Jan

Isn’t it time the UK’s cowboy ‘property academies’ are chased out of town?

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A BBC investigation into one company following the suicide of a ‘student’ who sank £13,000 into debt after attending one of its courses, may be the tipping point for government and industry action.

For many years property investment training ‘academies’ have
been busy touting themselves as a quick-fix solution for those either looking
to pay off debts, ‘get rich quick’, or invest in property with very little cash.

But while many property ‘bootcamps’
and “masterminds” offer legitimate courses for wannabe landlords and
buy-to-let investors, too many are thinly disguised scams that tread a thin
line between legality and fraud, aided by a total lack of industry regulation
or oversight.

For over a decade some industry
communicators such as propertytribes.com, Paul Shamplina and more recently
Cyril Thomas’s Property
Investors Bureau (PIB) have been putting the activities of
the “wealth creation” industry under the spotlight.

Property Tribes has fended off numerous legal challenges
over the years for allowing substantiated commentary within its
forums, thereby creating a community-generated due diligence resource.

Meanwhile PIB is attempting to bring
together the legitimate operators into one organisation and freeze out the
cowboys.

And then, on 18^th January,
the BBC’s Inside Out investigation team broadcast a programme looking at
property trainer Samuel Leeds.

About three years ago Leeds struck out by himself and has gathered
a 100,000-fan following on YouTube, promising to ‘change people’s financial
lives forever’ via his Property Investors website, books, videos and courses.

But the BBC programme highlighted the tragic case of Danny Butcher, a former soldier who killed himself after trying to clear his debts by enrolling on a £13,000 course run by Property Investors.
Although his story of deepening debt and despair is saddening, it is not unusual, and Property Tribes has told LandlordZone that they are constantly contacted by people seeking redress.

Often, they have paid significant sums to trainers and
mentors and then find that they have nothing to show for it and/or the training
promises have not been fulfilled.

Property Tribes community started raising concerns about
Samuel Leeds back in mid-2017 and there is a thread over 90 pages (with over
950 comments) about him.

These document the experiences of former mentees along with
other due diligence based insights as to the credentials of Samuel Leeds to be
offering property training.

But the industry also has a dark side – anyone, including journalists,
commentators and former clients of companies like Property Investors, have
faced aggressive and both legitimate and illegitimate attempts to frighten them
into silence or get negative social media commentary removed.

“Their industry is in a mess and, because of the high
transactional nature of property, it will always attract ego-driven sharks,”
says Nick Tadd, the co-founder of Property Tribes.

“The problem is that these courses can be ramped up very
quickly and draw 1,000 people into a room and then convert 100 to courses at
£10,000 – £15,000 each, but it’s very hard to then deliver the training needed
for mentees to succeed, and see it through.

“Furthermore, many of the mentees do
not actually have the financial position to get involved in property in the
first place, either not having deposits and/or not being able to access BTL
finance,” says Tadd.

Time is running out as the Government now has the ‘wealth
creation’ industry on its radar. For the legitimate ones, there is now an
opportunity to shine and address the issues with their industry and agree to
work to more professional standards.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people are losing fortunes to the
rogues and are suffering with few if any routes of redress.

Paul Shamplina, who has been involved in
setting up the PIB, says: “This
property education industry now has to take a hard look at itself and the good
ethical trainers separate themselves from the ‘self-confessed gurus’, who are
hard selling to people, some vulnerable but who should not be sold a course in
the first place.

“Property
education is essential, but only if it’s taught properly. At the moment there
is no redress for the public and I’m delighted the Property Redress Scheme is stepping
in to offer it.”

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