky to have a LAKE! There were a hundred and sixty of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road.
MP: Cardboard box?
TJ: Aye.
MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!
TJ: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'
MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.
ALL: Nope, nope..

Brian65

poppy10 wrote: »

Hard to feel sorry for these gullible boomers. It's pure greed that makes them go for these obvious scams. From a generation that is used to getting money for nothing, they don't do even the most basic of due diligence before handing over huge sums of money. No sympathy

Is it greedy to put your money where you think it will earn most interest?
If so then everyone on this forum is probably guilty of that.
They were too trusting of what people told them. And a lot of very nice, good people are like that - too trusting.

Steve_321

Student Property Investment - A SCAM ?

In 2018, I purchased a student accommodation in Liverpool through Experiance Invest (Agents) for £55,000. I was contacted by Experiance Invest informing me that they had a unit for sale at a discounted price which pays 10% rental yield per annum guaranteed for 5 years. The developers were ELLIOTT GROUP (PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE ANY INVESTMENTS WHERE THE DEVELOPER IS THE ELLIOTT GROUP).

However, after just 6 months, the developer wrote to all the leaseholders that he is unable to continue to pay the 10% yield. Instead, all leaseholders will only get whatever income is generated and be liable for expenses.

It appears Experiance Invest in unable to force the developer to pay. I have so far recovered any shortfall through small claims court which the developers did not contest. However, it appears the developers are planing to close the company through which the development was sold hence not be liable for anything else going forward.

Elliott group is quite a large multi million pound company so it's not that they can't afford it.

I have only purchased the unit based on the 10% rental yield. However, now that the rental yield is null and void, can I not return the unit for a full refund? It appears there were 2 contracts signed during convaiencing, one for the 250 year lease and the other for rental yield.

I'm not sure what I should do next but I thought the threat of bad publicity for Elliot group and Experiance Invest may force their hand.

Please advise.

Malthusian

Steve_321 wrote: »

Elliott group is quite a large multi million pound company so it's not that they can't afford it.

They can't afford it. No Ponzi scheme can afford its promised returns regardless of whether it takes in millions or billions. If I take in £10 million from investors on a promise to pay them all 10% a year, and I've got no investments that actually pay me 10% after all overheads and costs, then I can't afford to pay everyone 10% on their capital, despite being a multi-million pound company.

I can afford to pay particularly determined investors a few thousand quid here and there so I can continue taking in new money without bailiffs interfering, but this will only apply to a small minority. Once new investment dries up it's time to liquidate the liabilities and reboot, which is exactly what you say they're doing.

I have only purchased the unit based on the 10% rental yield. However, now that the rental yield is null and void, can I not return the unit for a full refund?

If they can't find the money to pay 10% of your investment then they certainly can't pay ten times that.

Hopefully there is an external market (i.e. it's not just a room in somebody else's property with no external value), but even if you can sell your unit to a third party you will still be facing substantial losses.

I'm not sure what I should do next but I thought the threat of bad publicity for Elliot group and Experiance Invest may force their hand.

They won't give two spits as nobody who reads the MSE forums would go near this kind of investment.

Please advise.

You need to speak to an SRA-registered solicitor.