ParkFirst Early Redemption - Thread for any reports of successful redemptions
luckysh0t
Posts: 30 Forumite
I invested in a car parking space with ParkFirst and have taken the early redemption option when the government ruled them unauthorised to offer a collective investment.
It's coming up to the year end when presumably lots of early redemptions will be coming due (the FCA gave them a year to complete the redemptions).
An additional factor in my case is I found out the sale never actually completed legally despite PF paying me a yield for 2 years. And so I don't need to appoint a solicitor to get my money back as it's a refund not a redemption. Does anyone know if this is legally different and offers any other protection? Despite this, I have a confirmation email dated 11/12/17 but PF say the year limit is 22/12/18. Apart from everything else, and I'll detail what I've found below, but the 22nd Dec is the saturday before the holiday period. So I'm wary of that somewhat arbitrary date being chosen with little chance of contacting people thereafter if the 'deadline' for payment is missed.
I'm posting this to hopefully find other PF car park investors who have been given a date when they should expect money to be returned to them and we can follow progress if any.
Here's a bit of background into the difficulties faced:
PF far from profitable with a government winding up order against a sister company:
https://bondreview.co.uk/2018/04/10/store-first-and-park-first-accounts-filed-42m-net-loss-31m-net-liabilities-62m-provision-made-for-repaying-park-first-investors/
history of faliing from these individuals:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34995729
Group First MD https://twitter.com/toby_whittaker
Can I also pre-empt any 'I told you so' responses so we can keep this thread as informative as possible? Thanks.
It's coming up to the year end when presumably lots of early redemptions will be coming due (the FCA gave them a year to complete the redemptions).
An additional factor in my case is I found out the sale never actually completed legally despite PF paying me a yield for 2 years. And so I don't need to appoint a solicitor to get my money back as it's a refund not a redemption. Does anyone know if this is legally different and offers any other protection? Despite this, I have a confirmation email dated 11/12/17 but PF say the year limit is 22/12/18. Apart from everything else, and I'll detail what I've found below, but the 22nd Dec is the saturday before the holiday period. So I'm wary of that somewhat arbitrary date being chosen with little chance of contacting people thereafter if the 'deadline' for payment is missed.
I'm posting this to hopefully find other PF car park investors who have been given a date when they should expect money to be returned to them and we can follow progress if any.
Here's a bit of background into the difficulties faced:
PF far from profitable with a government winding up order against a sister company:
https://bondreview.co.uk/2018/04/10/store-first-and-park-first-accounts-filed-42m-net-loss-31m-net-liabilities-62m-provision-made-for-repaying-park-first-investors/
history of faliing from these individuals:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34995729
Group First MD https://twitter.com/toby_whittaker
Can I also pre-empt any 'I told you so' responses so we can keep this thread as informative as possible? Thanks.
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Comments
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Perhaps you'll be inundated with success stories but if you're looking for others in the same boat, there's plenty more about this crowd on the "Car Park Investment - Is it a Scam?" thread further down the page....0
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An additional factor in my case is I found out the sale never actually completed legally despite PF paying me a yield for 2 years. And so I don't need to appoint a solicitor to get my money back as it's a refund not a redemption. Does anyone know if this is legally different and offers any other protection?
I'd say absolutely no other protection and in essence no different. Either way the company have your money and may be unable to give it back. If anything you may have more security if you do have a legal contract in place, no contract then I'd expect that you have zero protection as you handed over money with nothing to show for it.
I hope I'm wrong but I suspect that your chances of success are similar to those of Store First owners which was run by the same people as you've pointed out.
https://damn-lies-and-statistics.blogspot.com/2015/11/store-first-storage-pods-scam-complaints.htmlRemember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.0 -
I bought a parking place on Glasgow, and opted for the lifetime lease and have received one payment so far. However, recently we have been approached by a company called GRL - Group (based in Dubai!) who have offered to buy the parking place for £30k. Has anyone had experience of the company - are they legit?0
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Baffledinvestor wrote: »I bought a parking place on Glasgow, and opted for the lifetime lease and have received one payment so far. However, recently we have been approached by a company called GRL - Group (based in Dubai!) who have offered to buy the parking place for £30k. Has anyone had experience of the company - are they legit?
I would be very wary indeed, highly likely to be a scam
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/fraud-recovery-fraud0 -
Baffledinvestor wrote: »I bought a parking place on Glasgow, and opted for the lifetime lease and have received one payment so far.
That was brave - investing in a startup company with red ink all over its accounts in exchange for 2% per year - plus variable dividends. Dare I ask if there was any variable dividend or was it just the 2%?
I am not surprised you have received "offers" to buy your parking space. As dealer wins says, there is a high risk of it being fraud recovery fraud. This means they will string you along for a bit, then ask for "legal fees" or similar, which you will never see again.0 -
Baffledinvestor wrote: »I bought a parking place on Glasgow, and opted for the lifetime lease and have received one payment so far. However, recently we have been approached by a company called GRL - Group (based in Dubai!) who have offered to buy the parking place for £30k. Has anyone had experience of the company - are they legit?
How do they know you own a parking space? Have Park First sold on their customer list? How does the offer compare to what you paid?Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.0 -
Thanks for your comments
I believe they GRL may have obtained our name from the land registry - they also had our phone number.
Someone at Parkfirst said they suspected that GRL are scammers. I have notified the GRL offer to action fraud.
GRL appear to want legal fees up front, but say "these will be returned following the successful sale".
We have had the 2% return paid by Parkfirst up 30 June 18. The promise is an additional sum as a share of profits of the parking site when the final accounts are agreed - but no sign of this yet ............0 -
Baffledinvestor wrote: »GRL appear to want legal fees up front, but say "these will be returned following the successful sale".
When someone wants to buy something from you, the way it works is that they give you money, you don't give them money.
Parking space meet kettle.Someone at Parkfirst said they suspected that GRL are scammers.0 -
Update for you all on this and it's predictably not good.
I spoke to one of the directors this morning a Ruth Almond who came clean and said no refunds will be happening until they sell additional spaces - now including Luton in this i.e. they haven't managed to shift enough in Glasgow (where my 'space' is - remember I don't actually own anything as the sale never completed) at the new terms and so are including Luton in it too.
I've no idea what the FCA's opinion is of this but for what it's worth I've asked them. I'm also going to consult a solicitor in case there is something that can be done about a refund on a sale that was never complete.
ParkFirst are refusing to give a new 'deadline' for refunds or tell me how many units have been sold at the updated terms.0 -
If anyone gets any of their money back it will be a result.
At best this is a dodgy scheme run by idiots, at worst an outright scam.0
This discussion has been closed.
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