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Collective Investment Schemes

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Property Investment gone wrong?

We are seeing increasing numbers of housing and development schemes with ‘guaranteed’ rental income, going wrong.

We know this ecosystem and how your journey is likely to have started. You receive an email offering you the perfect property investment opportunity; perhaps a well placed advert lured you in; sometimes you might have met someone at a property networking event with something of interest; or perhaps an agent or broker introduced you to a property investment with excellent returns you wouldn’t want to miss.

The look and feel of the initial approach can vary slightly but at some point the ‘sell’ will become apparent; for a modest initial reservation fee you can secure an apartment in an ‘off-plan’ development. The terms are designed to look attractive; a good quality new development (or conversion) by/from an ‘experienced’ developer in an ‘excellent’ location. Only 50% of the purchase price is payable at exchange, 50% at completion. You can rent your apartment back to the developer (or a connected company) for a ‘guaranteed’ income. Access to capital growth and a monthly ‘guaranteed’ return with a good yield. Often, combined with high confidence in our legal system, these will appear incredibly attractive investments.

Fast forward a year later and the works haven’t been completed properly; the rent hasn’t been paid; the service charges are crippling. Sometimes the property itself isnt even inhabitable and you now face an upward battle to resolve matters.

This might be a Collective Investment Scheme (“CIS”).

Key Contacts

Alex Cook
Senior Partner
Richard Chapman
Partner
No Win No Fee Eligibility Calculator
This process takes no longer than 2 minutes and is step one in assessing whether or not we would be prepared to offer you a CFA.

This is a non binding indication whether Helix Law Ltd might be able to offer you a "No Win, No Fee" agreement (also known as a Conditional Fee Agreement, or CFA). There is no cost of obligation for using this service and each case is assessed on its merits.

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Area of work

We only enter into CFA funding agreements in relation to some commercial, property and construction disputes. We therefore need to understand what type of dispute you have so that we can assess whether a CFA might be appropriate.

We only offer No win, No Fee (CFA) funding in some commercial, property and construction disputes. We do not offer CFA funding in harassment, personal injury or housing disputes. If you are seeking CFA funding in another area other than those listed please use our Contact Us form at the bottom of this page
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Is the value in dispute more than £10,000?

This is important because typically it is only possible to recover legal costs, including costs funded on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ (or ‘Conditional Fee Agreement’), where the amount in dispute is over £10,000. If you have a dispute where your losses and damages are less than £10,000 it is unlikely we can offer you a CFA.

If your dispute is worth less than £10,000, it will typically be allocated by the Court to the Small Claims Track. In small claims usually costs are not recoverable and therefore we cannot offer you a CFA in these circumstances. There is always risk you have not fully identified the amount in dispute or you may want to consider paying us a fixed fee for fixed advice on your prospects of success and/or the process moving forwards, in which case please do contact us.
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Is the value in dispute more than £10,000?

This is important because typically it is only possible to recover legal costs, including costs funded on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ (or ‘Conditional Fee Agreement’), where the amount in dispute is over £10,000. If you have a dispute where your losses and damages are less than £10,000 it is unlikely we can offer you a CFA.

If your dispute is worth less than £10,000, it will typically be allocated by the Court to the Small Claims Track. In small claims usually costs are not recoverable and therefore we cannot offer you a CFA in these circumstances. There is always risk you have not fully identified the amount in dispute or you may want to consider paying us a fixed fee for fixed advice on your prospects of success and/or the process moving forwards, in which case please do contact us.
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Is the value in dispute more than £10,000?

This is important because typically it is only possible to recover legal costs, including costs funded on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ (or ‘Conditional Fee Agreement’), where the amount in dispute is over £10,000. If you have a dispute where your losses and damages are less than £10,000 it is unlikely we can offer you a CFA.

If your dispute is worth less than £10,000, it will typically be allocated by the Court to the Small Claims Track. In small claims usually costs are not recoverable and therefore we cannot offer you a CFA in these circumstances. There is always risk you have not fully identified the amount in dispute or you may want to consider paying us a fixed fee for fixed advice on your prospects of success and/or the process moving forwards, in which case please do contact us.
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The dispute is:

Generally speaking tenants will not own assets. That means you might ‘win’ but not recover damages and costs- even if the court orders the tenant to pay. Whereas if your dispute is with a property owner we can usually recover your costs and damages from their share of the property.

A CFA is unlikely to be workable in this scenario, but we may still be able to assist you with our services; please contact us via this page.
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Is your claim about an unpaid application for payment and/​or retention greater than £20,000?

This is important as it helps us assess the likely cost; benefit for you, and our ability to offer you CFA funding.

A CFA is unlikely to be workable in this scenario, but we may still be able to assist you with our services; please contact us via this page.
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Do you have a contract in writing or registered shares in your name?

The more evidence you have in support of your allegations, the better your prospects of success. The higher your prospects of success, the more likely we can offer you a CFA funding arrangement.

Where you lack documents in writing, there can be greater complexity. We need to review your circumstances and background in more detail before being able to consider alternative funding with you. Please provide details of your circumstances here and we will contact you - anchor to commercial sherholder form.

Is the issue arising recently or within the last 6 years at most?

All disputes are subject to limitation periods- this is the period of time in which a claim must be issued. Most limitation periods in our work are 6 years. There can be exceptions and upto 12 years is possible, but this is a factor that can increase risk to you and to us and might lead to us declining to offer a CFA. With the passage of time memories can/will also fade, and evidence can be lost or destroyed. Acting promptly can therefore be important.

We need to assess your position with you before being able to confirm funding.

Does the opponent own property in England and Wales?

We want to ensure we can force your opponent to pay if they refuse to pay. If your opponent has assets, usually property, we can have greater confidence of recovering money, property, or assets (or all the above), for you. Otherwise there can be risk that you have a good claim with good prospects of success, but if your oppoennt doesn’t own anything, you might not recover damages or losses.

We need to assess your position with you before being able to confirm funding.
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Thank you for filling out the form

Based on the form, we think there is a good prospect we will be prepared to offer you a No Win No Fee agreement (CFA). Please confirm your contact details and a member of our team will contact you usually within 1 hour during usual business hours.

Contact Details

Thank you for filling out the form.

What is a CIS?

A Collective Investment Scheme (“CIS”) is a type of regulated investment. It is essentially classed as a financial investment that can/should only be conducted and offered by an FCA regulated entity.

Unless the scheme is run by a regulated person (a company or individual regulated by the FCA), a CIS is unlawful. It is a criminal offence to run a CIS unless you are a regulated person.

The definition of a CIS is incredibly broad.

Any arrangement with respect to property of any kind (including cash and land) the purpose or effect of which is to enable persons taking part in the arrangements (whether by becoming owners of the property or any part of it or otherwise) to participate in or receive profits or income arising from the purchase, the holding, management or disposal of the property (or sums paid out of such profits or income), might be a CIS.

For an arrangement to be CIS it is an essential ingredient that the persons who are to participate in it, do not have day to day control over the management of the property although they might have the right to be consulted or give directions.

Further, the scheme must either be one where the contributions of participants are pooled, or the property as a whole is managed by or on behalf of the operator of the scheme or both.

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How can this help me?

Solicitors owe duties of care to clients. These will often include duties of care to identify and advise where there is a CIS.

We act for groups of people who have unwittingly been induced into investing in a CIS scheme. They had no idea. To them it looked like a property investment- purchase of a flat/unit with a guaranteed rental income, but they were miss sold and had no knowledge of the risks they were taking.

Unwitting participants in unlawful investment schemes often find themselves not receiving the return they were promised and/or risk losing their investment entirely.

If you have unwittingly become such a participant in an unlawful CIS then you may be entitled to recover all of the monies you have invested by making a claim in restitution against the scheme operator.

Importantly, if you instructed solicitors to advise or act for you in the conveyance transaction and they have failed to consider the risk that the investment might be a CIS, or that there was a significant risk that is was one, and if as a result of that negligence you have suffered loss, you might be able to claim against your former conveyance solicitor. The benefit in doing so is that the solicitors are insured whereas the developers tend to disappear, leaving owners/investors to resolve matters directly.

These are complex claims and each needs to be considered on its own facts. We are experienced in dealing with these types of issues and at any given time are running and resolving claims and disputes in this area often for tens of owners in a single development with often millions of pounds in dispute. With our niche expertise as litigation solicitors and an experienced team with strength in depth we are well placed to run multiple claims against multiple firms/conveyancers for/with owner investors, against the developers, multiple firms of solicitors, and their insurers.

If you have invested monies in a failed property investment and you think it might be a CIS then please submit an enquiry form with brief details and a member of our team will contact you to discuss your matter with you to discuss how we can help you. We are generally speaking happy to back our own advice and to share risk with you. In this type of commercial and complex property litigation we frequently work on a no win no fee, or no win discounted fee, basis subject to detailed review and often paid for initial advice.

Outstanding Reviews
from Real Business People

“This is a fantastic little firm who go and beyond to support you. I was successful in a previous litigation. The tenacity and effort was tremendous from everyone there. There’s an enormous amount of business acumen. On previous advice, a pragmatic approach taken, I was so grateful that it led me to apply my own commonsense in doing the right thing, even if it was to not take up further dispute. Really smart people and outstanding service!!!”
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I dealt with Fiona on a HMO issue and dispute i was having with a tenant. Many other companies had said they were too busy or couldn’t have been less interested. I then came across Fiona who was unbelievably helpful from the get go and gave such useful advice. Within an hour of my enquiry she had got in touch. She followed up immediately with an email following our call. 5* service. I will definitely be using her services again in the future.
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Excellent service in dealing with landlords section 21 order’s.. put my mind at ease very professional I would highly recommend using this Law Firm they know what they are doing and act very promptly.
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Laura at Helix Law has been so incredibly helpful with an enquiry I had. She has so much knowledge and explains things in detail, however in a way I could easily understand. I would highly recommend to anyone. Thanks Laura.
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Bianca O’Donnell and Alex Cook recently provided me with professional legal property advice. There were significant financial repercussions had it gone wrong. Their ‘Stay Calm’ approach and methodical dissection of key issues was most impressive. They dealt quickly and efficiently to the last minute, providing clear advice on a potential breach of contract. Helix Law and legal advice go hand-in-hand. Helix Law have previously provided advice in various business matters over the years. They are an invaluable resource. Thank you Bianca and Alex!
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