Episode 14 Rip Off Britain

left you feeling ripped off. think it is very wrong, what they

have done. The bank piles on charges and charges. Legally it was

right, but morally, that is where the Dow it is. You contacted us in

your thousands, by post and e-mail, stopping us in the street. I do not

always get a straight answer, they just fob you off. We are being

ripped off, big time. Whether it is a deliberate rip-off, as simple

mistake or a catch in the small print, we will find out why you are

out of pocket and what you can do about it. Keep asking the questions,

go to the top if you have to. stories, your money, this is Rip

Off Britain. Welcome to Rip Off Britain where once again we have

been investigating your stories, hearing who has left you feeling

ripped off for how you have fallen foul of sharp practices.

The financial pressures that households have experienced during

the downturn caused 1.2 million of you to abandon saving into your

pensions. Some of you have looked elsewhere to secure your future but

with devastating effects. Today we will hear how some of you

have ended up losing tens of thousands of pounds thanks to

opportunities that turned out to be different to the ones you thought

you had signed up to. In one case, the company responsible appears to

have vanished completely. Later today we will be

investigating how this man stands to lose �9,000 after an investment

did not go to plan. I have spent a lot of money and I have ended up

with absolutely nothing. And how a promise of profits from owning land

has had devastating consequences. We found out that they had not

applied for planning permission and they had effectively made off with

a lot of money. We set up our very own Pol Pot Shop where you came men

and told us your consumer concerns. Some of the stories we will hear

today are to do with putting your money into some sort of property or

land, whether it is at home or abroad. An increasingly popular

choice in this country is what is called a part home. These are

bungalows style mobile homes usually sit on private estates

where the lure of a picturesque location has convinced thousands to

sell up and take the plunge. But they are not regulated in the same

way as traditional homes and some owners have found themselves drawn

into lengthy battles with the part's management.

The John Gilmore has lived here since 1978. With the beautiful

countryside on his doorstep and the strong sense of community spirit in

the area, he expected this to be his final move. He opted to buy

what is commonly called a part home. He purchased the property but not

the land it sits on. I thought, this is a nice place, I can see my

gaze out here. When we moved here, everyone had their own fence and

that was it. This is the hanging baskets and the flowers and the

decking that I had. Four years after moving in, lie for John

changed. The brand new owners took over the site. It was not long

before they started to make changes. My place was parallel to the road.

He wanted to widen the road. Not only that, he wanted me to 90

degrees so I was in line with all the others, which they did. In the

process, John's porch and decking were demolished and rebuilding them

would cost �9,000, so he asked the company to foot the bill, but they

refused. John was astounded. It has been spoilt by the way we have been

treated. We asked the owners to comment on the way John was treated,

and the owners said that when he purchased a site it was run down

and in breach of its licence. He said he explained to the residents

what needed to be done to rectify breaches, including moving some

homes. He said he would not be responsible for moving unauthorised

extensions, and said that John was fully aware this included his porch

and the deck. But John fought back into Kay's case to court. John was

told to take down a shed that did not have proper permission, but the

company was ordered to pay for John's damage property and a legal

costs as well. John has still not received all of his money. The site

corners appeal be caught's decision and successfully. They still have

to pay the outstanding fees. I will not do any remedial work at my own

expense. As the number of people buying into this lifestyle

increases, so do the problems. This woman is on the road gathering

information from people like John. It is typical of what is happening,

pretty widespread. Does the part have a residents' association?

This woman has sent her findings to MPs in the hope that they will do

more to protect residents' right. This is a move that one trading

standards officer would welcome. Owners can increase their rounds

year-on-year if the part was kept up to the standard that it was when

people into their contracts, they are entitled to increase the fee

each year by the rate of RPI, but the problems come when parks are

neglected and the facilities and then delighted use. Residential

property tribunals came into force two naked easier and cheaper to

settle disputes, but even now, the onus remains on residents to

instigate any legal action. I would not advise anybody in the current

climate to buy a part home because even if you are certain that the

part home site operator is absolutely splendid, how do you

know whether he or she is going to have to sell up? How do you know

who will buy the site? Meanwhile, the owner of John's site says that

with the help of residents they hoped to bring this place in line

with the standard of the rest of their parts. But until that happens,

John feels that his dream retirement home has become anything

but. I cannot sell the place in its present condition. This is not a

place we are proud to living. I used to be able to invite people in,

but you're ashamed of the place now. If you're one of the 444,000 people

in the UK who owned a holiday timeshare, you have got to be

familiar with how they work. You may also be familiar with how

tricky they can be to sell on, to end the arrangement if you no

longer wanted, so when our programme heard from 50 complaints

-- 50 customers of the same company all felt trapped in their contrite,

we wanted to see if we could do anything about it, but what

happened next surprised even us. Diamond Resorts International are

one of the major players in the timeshare market. But Diamond

Resorts International is not everybody's best friend. At Rip Off

Britain we were contacted by fitted -- 50 British customers of Diamond

Resorts International and they are all saying the same thing, that

their experience falls short of the glossy standards of the adverts. We

cannot identify any of the people we spoke to, and you will see why

in a moment, but with the help of one of our research team, we can

show you this. We have had lots of it -- lots of e-mails about the

company so we decided to look into them. Most of the people we spoke

to were initially pleased with their holiday investment, but for

some, this Diamond lost its sparkle. Like most timeshare schemes these

days, rather than buying into one property, customers of Diamond

Resorts International had access to a range of exclusive resorts.

People were spending money on points, anywhere from a couple of

1,000 pounds, to hundreds of thousands of pounds. With points

came the prices of luxury holidays around the world, but there is more

money to shell out. Diamond Resorts International customers pay annual

maintenance fees for the upkeep of the resort and the amount they are

charged is determined by the amount of points they have. That is where

the trouble starts. When they signed up they agreed that their

management fees would increase with the retail price index, but we have

been hearing about increases significantly larger than that. Our

and maintenance started off at only �100, it is now more than 1,000.

Her management fees were 1004 funded and 50, now they are 2,800.

With annual fees now costing more than an entire holiday from a

travel agent, the members we heard from decided enough was enough.

They wanted out if their contracts even though it meant writing off

the thousands be spent on points, but Diamond Resorts International

were having none of it. When the colt to cancel the contract they

were directed to the small print and they realised that they were

trapped. The terms and conditions allied only four circumstances

under which customers can cancel, first, the least attractive, death.

The second, bankruptcy. You can also cancel if you're over 75, but

only if you have no transferable family members. Or if you have

medical problems which stop you from travelling. Is such a

restrictive contract fair. We need a lawyer. Through the contract

there are some interesting points. You can resign from being a member

but even if you do that, your liability to pay for things last be

on that date. There is a right for the company to sell the points to

other people if they wish, but they do not have to do that. It is

important that you look at what you are signing up to. I'm happy at the

contract, some of the customers stop paying the escalating fees. We

have filmed interviews with a whole range of those unhappy customers so

you may wonder why you're not seeing them on the screen. It is

because after we contacted the company to get their comments there

was something of an unexpected development. We gave Diamond

Resorts International a list of unhappy customers and suddenly they

all received at a letter from the company. It said that they would be

freed from their contract under one condition, they could not speak to

the media about it. So we're not using the entry views we film,

because it seems as if the people speak to us again, they could be in

big trouble. I have seen that with lots of confidentiality clauses

over the years. This one is unusual because it requires them to pay

�10,000 if they breach the confidentiality. They are saying

they will go to court and claimed �10,000 if they breached the

contract. It seems to be a deterrent in terms of stopping

people speaking to the media. Customers may not be allowed to

speak, up bat at Rip Off Britain we do not like to keep good news to

ourselves. These members will be delighted to be free of their

contract even though it does mean writing of the cash they have spent

on points. Diamond Resorts International told us they have

thousands of satisfied members and their maintenance bills come with a

their maintenance bills come with a full explanation of any significant

change, which were often due to factors outside their control, for

example, a sharp drop in the exchange rate in Europe. They

stressed that membership is a long- term commitment and if members stop

paying it impacts on everyone else. But the stress that they allow

members to cancel under certain circumstances and they have decided

that it is in the interests of the individuals we heard from to except

the cancellation of their the cancellation of their

membership. For these customers at least, Diamond Resorts

International's rigid no escape policy is no more. It goes to show

that persistence pays off and we're very happy if we have helped along

the way. Henry is an independent property

expert. He has some advice on how to invest in property safely.

Although the market is much tougher as a result of the recent financial

crisis, there are opportunities out there for the clever financial

investor. One of the problem with Property Investment Clubs is they

provide a one stop shop for property, where they provide a

source of properties to buy, the finance to date and a management

service for when you have purchased it. These three all in house should

ring alarm bells in many potential investors' mind. The current

financial climate makes it much harder to find the funds and borrow

the money in the first place to buy a property to lack, but it also

throws up massive opportunities with distressed bales and people in

difficult circumstances. -- a Big companies don't always make

things easy to understand. It can be confusing trying to work out why

you haven't ended up with what you expected. If you feel bogged down,

we have put together a booklet of advice. You can find a link to the

free guide on our website. Or, to receive a copy in the post, send an

envelope to the address we will give you at the end of the

programme. The Here's another investment that

can go horribly wrong and has already caught out thousands of

people. Between them they have lost an estimated total of �200 million.

After buying plots of land that turned out to be worthless. This

has prompted the Land Registry to warn the public of the risks of

buying land as part of a Land Banking scheme. Were you are sold a

plot of land which is claimed to have a good investment value

because it is ripe for development. All too often it turns out there is

a fat chance of that tournament ever happening which you will only

discover when you have handed over the cash.

Adrian Jones from wigan macro ran a successful chemical company for 24

years. When he retired he was hoping to enjoy the rewards of that.

My plan for the future was really to enjoy my retirement. And,

hopefully, to leave our children some inheritance. Age and have some

money to invest so when he got a brochure from a company promising

big returns, he was interested. tight and see your returns

maximised. It looked simple enough, Land Banking UK would make all the

arrangements for you to buy a plot of land. They would negotiate

planning permission for housing, and your land increases in value

without you having to do anything. The sales pitch was, once planning

permission had been gained, they would sell the land to a developer.

They expected a tenfold increase in the value of our investment.

Decided he could expect big money in the future, Adrian bought three

plots, investing �35,000. Once planning permission had been gained,

they would be sold to a developer, and we would receive about 60% of

any but left in value of the land, the other amount would go to the

company which was the incentive to make it work. Their promise was to

try, try again, until they obtained planning permission. So hopefully,

within a short number of years, the investment would come to fruition.

Land Banking UK is one of many companies selling land this way,

promising rich rewards further down the line when the site is developed.

But the Insolvency Service to investigate companies operating

against the public interest has seen too often people fall foul of

them. They are called called by persistent sales people who say

they have plots of land for sale without planning permission -- cold

called. People are duped into paying inflated prices. That is

what happened to a gin. We had bought a worthless piece of land.

The company never applied for planning permission. In 2007 we

found the company had gone into interim administration. In April

2008, we found out from the liquidator that the company had in

fact been wound up. Far from making a profit, age and had nothing to

show for his �35,000. One might think a tenfold increase was too

good to be true. It was. As a result, I suppose you could say I

was a little gullible, more than a little gullible. The thing people

should be asking themselves is why should somebody call you out of the

blue with a fantastic scheme to sell a piece of agricultural land,

because if the scheme was that fantastic, why are they offering it

to you? Chris from Worcester also took up one of these fantastic

looking schemes from land bank UK - - Land Banking UK. We purchased two

plots of land and we were told the return would be up to seven times

out investment, we were looking at �140,000 return on our investment.

Chris was horrified to discover Land Banking UK had gone into

administration. So there would be no planning permission and no

return on his investment. We were very distressed we have invested

our money and we had been cheated by Land Banking UK. We have found

that they hadn't actually applied for planning permission, they had

effectively made off with our money. The Financial Services Authority

calls Land Banking UK -- this kind of scheme paid �200 billion the

year problem. I feel there are not enough

safeguards to protect the consumer from people who are out to actually

extorts money from you. A �35,000 investment is never an easy matter

to write-off. And, that is why we continue to try to fight, and get

some satisfaction for investors, and that is why we will continue to

fight until it is resolved. We won't give up on this.

It is cases like this that have prompted the Land Registry to

reissue its guide on these schemes, with detailed advice on anyone --

for anyone interested in these kinds of schemes. You can find a

link to this on our website. Not all of these schemes are rip-offs

but we only hear about the ones that are. If you think this case

was bad, wait until you hear the one we have later on.

Still to come full on -- on the programme, sales which haven't

lived up to the height. It is a definite scam. Here in Manchester,

hundreds of people have been along to our pop art shop and there are

plenty more people waiting to tell us their stories. Let us go inside.

When Foroozan decided to invest in a timeshare property, she didn't

realise her holiday home would be so problematic.

They invited me to buy a timeshare from a company. They started to

have a timeshare as a temporary, then I had it as a prominent, now

until 2067. With high maintenance charges? Yes. I must say, yours is

not the first story I have heard. There have been some absolutely

awful examples of this selling of timeshares, thousands of people are

ruined -- it are in the position of being obliged to pay thousands of

pounds for a property which will continue until 2067. That seems

absurd. What makes it absurd is it is legal. You side something to

make it legal for them to do it. It must be you angry. We're hoping the

UK or Europe will legislate to say, people can absolve themselves of

their time share liabilities. At the moment, that hasn't come

through. I am so sorry, there's nothing in law I can see that gives

you protection at the moment. Sadly, we couldn't help Foroozan.

Let us hope by hearing her story you will not be caught out.

We have had another incredibly busy day here in Manchester. It has been

wonderful having the BBC Learning team with us, dispensing a lot of

advice to people and I got some myself.

We are asking and encouraging people to do is to maximise your

maths, then you will not be ripped off. It doesn't matter if you get

it wrong, just try. I feel I am setting myself up for

failure but I am prepared to give myself a go.

What have we got here? I am going to views these two ropes. Try to

release yourself without taking the rope off. Can we go around the

corner? That is a cheeky. The idea it is to use maps to work out the

number of moves to get yourself free.

We are getting along like a house on fire. Proving to be rubbish at

this task. Give us a week or two! The way things are going, even a

week might be optimistic. Thankfully, we have an expert on

hand to help us escape. Underneath... Through here. There

you go. Maths is fun, something we can all

do. Even if we are not very good, have a go. There are lots more

games online, lots to practise. In the real world, you are armed with

good maths skills so you won't be ripped off.

With pension payout rates crashing and the cost of living soaring, it

is no surprise that official figures show a rise in the number

of newly retired pensioners going back to work. It seems instead of

enjoying the so-called golden years, an increasing number of over 65

feel forced to return to work. Some you have tried to plan ahead by

investing your money to top up your pension. When Ian Langley did that,

his investments didn't go at all to plan.

Ian Langley is a company director. In his spare time, his collection

of vintage fire engines provides a much needed to escape from his

working life. When he is not tinkering with his engines, he

prides himself on preparing for his teacher. In 2009, the funds in his

private pension scheme were cut to half and he looked at other ways to

bolster his finances. The one thing I was aware of was property

maintained or increased its value over the years which is why I was

looking for an alternative form of investment which wasn't too risky

but which would produce a better yield than my pension funding

arrangements. After signing up to way trade newsletter, he was e-

mailed by a company called Property Mentor. They offered prospective

investors the chance to climb the property ladder and managed a

rental portfolio through a series of courses and tuition. I could

invest in property, it would produce meat a net cashflow each

month which I could use to top up my pension. From what he read,

Property Mentor or were offering the chance to make money by

investing in property. Most temptingly, the company seemed to

be saying he could do this without using any of his own money for a

deposit. I went to a taster session and it sounded plausible. The

workshop was run by the guy who roams the company. In the lead by

signing up he would be offered a profit-making investment property

within 12 months. He liked what he heard and so he paid �997 and

signed a credit agreement for �7,200 to pay for the cost of the

seminar, and the information he thought he would be getting from

them. As I drove away from the course on that Sunday, I felt I had

now done what was necessary to secure financial security for by

family. In order to secure that future, he agreed to pay the fees

in monthly instalments for six years, as well as an additional

�1,420 for demand reports giving details of properties. I was by

then convinced the system made sense. Other people had stood up

and showed all of us on the course how it worked for them. That's why

I was prepared to pay extra. With all payments in place, Ian waited

for Property Mentor to supply him with details of properties in his

chosen area. Ian didn't have long to wait. But, what he received fell

way short of his expectations. properties they were sending me

were several hundred miles away from where I live or work,

difficult to manage those properties. They all require a

deposit. The cheapest was a �16,000. Typically there were �40,000

touching macro they were �40,000. Ian was beginning to get married

and he was on the anyone. -- get worried and he wasn't the only one.

Other people on the course were getting despondent. Vienna was

convinced for if you �1,000 initial outlay, he would get a profit-

making property. Instead he has I have spent a lot of money, and I

have ended up with nothing apart from more expense. I am left

thinking I have wasted something like 18 months, and I have not yet

achieved my ambitions for financial security. To date, Ian has paid

property meant for more than �4,000 and is continuing to pay the

monthly fee he signed up to because he did not want to damage his

credit rating. Because I am involved in financial services, I

cannot do this. We contacted the company and asked them to comment

on the case. They were so convinced that the money Ian has spent with

them has been money well spent that they agreed to give us an interview.

We ask them to explain services that they provide. We teach our

delegate seven financial tools. Any one of those financial tools enable

you to buy property without spending your own money. So in a

sense you're spending money -- you are spending what we call other

people's money on property, a bank's money, alone, that type of

thing. So if he had put our techniques to the properties, he

would have been able to buy them without tying up his own personal

capital. But Ian is not convinced and he wants his money back. We'd

be company be able to give him a refund? We have given him a

guarantee which we will stand by. Any business, any product out there,

if it is delivered, even with a guarantee, why would a customer be

able to get their money back? We have delivered everything in our

contract with Mr Langley. I think we have gone way beyond it to try

and help and assist him. If our delegates put the effort into the

system, it works. If they put the effort into asking for their money

back, I would question of where their effort is being paid. There

is no suggestion that Property Mentor have broken any laws in

their dealings with the in. Ian admits he was seduced by the sales

patter and did not fully questioned the scheme before signing up. For

him, the whole experience has been an expensive washout which she

hopes others will learn from. feel like I have been suckered and

that hurts. Earlier we heard about Adrian Jones from Wigan a los

�35,000 to unscrupulous land developers. It is a staggering

amount of money to lose, but unfortunately not the highest

amount that we have heard about in this situation. Sports-mad Eric

Wright has worked since he was 14 years old. When he retired he

wanted to invest some of the money he had turned to make sure his

future was financially secure. was having a good back-up as I got

older, and not knowing naturally how your health is going to be. I

live on my own since my wife passed away so protecting my future was

important. In January 2010, Eric received a cold call from a company

called Property Partnership, based in Bishopsgate in London and not to

be confused with other companies with similar names. They were

offering him an opportunity to buy plots of land which apparently had

massive investment potential. They seemed to be kosher Randy promises

were reassuring. They made it sound so good that I could not refuse.

Eric bought a plot in Peckham for �5,000. He then paid another 25,000

for one in King's Lynn, which she was promised would be sold to

housing developer by Christmas making him a large hassle-free

profit. They said Des was going to be a good return, one of the best

sites they had ever had. -- are they said this was going to be. I

wanted to increase the money that I had and I thought this would be

ideal. Once he had laid out the initial �30,000, the company kept

asking for more and more money. Faced with persuasive sales people

and what seemed like legitimate business, Eric felt he had no

choice but to pay, and soon found he had forked out an initial -- an

extra �42,000 on top of his initial investment. They have a way of more

less pressurising you and making you see their way. They say that if

you do not act urgently you could lose all the previous money you

have invested. They say it is nearly at an end, the sale will be

going ahead shortly. By the time he handed over another �6,000, Eric

was getting suspicious. The paper work he was being sent did not

stack up and all his queries seem to be answered with more demands

for money. The final straw came when they said that in order to get

the payout that seat -- that they insisted was still coming, he would

have to shell out more cash. thought this was definitely a scam.

I said no, I will not send any more money, there is something wrong.

�78,000 down, Eric discovered that despite what he had been told, the

land he had purchased had no planning permission. As Larry

Russen, a local chartered surveyor in King's Lynn explains, this makes

the land virtually worthless. lander derricks owns is probably

worth only around �500 because it does not have planning permission.

-- At the land that any cones. The council is considering whether the

area should be given residential planning permission, but that is

not guaranteed. When he realised this, and it asked the Property

Partnership for his money back. said he was not happy and he wanted

his money returned. I have not had any reply for them -- from them.

This gets worse. Rip Off Britain did some investigating and

discovered that ownership of the property in King's Lane was never

even transferred to Eric. It seems that he has been sold other pieces

of land around the country. He cannot complain to Property

Partnership because they have gone into liquidation. In the meantime,

78-year-old Eric has lost his life savings. It is all right looking

back on these things, saying, I would never do that again, and I

would never do it now, but I was gullible to taking everything they

told me. We did try to cop it -- we did try to contact the Property

Partnership, the company that took such massive sums of money from

Eric Wright. We sent them a letter, but it came back marked, Return to

sender. We have tried other avenues to get in touch with them, but to

all intents and purposes, it seems that they, like the money, have

simply disappeared. But we will keep trying.

According to the FSA, landbank schemes are �200 million a year

headache for them. According to them the perpetrators are using

ever more aggressive than criminal methods so no wonder, as we have

seen today, that so many of our viewers have been conned by these

schemes. But what is the FSA being to combat this? I have come to

their headquarters in Kenilworth to find out.

Our postbag is full of letters from people have been taken in by the

so-called land bank schemes. How seriously do you rate the problems

here at the FSA? This is one of our top priority problems. Land Banking

is in one of our top three problems. We are dedicating a lot of

resources to this. Are there any land bank schemes that people

should even consider? Have I seen a Land Banking scheme that has made

money foreign investor? No, I have not. Is it always Ali -- an illegal

activity to sell land that one day might get planning permission? No.

But we need to think whether this is a realistic prospect. Is it

likely that a large house builder will buy land from you and 99 other

people who are all owned land and plots in a field or are they more

likely to deal with one person, farmer or landowner? These

companies are feeding off stories in the media about to show a --

about a shortage of housing in the UK. They make themselves sound like

the real deal, like proper investment advisers. They do not

come across as conmen. What chances there of people who have been

fleeced getting their money back? It is very unlikely, I am afraid.

People lose shocking amounts of People lose shocking amounts of

money to this and other types of scams that we deal with. Why are

you not shutting them all down, you not shutting them all down,

where are the teeth of the FSA in tackling this problem? The FSA does

not allow it asked to close schemes down. If we can prove that this is

a collective investment scheme, we can go to court and we have done

several times and closed down �50 million worth of Land Banking

schemes. Where we cannot prove it is a collective investment scheme,

we have not got the powers to do that. In that case, we speak to the

police and the Insolvency Service because they have been good at

closing down 70 of these schemes. Thank you very much.

He that Rip Off Britain we have always ready to investigate more if

your stories. Confused over their bills, trying to wade through

never-ending small print at least you totally confused? I might have

been stupid for not reading it. could kick myself, I really could.

You may have a cautionary tale of your own and would be happy to

share the mistakes you have made with fast so that others do not do

the same. No one knows about this, so I would like to get this out.

You can write to us at the address The Rip Off Britain team is ready

and waiting to investigate your stories. There is so much

uncertainty over pensions that planning for your future has become

more important than ever, but it does not come without its risks.

Choosing where to invest safely can be a complicated business always

seek independent advice before you hand over any money. As we always

says he run the programme, if it sounds too good to be true, that is

probably because it is. That is all for today, we hope you will join us