United Land Holdings

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I worked for ULH and sold plots to investors in good faith (as did ALL the other sales consultants). If I can assist anyone with the limited information I have I would be more than happy to share it with you.
 
Having purchased two plots of land through ULH we have made various enquiries, as we are sure others have too. Re: Chicksands. The original owner GPS of Luton sold the land to ULH for £1.5m. The company director told me that he was expecting a 40% claw back on the eventual sale. As with Melksham, the local planning authority advise that the Speadlow Farm site is not in their current plans for development. The Land Registry based in Peterborough advised us that no application for the transfer of ownership from ULH to the individual investors was made. In fact the documentation which we and probably others have received, would have been returned as it did not comply with application submissions. Technically it seems that Speadlow Farm is still owned by ULH. The documents we have received are therefore valueless. Our lawyer has advised that because the company is in the hands of the Insolvency Service, no legal action can be taken by investors at present. I was also informed that there is no money in the bank. Seems strange to us that we cannot go to the police and ask the Fraud department to further investigate for illegal activities such as deception. It seems that we will have to keep a close eye on the news provided by the Insolvency Service who are at least keeping investors appraised of developments. We also tried to communicate with Ellis Jones Solicitors some time ago. We received a letter stating that the company had resigned from Company Secretaryship, and therefore, owing to client confidentiality, give us any information. Given that it was this company that drafted all the legal documents, I wonder if the Law Society would have anything to say on the matter? Maybe we have a case against that legal firm? In answer to User1234 -yes we remember the name Nigel Gough very well. He sold us the deal. We called his mobile number and he told us that he no longer worked for ULH!
 
User12345 said:
I worked for ULH and sold plots to investors in good faith (as did ALL the other sales consultants). If I can assist anyone with the limited information I have I would be more than happy to share it with you.
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While i commend your offer of assistance can i urge caution to anyone who contacts this person to exercise extreme diligence in who you share info with and/or incur further expense in chasing this issue.

Forgive my cynicism but it is not unknown for the victims in these scenarios to throw good money after bad in the hope of recovering the situation and there are plenty of people out there happy to facilitate this.
 
Duplex said:
Is the site a former airbase? Is the planning designation greenbelt or another use? What is the area (approx.) of the site? (The term is brown field, btw.)
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Why are you interested? Did you buy at Lyneham?
The land is adjacent to a housing estate and across the road from a recently developed piece of land - so there was a precedent. It is currently agricultural land. There is an access road and nearby services appear suitable (sewage works & drains are downhill from the site!!). Telepohne lines are along the road as well as a bus stop directly outside the field.
We were sold the land by a salesman at the Ideal Home who made some unsubstantiated claims about when planning permission would be granted. He said 2-3 years, which we didn't believe. We checked the regional plan and as expected this area does not fall within the planning boundary - but it is adjacent to it and boundaries do change over time.
We invested, after doing our research, for the long haul/pension fund expecting it to take around 10-20 years. There is a pattern of growing urbanisations around the Swindon area and Lyneham falls within this area as a commuter belt. There is of course the issue of the Air base closing down in 2012 - so there is a gamble in terms of how that land will be re-used. If it is for industry then this will bring jobs and therefore demand for housing. If it is used for housing then our planning permission will take longer than hoped for.
On the subject of contracts, we received and signed ours after a long delay and it was different to what we were expecting. Instead of owning a marked plot of land we effectively own a share of a deal. This is important and good because it means that you don't need to get planning permission for every plot - just the one big area. The plan is to then sell the whole plot as one to a developer with the planning permission and so make a profit. Of course the original owner gets an uplift of 40% which is fair. As far as I can tell this is still a valid contract unless ULH goes under. In which case the contract has made no special provisions for this.
I hope this long posting answers some of the general questions about Lyneham and will allow buyers of other sites to compare.
 
For those of you that are not aware of the Insolvency Servive Site, here is the link on ULH ..... this will give you the date of when the final hearing will be. It is not expected to happen until the last quarter of the year.
[broken link removed]
 
My name is Alex and in total I have bought 4 plots, 2 in Chicksands and 2 in Melsham. I believe Michelle is correct here. The best way to proceed is for us to all form a comitee to try and see this thing through. If the land is genuinly only worth £700 per plot what's the point in selling it on? We all bought in to this scheme because we belived in the potential of the land. Though we all have been misled here, I'm not ready to simply give up on the future potential of the plots. Sadly, I have no experience in this matter and thereofre do not know the best way to proceed here...
 
We may just sit tight till sept /Oct see what happens. I agree we are better form a group to try get back some of our outlay. I just hope we actually do own the plots !!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I believe that we do own the plots. Even if the company has collapsed and even if (and it's still a big IF) the company was acting unlawfully, we still have a contract and still have proof that money exchanged hands. The plots of land were indeed all sold to United Land Holdings, and ULH did indeed pay over the odds for these plots, so I still belive that their intentions were sound. If they do go down when it comes to trial, the judge has a responsibillity to take whatever action is in the best interests of the public, i.e US! I believe that it's therefore our job to make sure that we are present when this case goes to trial (Which we are legally entitled to) and to make sure that somehow the planning continues to go ahead. Why would any of us be happy to settle for a few hundred quid back from a 10k investment?
 
Alexander said:
ULH did indeed pay over the odds for these plots, so I still belive that their intentions were sound.
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What did ULH pay for the plots? What did you pay for the plots? What was the market rate for the plots?
 
Alexander said:
If they do go down when it comes to trial, the judge has a responsibillity to take whatever action is in the best interests of the public, i.e US! I believe that it's therefore our job to... make sure that somehow the planning continues to go ahead.
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Don't fool yourself into thinking that the best interests of the ULH investors are in any way aligned with the best interests of the public in this case. It is clearly in the best interests of the investors that full development planning or zoning be obtained as soon as possible. This may not necessarily be in the public interest - especially if it involves the bending or breaking of existing planning or zoning policies. Additionally any planning "stroke" made purely to "rescue" ULH investors might well encourage others into similarly barmy land "investment" schemes in the future, thus causing the entire unhappy cycle to repeat itself.

For what its worth, even if the ULH investors own the plots, I believe their market value is negligible. No developer will pay anywhere near market price for a site, the component parts of which are owned by dozens or perhaps hundreds of disparate (and aggrieved) investors, many overseas. The stroy of ULH mirrors the experience of investors in the EFG Irish Christmas tree company which collapsed about a decade ago. See the following stories for more. In the case of the companies concerned, no purchaser was found for the Christmas tree portfolio - the mainstream Christmas tree companies thought it easier to source trees from normal channels rather than involve themselves in the problematic EFG story.

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Good points. I am no expert in this by any means, but after doing a little research I think we have to remain calm and take things a step at a time. There is no doubt that the goverment is happy to see Land banking schemes go down. The reasons why are fairly obvious, and if they can bring down ULH it will score a major victory for them. However, we do all have contracts. We can all prove that our money changed hands and as United Land are indeed the registered holders of these plots I do belive that we own them. As I understand it, no judge will simply be able to 'force' any one of us to sell our plots. It may be that a comitee is formed and we follow whatever course the majority wish to run with. Alternatively, a company may be appointed or allowed to come in who are not able to sell or market any more plots but instucted simply to push planning forward in a legal and honerable manner, which as I say is in all our interests. The government can not make us sell what is already ours and has a duty to take whatever course of action results in us the investors being treated as fairly as possible...
 
Alexander said:
As I understand it, no judge will simply be able to 'force' any one of us to sell our plots.
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Hi Alexander

If this is the case, then this could severely hinder the chances of your efforts bearing fruit. On this basis, it would be impossible to negotiate the sale of a site (comprising a large number of individual plots all owned by different people) unless there is universal agreement among all investors in relation to the sale.

If any single investor disagrees with the terms of sale, simply decides not to sell for whatever reason, can not be contacted, or is otherwise not in a position to give consent due to death, incapacity etc, their position could well frustrate the ability of the others to negotiate a sale - unless of course in the unlikely event that they can be compelled by a court order to participate in a sale. This is the reason why I suspect no developer will touch any such proposal with a bargepole.

Sorry for being so negative on this. I sincerely hope it works out for you.
 
Hi, you're not being negative, you're simply stating your opinion. As I know little about this subject (Yet as you can see, trying to learn), you may well be correct in all you say. Thing is, the contracts we all signed were pretty thorough. We ALL signed an agreement that we couldn't sell off individual plots and to say that we ALL would be forced to sell our plots should the land be granted development. In my opinion, the sane choice here would be to honor that agreement. Even if ULH go down, another company could potentially come in soley to continue the development procedure. As we have all signed the original contracts prohibiting us to sell on the plots then this could still be allowed to stand otherwise as you say individuals would try and back out and the result would be chaos. Let's look at the alternatives: Jusge washes his/her hands of the affair and wraps up the company. This makes no sense as us investors are left with worthless plots of land, surely in NO ONE'S best interests. Jusge orders us to sell on plots for market value. I don't believe they can, we have contracts saying we own them, I can not be made to sell something which I lawfully own and bought in good faith. I honestly see the only fair and just way out of this would be to allow ULH to continue to develop the land (Even if the directors are made to step down and they are not allowed to sell or market any new plots for money). Either that or as I say,. bring in an established developer to continue the work on our behalf. This is of course what I and the majority of plot owners would like to see happen but if anyone has any further thoughts, please do raise your voice. It seems we are all in this together...
 
Alexander said:
There is no doubt that the goverment is happy to see Land banking schemes go down. The reasons why are fairly obvious, and if they can bring down ULH it will score a major victory for them.
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Whoa - No-one is out to get you or to see the schemes 'go down'. No-one is looking to score victory here.

The position of UK and Irish govt is simple. Any liquidation or recievership of the UK company will follow normal UK company law. Any remaining funds will be paid out to creditors. You (and your fellow investors) may feel you have some claim against the company and/or the directors. You will have to make a legal claim if you wish to pursue this. The chances of success (given that you simply bought some land at an inflated price) and the chances of getting money even if you did win your case are very low.

But the low chances of success aren't because anyone is out to get you. It is just because of the simple facts of the situation that you have got yourself into.

Alexander said:
As we have all signed the original contracts prohibiting us to sell on the plots
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Please explain more. Under what conditions can you sell your plots?

Alexander said:
. I honestly see the only fair and just way out of this would be to allow ULH to continue to develop the land (Even if the directors are made to step down and they are not allowed to sell or market any new plots for money).
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If you haven't learnt a tough lesson by now as to who you can trust, I despair for you.
 
Hello all,

I purchased 2 plots and am very concerned about developments. I read with horror the Guardian article regarding Martin Hayes working for Landbridge. Surely we can report this guy to the fraud squad ? Is he really going to defend his case ?

George.
 
I know some may think I'm being gullible here, but I'm just trying to remain calm in the hope that we can acheive the best result out of this. I have spoken to Martyn since the Guardian article. His position is that the court case has cost him his house, cars and pretty much all his possessions to date. He claims everything he earns is going in to defending his case. He does not deny doing some freelance work for the other development company at trade shows on an ad hoc basis. He also claims to have spent some time working for removal companies and other odd jobs whilst trying to survive the court case. This may all be bulls*it, again I'm not defending him just reporting his side of the story. It stands to reason that fraudulant or not, the guy is going to stick to what he knows. Personally, I don't give a damn who he works for, I'm just concentrating on getting the best possible result from this unholy mess. Just to clarify, I have 2 plots in Chicksands and 2 in Melksham. Has ANYONE reading this attempted to register their plots of land with the land registery yet and if so can you please post the results.
 
I have just spoken to the insolvency service and they can't yet conform that ULH have put in their defence which was due at 4:30pm on the 31/07/06. Thr lady said she would call me next week with an update.
 
Seems as a defence from ULH has now been submitted as confirmed by the insolvency service a few moments ago. Light at he end of the tunnel perhaps ? What are everyone else's plan of action ?

George
 
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