WeBuyAnyHouse Scam

[Candellara]

Mods - Started a new thread as couldn't delete old one - House Sales Direct

To cut a long story short, we've viewed a house, spoke to the vendor and they are happy to accept our offer price.

Phoned estate agents to formalise the offer. They reject it immediately and say that they are marketing on behalf of WeBuyAnyHouse and the vendor.

Both the vendor AND WBAY have to accept the offer. Vendor is seething and will probably refuse any further offers or viewings going forward from any WBAH viewers as they wish to now re-market with a local estate agent.

Anyone had any experience of these vultures?

[Candellara]

Mandat said:

Where is the scam?

Never heard of WBAH but their MO seems to be to buy at below market price from sellers looking for a quick sale, and then to re-sell at market price, making a profit of the difference.

I'm not sure how many sellers end up using such a service, but I can't see where the scam is?

Well, not a scam per se but let's just say they seem to employ heavy handed sales tactics and prey on the vulnerable.

The family wish to extricate themselves from the arrangement but even that doesn't seem that straight forward.

From my understanding they provide a very low valuation promising a sale within days that doesn't materialise. They market the house for current market value and scoop tens of thousands in commission

Not a scam but not particularly ethical either from what i understand

[Candellara]

505diff said:

Was speaking to someone at work about this last week, a friend of his family was selling via one of these outfits, had an accepted an offer of £250k for a quick sale (market value about £270k) as they are moving abroad, two days before exchanging contracts they pull out and then offered £180k total c*nts

This is exactly what i've heard and why i entitled the thread "scam" - maybe wrongly so. The vendors are very elderly and seem to have been hoodwinked into this contract.

[Candellara]

Doofus said:

Why don't you and the vendor just appoint solicitors and go from there? Estate agents aren't actually necessary, and what WBAH have to do with it, I can't really understand. If they promised to buy the house and then didn't, the contract with them is at an end, surely?

Can't because WBAH place some sort of marker on the Land Registry to prevent any sale privately. The vendor can't seem to extricate themselves because they've been tied into a lengthy agreement.

[Candellara]

Doofus said:

It sounds like some kind of equity release thing. I don't understsnd how a company agreeing to buy your house for less than market value can get their name on the deeds without actually buying it.

No equity release. WBAH promise to sell your house very quickly with no fees at all. So, the situation as i understand it.

Very elderly couple see advert and contact WBAH as they want quick sale. Hard sell from WBAH ensues promising sale within days etc, house valued at XXXX (£35,000 under market value) and the house is then marketed by an online estate agent who sell houses on behalf of WBAH at full commercial market value.

Viewings commence and we wish to offer. We talk about price (which they are strictly not allowed to do - engage with viewers concerning price) so we contact agent and submit an offer. They instantly reject it and won't even put it forward to the vendors. They are bound by the agreement, low valuation and both WBAH and the Vendor have to agree and accept the offer. WBAH stipulate the valuation price and any sale price over the very low valuation is their commission.

Some sort of marker on the Land registry prevents the vendor selling privately and i think the notice period is in excess of six months? There's apparently a huge amount of small print that means they can't just simply exit the agreement and place the house on the market with a normal local agent.

I personally think this is totally unethical and surely there are consumer laws to protect the old and vulnerable to getting sucked into these type of scheme?

Edited by Candellara on Saturday 24th October 16:46

Edited by Candellara on Saturday 24th October 16:47

Edited by Candellara on Saturday 24th October 16:49

[Candellara]

Terminator X said:

Why did they use them vs say an estate agent who would have no say in the purchase price?

TX.

I think the attractiveness of absolutely no fees and the promise of a very quick sale at a guess

[Candellara]

paulwirral said:

Have the WBAH outfit maybe purchased or scammed their way into what was called an " option " back in my day . Pay a deposit and have some sort of title to the property for a certain amount of time ? I'm no expert, obviously , but it used to be the norm on commercial property when the developer would be expecting a long term planning decision

I think this is the case but i'm not certain. It certainly prevents a sale to a private individual

[Candellara]

Deep Thought said:

It seems what they do is offer a very quick 7 day sale (or similar) and offer below market value on the basis that WBAH have buyers ready to pay (and WBAH get the difference).

The seller then signs the paperwork for the sale but this includes some sort of clause allowing the WBAH 6(?) months to actually complete the sale. This gives WBAH the opportunity to advertise and sell the house at market value and take a very handsome "commission" of the difference between market value and their offer price.

I think this is the case and there are clauses within which prevent the seller from selling elsewhere. It's not clear how long this is for though.

[Candellara]

Deep Thought said:

Say the house is worth £250,000. They offer £210,000 but with the promise of a speedy completion. The seller signs up. They advertise it at £250,000. Your contract with them is for £210,000 so you have no say over what WBAH accept over and above that.

Yes, but i think that the seller has a choice to accept or not accept the offers provided by WBAH

So, i think the situation will be that they either accept any forthcoming offers from WBAH and take the under valued amount or dismiss any offers or viewings from them until they can extricate themselves from the agreement and then just market the house with a local agent at the typical 1% selling rate

[Candellara]

The Spruce Goose said:

they really need legal advice, i'm sure any lawyer could poke holes in there terms.

Yep, i think you're right.

[Candellara]

m3jappa said:

Shocking really, i cant believe people like this exist.

I mean if they were actually buying it themselves for x amount and then selling themselves for more then fair enough. You want a quick sale, they buy it etc.

But this sounds like sale or return where they aren't actually buying it at all, but your then tied in.

Very very slippery and makes me feel sad for anyone who isn't switched on enough to realise that.

I imagine the money they make is enormous. 40k here, 50k there a few times a week with very little outlay.......slippery fkers.

Yep, not a scam but i do feel very sorry for anyone that gets suckered into these sort of arrangements.

They no doubt prey on the vulnerable and bloody vultures is the best way of describing them. Truly shocking that there isn't some sort of protection against this sort of underhand behaviour all wrapped up in fine print of t's and c's

[Candellara]

Condi said:

To extradite yourself from their contract costs £500 or so, but they are members of The Property Ombudsman if you want to take your complaint higher.

Edited by Condi on Sunday 25th October 15:38

Interesting. I'd happily pay the Vendor to extradite. Where did you find this information?

[Candellara]

Condi said:

Companies house/ Review website/ WBAH's own website.

Thanks chap. Much appreciated

[Candellara]

This pretty much sums them up:

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/webuyanyhouse.co....