General (main property discussion here) - PPP - any good eggs?

Hi there

As mentioned in other thread, trying to expand portfolio at the mo. I've found one sourcing agent who (apparently, according to someone else) was involved in the PPP debacle in that he was working for PPP at the time.

Does anyone know the history of what went on please? I don't want to get stung, but in the same way don't want to tar everyone with the same brush if it was a couple of bad guys spoiling a good thing!

Any feedback warmly received.

Phil

Not entirely sure about the full history of this.

Basically they took £30k from investors, bought a shabby house for £15k and out of the remaining £15k paid them a rental income from a non-existent tenant for 6 months and then said the tenant had left. Pocket the difference.

I have heard of a couple of companies that are related in some way - I think they are set up by former PPP salesmen.

Probably shouldn't name names but watch out for Academic, Indigo and Blandford Estates. I think that's right, I heard it from a pal and he knows his onions.

do your research ?

Thats what I am trying to do ?

Article on PPP if any help....

From the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) website:

http://www.rics.org/res/ebrief_2004_march.html#1

Property scam ended following government probe - March 04.

A company operating a £100 million 'buy to let' investment scam has been wound up following a DTI investigation.

According to a DTI statement, issued yesterday, Practical Property Portfolio and associated companies promised investors returns of 15 per cent per annum in return for sums of up to £18,000.

The companies, in which John Potts and Eric Armstrong were the main directors, took the money in return for a promise to buy properties which the company would then refurbish and let out to tenants on housing benefit claims. The company said it would collect the rent on behalf of investors. Properties were to be remortgaged following renovation, with the capital used by investors to build up a portfolio of properties.

However the DTI investigation revealed that out of the approximately 4,000 properties sold to over 1,000 investors, half were neither tenanted nor refurbished and many were uninhabitable. Investors contacted the DTI after discovering that the homes they had bought were boarded up.

The companies failed to contest the DTI's petition in the High Court this week. Practical Property Portfolio Ltd, PPP Ltd, Napeer (Holdings) Ltd, PPP (International) Ltd, Napeer Housing Ltd, Bluebell Housing Ltd, Bluebell (Maintenance) Ltd, Let Protect Ltd, Aaron de Vere Ltd, Gold Medal Construction Ltd and Janspeed Consultancy Ltd all wound up in the High Court. A company operating a similar property investment scheme, Deneside Developments Ltd, was wound up in the public interest after a contested hearing in the High Court in London on 2 February 2004.

good egg? you must be joking!

This is an old thread but I just have a few pence to add to this. Some of the PPP crowd just moved to Deneside Developments in Newcastle. They went belly up (shut down by DTI). Of course, in the same office was Castle Residential Developments. Property-sourcing/refurb etc... Robbers. They shut down and moved all assets to Castle Residential Services. All in the same office. They were closely linked with Blandford's estate agents. Funnily enough, they shut down. All of the above either owe money or are wanted for various unusual dealings. But of course, because it's a different company, they get off scot free.

Why the rant? well I got done by them, if only because they couldn't refurbish their way out of a paper bag. I'm having to do it all again. Some people/investors however, got nothing.

- Chris