Reality Expansion Group / Property Mentor

[enquirer]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

You might mention to the DCA that you are about to launch legal action against the company concerned in order to recover your money (they supplied goods or services that were not supplied at all, or were not up to standard). This might not be a situation in which the DCA wishes to become involved.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

I am all ears.

Whereas they are all arse?

[charitynjw]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Whereas they are all arse?

That's just a rumour

http://www.arrse.co.uk/

(ps - that's where the idea for the 3-word day came from - why not, they nicked it from another site..........:rockon

[MissFM]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Is it this company, Steph?

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/reality-expansion-group

There seems to be only one director, Matthew Lauchlan,

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/director/1501697/matthew-lauchlan who also has sole directorship of several related companies (see link).

Have been nosing around a bit :spy: and you’re not the only unhappy bunny

http://www.property-investment-uk.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=104

http://www.yell.com/biz/reality-expansion-group-ltd-milton-keynes-5147808/

http://www.homemove.co.uk/forums/property-mentor-scam-4849.html

http://www.landlordreferencing.co.uk/discuss/community-forum/ref-free-property-mentor-courses-for-investors/

To highlight a few.

Maybe it’s worth contacting some of those that share your disillusion, with a view to teaming up for redress?

The way I think the “business opportunity” might work (in very simple terms) is, as I understand it:

- You first locate a vastly undervalued property (!) eg a repossession

- You get a mortgage (!) and buy it

- immediately - the same day - you remortgage at the real value, using the new mortgage to pay the deposit and Hey Presto! – you’ve made a fortune, within the letter of the law.

Of course, they wouldn’t suggest that you lie to the mortgagers about the purchase price (quoting the actual market value instead), as that would be fraud.

It is intriguing, that with this guaranteed system for a huge income stream, Mr Lauchlan chooses to charge others to learn his expertise in how to do it instead.

To the cynical, it looks like a pyramid.

[wales01man]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Methinks mr lauchlan will liquidate the company and start another if any legal action is won against it wonder how much he made?

[Steph63]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Thanks again MissFM...I will try to contact the other people you found and look for more...hadn't thought of doing that

[teaboy2]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Is it this company, Steph?

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/reality-expansion-group

There seems to be only one director, Matthew Lauchlan,

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/director/1501697/matthew-lauchlan who also has sole directorship of several related companies (see link).

Have been nosing around a bit :spy: and you’re not the only unhappy bunny

http://www.property-investment-uk.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=104

http://www.yell.com/biz/reality-expansion-group-ltd-milton-keynes-5147808/

http://www.homemove.co.uk/forums/property-mentor-scam-4849.html

http://www.landlordreferencing.co.uk/discuss/community-forum/ref-free-property-mentor-courses-for-investors/

To highlight a few.

Maybe it’s worth contacting some of those that share your disillusion, with a view to teaming up for redress?

The way I think the “business opportunity” might work (in very simple terms) is, as I understand it:

- You first locate a vastly undervalued property (!) eg a repossession

- You get a mortgage (!) and buy it

- immediately - the same day - you remortgage at the real value, using the new mortgage to pay the deposit and Hey Presto! – you’ve made a fortune, within the letter of the law.

Of course, they wouldn’t suggest that you lie to the mortgagers about the purchase price (quoting the actual market value instead), as that would be fraud.

It is intriguing, that with this guaranteed system for a huge income stream, Mr Lauchlan chooses to charge others to learn his expertise in how to do it instead.

To the cynical, it looks like a pyramid.

If it is a pyramid scheme then that guy may be in a whole load of shit considering various forms of pyramid schemes are illegal in the UK. The question though is - would this type of pyramid scheme be legal or illegal!

[PippaApple]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Hi Steph63,

I have only just found this site and it is very late at night so I will only write a short response for now, but would like you to know that I am on your side! I find myself in exactly the same predicament as I too joined Property Mentor/Reality Expansion Group back in January 2010. The price of the Course then was even more than you were told to pay, it was £8000! I did not gain anything from the Course except for meeting some nice people and having some great meals at the hotel! I could not afford to pay this amount of money upfront so I had to sign a Credit Agreement to pay by monthly installments. I stopped paying after about a year so I, like you also got some threatening letters. After a while the letters stopped for about 2 years so I thought perhaps they had either forgotten about me or that they had stopped trading! Only within the last two months of this year 2013 have they started chasing me again for money! I have had letters from DebtSolve asking for £7,500 and threatening to take Court Action etc. I am also not sure what to do for the best as I can not afford to go to a Solicitor and I am on Job Seekers Allowance at the moment and have No Savings left at all to pay, not only that but I do not wish to pay as I did not feel the Weekend Course was worth £800 let alone £8000! I am sure we are not the only ones with this problem and I feel that there is strength in numbers, when trying to win a case against someone. I have been trying very hard to collect information together in a folder as a Case against Property Mentor. I will write more hopefully tomorrow. I would also like advice and how should I contact you because when I signed up to this site it was advised I do not use my real name or show my email I think. I can appreciate why but is there some way off this Forum? I would like to stay in touch as I am a bit worried about it all because I do not want Debt Collectors turning up on my doorstep! I have rather a lot to say on the matter!

[labman]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Firstly check to see who your credit agreement is with. Property Mentor was dissolved then reformed, so if with them, that may affect things. Reality Expansion Group Limited has been going for 8 years and seems above board.

I think your best option here is to go to a solicitor to see if there are any legal loopholes you could exploit, or alternatively see if your are able to rescind the contract for misrepresentation. :beagle:

[teaboy2]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Firstly check to see who your credit agreement is with. Property Mentor was dissolved then reformed, so if with them, that may affect things. Reality Expansion Group Limited has been going for 8 years and seems above board.

I think your best option here is to go to a solicitor to see if there are any legal loopholes you could exploit, or alternatively see if your are able to rescind the contract for misrepresentation. :beagle:

As they were providing a service commercially, then the course would fall under the The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 would apply - Question is was this miss-sold, e.g significantly not as described - they'd have a tough time persuading a judge that it was worth £8,000 for a weekend course.

[charitynjw]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Hi PippaApple, & welcome to Legal Beagles.

At the beginning of this thread, Steph alluded to REG giving advice which is not just immoral, but potentially illegal.

This may be an area worth looking at, as illegality may well void any contract.

[PippaApple]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Thanks for all the help. I must say I find it a bit worrying that Steph has not posted anymore on here since 4th July 2013? I wonder if she is still getting hassle from Debt Solve. It appears that she must have signed up to a Property Mentor Workshop before I did as the price was cheaper! DebtSolve rang my mobile number today but I ended up just cutting them off, then I got a text message, saying ' Reality will take you to court if we can not sort this, please confirm if you wish to enter a payment or for us to pass back for court action? They do know you have a financial interest in your property' (02/10/2013). I don't quite know what they mean by the last sentence? I own my house 'outwright' without a mortgage, so I do not know if they mean they can do something nasty like try to sell the roof over my head?

Again any advice would be much appreciated

[wales01man]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Think the last sentence means you have assets beware they may try to bankrupt you seek advice quickly before they escalate their actions.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Get professional legal help, via the National Pro-Bono Centre (link)

As with most other crooks, once they realise they'd have a fight on their hands, they'll soon bugger off to bother someone else.

The other possibility concerns the credit agreement. With which company was it agreed and was it specifically used to pay for the putative course?

[PippaApple]

Re: Could do with some advice, please

Thanks again for all your help. In reply to CleverClogs answer, I am having trouble finding a copy of the Credit Agreement so can not check what it actually says. I don't know where I can easily get a copy of the Agreement from? I have had to write to Reality Expansions asking for a copy of the Agreement that I originally signed! I can remember signing an Agreement when I went to the two hour free taster session for Property Mentor at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Cambridge, or rather the outskirts of Cambridge. That 2 hour course was run by Peter Franklin who seems to be Mathew Lauchlan's business Partner. There were only two people that turned up to the course which was held in December in 2009 in the snowy bad weather. Myself and another youngish chap. All I remember is that Mr Franklin said if I signed up for the Full Two Day Course 'Today' I would get a discount of a few hundred pounds, (which I never actually got). I felt very 'rushed' through the agreement which was given to me at the very end of the two hour free session. I could not actually read the small print not without glasses and there was rather a lot of it. I now feel, looking back that this was very wrong of Mr Franklin to rush a person through signing a Credit Areement like this, just because he probably wanted to be on his way back home after the session etc! I expect I should have heard 'Alarm Bells' then but just didn't! As far as I can remember the Agreement said Reality Expansions I think, but I find this quite confusing because they call the 2 day Workshops, 'Property Mentor Workshops'. They call the monthly sessions down in Milton Keynes 'Reality Expansion Events', so they appear to use both names to trade under. I have never been to the monthly sessions as I can not afford the expense of getting there and back; it costs a whole months Job Seekers Allowance just to get there, then I would need somewhere to stay as it is too far away.

When I signed the Credit Agreement I thought the £8000 loan was just for the two day Course but it now appears to be for all the Sessions once a month down in Milton Keynes 'for life' as well which I really did not want. This was never made clear to me at the outset. It is very inconvenient for people living further up North as it is not an easy place to get to if you do not live in the South and I think this was another complaint by other delegates on the Property Mentor Course as well. I have not got transport so have to go by train.

I just feel very mislead by these people. They advertise something about getting an NVQ to do with buying property and buy to let but there was no mention of the NVQ when I went on the two day Course in Milton Keynes. They also make out that everyone on the course will gain a 'buy to let' property within their first year of being with Property Mentor but it just doesn't happen! I have a black Zip up folder with paper work in it which is mostly just a copy of what was shown up on a screen and it does say on the front of the folder 'Property Mentor' in gold letters and www.propertymentor.co.uk.

I just can't remember being given a copy of the Agreement that I remember signing so I am now in a bit of a mess!