Westminster Works - Property Development

drumbrake

I paid a deposit on property development a couple of years ago in Birmingham called Westminster Works. Google 'Westminster Works' and One Collection Group' for some information (I cannot post links).

My concerns: 
There is still as far as I know no construction taking place.
My lawyers are unable to find any information (whether it is due to my lawyer's incompetence, or something else, I'm not sure).
The One Collection Group is not replying to my emails.
The High Street Group (which I think had some connection to the development) went into insolvency earlier this year.

If the property is going to be developed, then all well and good. However, I cam concerned about my deposit.

What advice can anyone give me? If I want my deposit back (GBP50K), what can I do?

user1977

We can't read your contract from here - at what stage (if any) does it permit you to walk away? Presumably your lawyers advised you about the contract before you handed over your £50k?

If you buy off-plan there's not generally an obligation on the developer to actually carry out the development within any particular timescale, at best you'll usually get a longstop date at which point you can pull out if the building isn't complete.

RAS

This company? 

WESTMINSTER WORKS LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk)

lincroft1710

Have you tried phoning One Collection Group?

drumbrake

The target date is now 31 August 2023.
The problem is that I do not get any answer from the agent.

drumbrake

RAS said:

This company? 

WESTMINSTER WORKS LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk)

It looks like that company is connected to the development.

drumbrake

lincroft1710 said:

Have you tried phoning One Collection Group?

Not yet. I'm not in the UK.

SiliconChip

drumbrake said:

lincroft1710 said:

Have you tried phoning One Collection Group?

Not yet. I'm not in the UK.

You obviously have internet access so I can't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to make a phone call from whichever country you are in.

eddddy

drumbrake said:

I paid a deposit on property development a couple of years ago in Birmingham called Westminster Works. Google 'Westminster Works' and One Collection Group' for some information (I cannot post links).

There seems to be very little information about this - but it seems to be described as an 'Investment'. 

See: https://www.360ig.co.uk/assets/360_brochure_westminster_works_birmingham.pdf


I don't know anything about the scheme you mention, but typically when a development scheme is described as an 'Investment', it means...

... you haven't paid a £50k deposit for a flat, but instead you have paid £50k into an unregulated investment scheme - and, if the scheme does well, you'll eventually get a flat.


Unfortunately, typically these unregulated investment schemes tend to work like this:

• High-pressure salespeople try to persuade people to invest £50k each in their scheme. (They might want a total of 220 investors.)

• For each £50k they get, maybe £20k to £30k is paid as commission and fees to the salespeople and the people 'masterminding' the scheme.

• The remaining money (so maybe 220 x £20k =  £4.4m) is used to buy the land and start the build.

• All 220 investors might have to periodically pay further chunks of money into the scheme, to pay for the building work, until the building is complete. (I suspect more commission and fees are syphoned off at each stage.)

Unfortunately, these schemes tend to be super-high risk - and the 'masterminds' are sometimes more interested in getting their fees and commission, than delivering a final building.


It's bad news that one of the companies involved in the scheme has gone bust. That might mean that some of your money is lost.


But like I say, I'm just talking in general terms about unregulated investment schemes. The scheme you mention might be totally different.

drumbrake

OK, One Collection Group finally replied to me and said that they have "disengaged from the project and no longer work on behalf of the developer". 

Looking at past documentation, I can see that my name and unit number is registered with HM Land Registry.

The original developer was Theon Developments Limited, but I received a message earlier this year that Hadrian's Real Estate PLC would take over the project in July 2022.

Thanks so far to those who have replied. Is there any further advice?

eddddy

You need to look at your contract(s) / agreement(s) to see what you've agreed to.  Also, who are your contract(s) with?

You need to ignore everything the sales people told you  - it's only what's in the contracts that count.

At the moment, I'm not convinced that you've got a 'typical' property purchase contract, that you would get when you buy a 'typical' newbuild property.

Did you hire your own solicitor to check the contracts?


If your contract is with High Street Residential UK Limited - that's likely to be bad news, as they're in administration.

(FWIW, the contracts like this that I've seen have confidentiality clauses that prohibit you from posting info about the scheme on forums like this, as well as contacting the press, etc. In my opinion, it's an attempt to stop people exposing the true nature of the contracts to others.)


I see that One Collection Group and High Street Residential were based in the same building (it looks like part of a bus garage on google street view) - and they shared the same director until recently.


If I was a betting person, sadly, I wouldn't bet on this ending well for you. But maybe I'm being too pessimistic.