Car Park Investment - Is it a Scam?

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  • Katiewhy2
    Katiewhy2 Posts: 76 Forumite
    Hi, has anyone else invested with Group First / Park First and initiated the buy back option?
    How are you feeling about it?
    How long have you been waiting?
    I have started a facebook Group called
    'Group First car parking Investment'
    I was wondering whether there are other people out there and we can form a sort of support group- For ourselves but also to stop anyone else being caught up in this , what for me can only be termed a nightmare.
    Please pop on over and 'like'the group and I'll be in touch.
  • Katiewhy2
    Katiewhy2 Posts: 76 Forumite
    Yes we own individual plot numbers in a car park in Gatwick. We had deeds and land registry documents etc as you would if you were buying any other piece of land.

    Thats why I want to get a list of other investors to see how many people are out there that would like to sell their spaces- I tried to sell privately before the early redemption buy back option was on offer.

    I have now done a legal exchange of the deeds, back to Group / Park First- so they now have everything- my money, the interest that I would have received if I hadn't done the early buy back option, and the deeds- I have nothing (well solicitor has copies obviously)
  • Malthusian
    Malthusian Posts: 10,898
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    edited 4 October 2018 at 8:38AM
    The deeds are worthless (they are for a piece of land which nobody wants to buy and generates negligible yield) so you had nothing before and you have nothing now. Sorry to be blunt, but I'm not trying to make you feel worse, entirely the opposite. Unless you were advised to invest by an FCA-regulated adviser, you will probably be happiest if you assume the money is gone and treat anything that is realised as a bonus.

    I'm not seeing your Facebook group but you might find more investors if you named it "Park First investor group" or similar. People are more likely to be searching for Park First than the name of the holding company.

    Be exceptionally on your guard for fraud recovery fraud if you are going to solicit contact off-forum. There is every chance you and the other investors in your group will be contacted by people claiming you can get your money back, but first you need to pay "legal fees" or "liquidation fees". Needless to say you will never see this money again.
    Would it be possible for the "owners" of these plots to get together and sell the whole car park as one? Then just divide the money up?

    The "whole" car park is still owned by Group First and Toby Whittaker so the answer to that is almost certainly no. Even if every single space is owned by investors and even if 100% of them clubbed together, Group First and Whittaker still own the lanes between the spaces, the fencing, the barriers, and the whole infrastructure that surrounds the spaces. I have not seen the leases so I am speculating to some extent, but I would be very surprised if I am wrong.

    If you have a building divided into two flats owned by two leaseholders, they can't just band together and take the freeholder's property for nothing.
  • Katiewhy2
    Katiewhy2 Posts: 76 Forumite
    Thank you- I am hopeful - They have a legit solicitors sorting it for them-
    I'm just worried that they will go bust
  • Malthusian
    Malthusian Posts: 10,898
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    Group First's previous investment scheme (Store First, essentially the same model but with self storage sheds in place of parking spaces) had already collapsed around the same time that you invested. Park First is £30 million short of the amount it needs to repay you and other investors, according to its last accounts.

    I see little point in worrying about the fact that they are very likely to go bust, as disclosed by their own accounts filed with Companies House. They have already taken your money, don't let them take your mental health as well.
  • Glen_Clark
    Glen_Clark Posts: 4,397 Forumite
    Unfortunately Malthusian is right.
    It says 'limited' after the names of companies for very good reason.
    Most people don't seem to realise how important it is, because they never get to experience what it really means.
    “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” --Upton Sinclair
  • Malthusian wrote: »
    The deeds are worthless (they are for a piece of land which nobody wants to buy and generates negligible yield) so you had nothing before and you have nothing now. Sorry to be blunt, but I'm not trying to make you feel worse, entirely the opposite. Unless you were advised to invest by an FCA-regulated adviser, you will probably be happiest if you assume the money is gone and treat anything that is realised as a bonus.

    I'm not seeing your Facebook group but you might find more investors if you named it "Park First investor group" or similar. People are more likely to be searching for Park First than the name of the holding company.

    Be exceptionally on your guard for fraud recovery fraud if you are going to solicit contact off-forum. There is every chance you and the other investors in your group will be contacted by people claiming you can get your money back, but first you need to pay "legal fees" or "liquidation fees". Needless to say you will never see this money again.



    The "whole" car park is still owned by Group First and Toby Whittaker so the answer to that is almost certainly no. Even if every single space is owned by investors and even if 100% of them clubbed together, Group First and Whittaker still own the lanes between the spaces, the fencing, the barriers, and the whole infrastructure that surrounds the spaces.
    .

    So if First Group goes into liquidation, who does "the rest" of this car park belong to then?
  • I don't know- And can it be sold to give us back our money?
    Its a big bit of valuable land.
  • Malthusian
    Malthusian Posts: 10,898
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    So if First Group goes into liquidation, who does "the rest" of this car park belong to then?

    We're getting beyond the point at which I'm comfortable speculating.

    There may be no reason for Group First to go into liquidation. Is the money owed by Park First or its parent company? That question needs to be asked of a professional solicitor who can look at the paperwork.

    Park First does not own any car parks. According to its last accounts, it held no tangible assets (its only assets were £10k worth of "patents and licences" and £515k of debtors, mostly trade debtors). The land is presumably owned by other Group First companies.
  • Reaper
    Reaper Posts: 7,277
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    Interesting. It wouldn't be the first time all the debts have been placed with one company which can go bust and leave the assets with another. But I have no idea if that is what is happening here.
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