OLA - house buying company - very misleading

kipsterno1

This is the version my elderly father gets and he isn't selling his house.



I used the mobile numbers provided to find the company and its directors and sent them a text asking why they wanted to buy this house when (inserted their home address) is a much nicer house.

user1977

The referral fee for "every successful house we buy from your recommendations" makes it pretty clear it isn't just an individual wanting to buy their own home. 

kipsterno1

user1977 said:

The referral fee for "every successful house we buy from your recommendations" makes it pretty clear it isn't just an individual wanting to buy their own home. 

To you and I, yes I agree. I think the OP's point is why don't these companies just produce a, clear, leaflet and do a street drop rather that post (via Royal Mail) letters like this that might mislead some.

Martian2035

I don't get why this is a debate. It is very, very clearly intended to give an impression that is inconsistent with reality.

It's a scheme targeted at vulnerable people who might be desperate. Give them hope. Get them to call, and once you're speaking to them use every tactic in the book to make them feel they have to sell to you.

GDB2222

eddddy said:

AdrianC said:

I never mentioned it as a scam, I only mentioned that it was very misleading.

You didn't, but @eddddy used that very word.

Eh???

What the house buying company is doing is almost certainly illegal. They're breaking consumer protection laws.

We're not living in the Wild West - the law doesn't allow companies to make misleading claims and tell lies to consumers.

It's not a defence to say "It doesn't matter that we were lying to consumers, because they'll eventually phone us and find out we were lying".


And the Cambridge Dictionary definition of a scam is:

 an illegal plan for making money, especially one that involves tricking people

So "scam" seems to be the perfect description in this case.

I’m left wondering which bit of consumer protection legislation you think has been infringed?

eddddy

AdrianC said:

eddddy said:

AdrianC said:

I never mentioned it as a scam, I only mentioned that it was very misleading.

You didn't, but @eddddy used that very word.

Eh???

What the house buying company is doing is almost certainly illegal. They're breaking consumer protection laws.

Which ones?

I can't understand why you're trying to vigorously defend a scammer.


Anyway the laws...

Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008


It sounds like they're carrying out Estate Agent activities, so they'd also be breaking: 

The Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No. 2) Order 1991


And TBH, what they're doing also sounds like it could be classed as 'Fraud by False Representation' - which is an offence under the Fraud Act 2006: 

Fraud by false representation

(1) A person is in breach of this section if he—
       (a)dishonestly makes a false representation, and
       (b)intends, by making the representation—
                        (i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
                        (ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.

(2) A representation is false if—
      (a)it is untrue or misleading, and
      (b)the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading.

And "we buy any house" companies are often really just "estate agents who charge huge commission" - so there would be a pile of other legislation that applies to them - like Estate Agents Act 1979, the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008, , Consumer Rights Act 2015.

But I haven't really looked at that last list of legislation, so I wouldn't know if they're breaching any of that.


If you're interested to know more, maybe you could start here: https://www.gov.uk/marketing-advertising-law/regulations-that-affect-advertising

AdrianC

eddddy said:

AdrianC said:

eddddy said:

AdrianC said:

I never mentioned it as a scam, I only mentioned that it was very misleading.

You didn't, but @eddddy used that very word.

Eh???

What the house buying company is doing is almost certainly illegal. They're breaking consumer protection laws.

Which ones?

I can't understand why you're trying to vigorously defend a scammer.

I'm not.

Whether or not I see it as a scam is beside the point here - I'm simply asking you to back your statements up with detail.

But remember that the OP was quite adamant that they didn't think it was a "scam" - that was a word you used in your reply, and the OP distanced themself from.

Anyway the laws...

Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

I presume you're specifically thinking of "misleading omissions", section 6?

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/regulation/6/made

I think they could easily provide a solid defence to that allegation using the caveats in that legislation, especially those around space in the marketing material.

It sounds like they're carrying out Estate Agent activities

No, they aren't.

so they'd also be breaking: 

The Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No. 2) Order 1991

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1991/1032/made
...which refers back to the Estate Agents Act 1979 to define what an estate agency is... https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/38
"Estate agency work.
(1)This Act applies, subject to subsections (2) to (4) below to things done by any person in the course of a business (including a business in which he is employed) pursuant to instructions received from another person (in this section referred to as “the client”) who wishes to dispose of or acquire an interest in land—
(a)for the purpose of, or with a view to, effecting the introduction to the client of a third person who wishes to acquire or, as the case may be, dispose of such an interest..."

Introduction to a third party. Nope.

And TBH, what they're doing also sounds like it could be classed as 'Fraud by False Representation' - which is an offence under the Fraud Act 2006: 

Fraud by false representation

(1) A person is in breach of this section if he—
       (a)dishonestly makes a false representation, and
       (b)intends, by making the representation—
                        (i)to make a gain for himself or another, or
                        (ii)to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss.

(2) A representation is false if—
      (a)it is untrue or misleading, and
      (b)the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading.

Seriously?

You are going to absolutely hate a very large proportion of the rest of the advertising and marketing industries, if you think that's fraud...

All those advertorials designed to look like editorial content...
All those "lifestyle" commercials which barely mention the product in passing...
All those "47 women out of 58 agreed" cosmetic ads...

And "we buy any house" companies are often really just "estate agents who charge huge commission" - so there would be a pile of other legislation that applies to them - like Estate Agents Act 1979, the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008, , Consumer Rights Act 2015.

But I haven't really looked at that last list of legislation, so I wouldn't know f their breaching any of that.

If you're interested to know more, maybe you could start here: https://www.gov.uk/marketing-advertising-law/regulations-that-affect-advertising

No, you stated it as a fact...

What you said could easily be taken as potentially libellous to their business... I'm simply asking you to actually back that up. So far, you've produced one bit of legislation that definitely doesn't apply, one very generic one, and one that carries caveats which provide a reasonably solid defence.

eddddy

AdrianC said:

I think they could easily provide a solid defence to that allegation using the caveats in that legislation, especially those around space in the marketing material.

Really? This is all getting a bit surreal. 

You're suggesting that a defence would be "We didn't have room in the letter to say that we're a house buying company, we only had room to say that we were a local girl looking for a 1 bedroom house in Greenford".

And here's a snippet from the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 section 5.

(2) A commercial practice satisfies the conditions of this paragraph—
 
(a) if it contains false information and is therefore untruthful in relation to any of the matters in paragraph (4) or if it or its overall presentation in any way deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer in relation to any of the matters in that paragraph, even if the information is factually correct; and

(b) it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise

Presumably, they wrote the letter in the hope that it would "cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise". Otherwise why wouldn't they have said they were a house buying company?

AdrianC said:

Introduction to a third party. Nope.

Often - Yes.

"House buying" companies don't have hundreds of thousands of pounds in their bank accounts for buying houses.

They do things like:

• Find a 3rd party buyer who has to pay them a massive fee
• Assign a purchase contract to a 3rd party buyer
• Do a back-to-back purchase and sale to a 3rd party buyer.

Options 1 and 2 are clearly estate agent activity, option 3 might be questionable.

AdrianC said:

Seriously?

You are going to absolutely hate a very large proportion of the rest of the advertising and marketing industries, if you think that's fraud...

You didn't really explain why you think 'Fraud my false representation' doesn't apply to the letter.

(And FWIW, I don't hate the advertising and marketing industries.)


Thanks for the warning about libel. If Ola (the local girl from Greenford) turns up and confirms that everything in the letter is clear,  accurate and there's nothing misleading, I'll apologise profusely, and delete my earlier posts.

Gentoo365

AdrianC said:

eddddy said:

AdrianC said:

I never mentioned it as a scam, I only mentioned that it was very misleading.

You didn't, but @eddddy used that very word.

Eh???

What the house buying company is doing is almost certainly illegal. They're breaking consumer protection laws.

Which ones?

I imagine advertising, junk mail type laws.

It's not far from pretending a letter is from a solicitor when it isn't. 

AdrianC

Gentoo365 said:

It's not far from pretending a letter is from a solicitor when it isn't. 

It's a very long way. Being a solicitor is a regulated profession. Being a "local girl" is not.