‘Right to buy’ directors misled tenants
THREE former directors of “right to buy” firms have promised to stop misleading council tenants who want to buy their own homes.
The Office of Fair Trading has secured undertakings from Stephen Harvey, a former director of FAI Finance Corporate, and Martyn Mattison and Ronald Robertson, previously directors of Fasttrack Services.
Fasttrack, based in Manchester, encouraged tenants to buy their own homes and offered to help with the process. As part of the deal they were required to sign up to a credit agreement with finance provider FAI.
The OFT found that FAI and Fasttrack:
- told people that the government was ending the right to buy scheme or reducing the available discount, when this was not true
- claimed that no fee would become payable if the house sale did not go ahead using the slogan ‘no completion, no fee’, when the agreement suggested otherwise
- promised they would get £500 in vouchers just for signing up, when this was only available on completion of the purchase of the property.
The OFT also received complaints that the firms did not give tenants copies of credit agreements, did not give notice of cancellation rights and ignored cancellation requests.
Ray Watson, director of the OFT’s credit group said: “The OFT, working with Trading Standards Services and many advice agencies across the country, has secured undertakings which satisfy us in this particular case that consumers will no longer be misled. We will continue to take strong enforcement action against any other firms who seek to exploit vulnerable consumers.”
Both Fasttrack and FAI, registered in Ireland, have since been wound up. Martyn Mattison is now a director of Finance Reclaim, a Stockport-based “no win, no fee” claims company that claims for people who have been missold financial products.
