A company called Sun Coast Leisure in Marbella

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12 Oct 2012 11:03 PM by Marc Leggett Star rating. 3 posts Send private message

Has anyone here had any experience with a company in Marbella called Sun Coast Leisure? They have been in touch with me expressing interest in buying my apartment in the Costa Blanca on behalf of around 20 people in some kind of fractional ownership scheme. Apparently former timeshare owners are invited to share in a new property which they can use for several weeks each year.

However they have asked me for a fee which they say will be refunded once the purchase is complete. I have never heard of a buyer asking the owner for a fee before? This has rather put me off the idea. What do people think?

Any comments and knowledge of this company is much appreciated. Many thanks.

 





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13 Oct 2012 9:25 AM by tamaraessex Star rating in Colmenar, Malaga. 508 posts Send private message

tamaraessex´s avatar
A Google search on the name you give produces nothing relevant, but dig further and there is a company called Sun Coast Realty which covers that area. It sells "distressed" or repo properties.

Why would any normal estate agent want an up-front fee? You obviously feel uncomfortable about them - if you are looking to sell, why not find a company you feel more comfortable about, and put it on Eye on Spain, rather than risk something that feels a bit out-of-the-ordinary?

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13 Oct 2012 9:48 AM by eggcup Star rating. 567 posts Send private message

I'd be willing to bet £100 that it's a con-trick.  But I want the other person's £100 stake upfront!


 


This message was last edited by eggcup on 13/10/2012.

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13 Oct 2012 10:26 AM by Pitby Star rating in Andalucía. 1904 posts Send private message

13 Oct 2012 1:27 PM by eggcup Star rating. 567 posts Send private message

If something appears too good to be true, it is.  Why would you have to pay a fee to a company which is doing so marvellously?  Surely if they have £7,000 each coming in from all these 'buyers', there would be no need to charge a seller an up-front fee?  Since when does a seller pay an agent before they've sold their property?  The 'article' in the link in the previous post to 'newswire' reads more like an advert written by someone who was paid to write it.  It's not an objective article at all.  If it was, it would state the pros and cons.  And where do all these buyers of the time-share properties come from?  I wouldn't pay £7,000 so that I could use a property for two weeks of the year - what if they give me the weeks in January or February??  How much would you pay if you wanted peak August months.  I smell a rat.



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13 Oct 2012 4:00 PM by tamaraessex Star rating in Colmenar, Malaga. 508 posts Send private message

tamaraessex´s avatar
OK my google search didn't throw up those articles ..... So how up-to-date are those articles and how come they don't come higher in the rankings? And is it the same company / same people as Sun Coast Realty? Still lots of questions to be answered!

Marc - were you looking to sell anyway? Why would a company approach you out of the blue?

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13 Oct 2012 4:27 PM by Pitby Star rating in Andalucía. 1904 posts Send private message

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 I'm not sure why your search didn't show these links, tamaraessex - my search showed their website at the top and the newswire article (which appears to be dated 15th August 2012) as the fourth or fifth in the list. 

I have no idea about the company and have no interest really - just wondered if they would show up in a search and they did.

 





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14 Oct 2012 11:38 AM by Marc Leggett Star rating. 3 posts Send private message

Many thanks to everyone for your comments and for taking time to try and find out more about this company. I am very wary for many reasons. My apartment has been for sale since Summer 2008 and the money this company offered is well above the current price I have chosen. They could easily buy from a bank for less than from me and why would anyone pay such a large sum for a shared apartment in Spain. It does rather smell!





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14 Oct 2012 12:55 PM by inspectahomespain Star rating in Orihuela Costa, Spai.... 2417 posts Send private message

Vip Supporter

This is a very common scam at the moment linked in the timeshare boiler rooms and I received the same offer, a bit like the scam where they offer to sell your timeshare for an upfront fee

I asked first for their company registration details, they refused to supply these, then how did they get my contact detail, they didn't know

I then  asked for details of refferences, people in my area that I could talk to who had suceeded with a sale on this basis and made sure they know that not onl;y would I speakk to the customer but also check the records for the sales and amounts, again nothing came back

Why would you ever pay a large upfront fee to anybody, if an agent sells your property you start with a contrcat that agrees the fee or you pay a website a small amount to list

If you try to look at the property available on the website there is nothing behind the headers

Also look at their domain name information as they are UK, not Marbella bases

Domain name: sun-coastleisure.com
Domain Title: Home
Domain Age: 0 Years, 149 Days
Website Speed: Fast
City: Castle Quay
Country: Great Britain
Postcode: NG7 1FW
Website Location: United Kingdom

The press release also says that they have operated a property management business in Marbella for the last 8 yera, try to find them in any search or business directory, they do not exist
 

It is very easy to generate PR, you just send the release in and it gets published, Newswire publish watever you send them

Surely we all remember people like Key Lounges and so many more taking upfront fees and then shutting up shop

Stay well away


 


This message was last edited by inspectahomespain on 14/10/2012.


This message was last edited by inspectahomespain on 14/10/2012.

_______________________
Roy Howitt Independent Property Consultant www.sonrisaproperties.com www.snaggingspain.com WE CAN FIND YOUR DREAM HOME 627 955 748



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02 Nov 2012 9:51 AM by SunCoastLeisure Star rating. 1 posts Send private message

 In response to the last comment on this forum by  Roy Howitt, I have been authorised to post these comments.

 

Sun Coast Leisure have operated in the Costa Del Sol for a number of years, dealing with short term property rentals on behalf of clients. Our services in this respect are similar to those of Mr Howitt, key handling, emergency repairs meet and greet etc. We have never felt the need to advertise this service as Mr Howitt must know, referral clients represent the best recommendation of a service orientated business.

 

There are scams out there that try to take money from people however we are not one of them. We have checked our records and we have no record of any of our staff ever speaking to Mr or Mrs Howitt and from some of the comments made, it seems quite clear that he has not spoken to anyone within our shared ownership department.

 

We use a variety of methods to build a database of people to contact people and our staff are happy to explain this – websites such as ownersdirect, and homeaway (previously holiday-rentals) and data companies. Our company details and address are prominently shown and again are passed to clients.

 

Fractional Property sales and Shared Ownership are in their infancy in Europe and for us in particular, we have recently taken on a small number of properties in Almeria which will complete in due course. I will readdress shared ownership later in this post. We don’t know of any company big or small that will furnish third parties with information about their clients and it is surprising that Mr Howitt should consider it proper for a company to do so. There is of course the Data Protection Act which forbids this without prior consent of the client.

 

We do not wish to disparage Mr Howitt especially in view of the contributions he has made to this site over the years, but the comments he makes could quite easily be directed at his Property Management business.

 

His website does not have a business address, or company registration details on it and a search of his domain shows that it is hosted in the UK (personal data removed) and not Spain:

 Domain Name: CORVERASERVICES
Date Created: Tue 29-June-2010
Nameserver: ns.123-reg(UK based)
Registrant Name: Roy Howitt
Registrant Company: Roy Howitt
Registrant Address: CO4 9UH
Registrant Address: United Kingdom

Could the fact that as English speaking individuals we all find it easier to deal with a hosting company that is English and doesn’t suffer the telecommunication infrastructure problems we are aware of in Spain.

 

Mr Howitt also charges upfront fees for his services, and advertises his newly formed agency websites at the bottom of his post.

 

We have no doubt that Mr Howitt is a man of good character and he provides a first class service to his clients, if he chooses to advertise in directories to generate new business, that is his choice – we choose not to as there are no definitive directories that work well at generating clients for a property management company.

 

We are not an Estate Agent and our website does not list property for sale. We note however that Mr Howitt has launched a property rentals site and a property sales site to which we wish him good luck and hope he has gained traffic from his post here.

 

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and this forum is here to help people gain a greater perspective and benefit from other peoples knowledge and/or experience. We as a business do not object to opinions, but either Mr Howitt feels in some way threatened by the prospect of Sun Coast Leisure extending its services or wishes to gain exposure from a controversial comment.

 

We would also agree that anyone faced with paying an upfront payment should exercise caution and we have spoken to numerous people that have paid €5,000 or €9,000 to lawyers for litigation only to lose their money without ever getting to court.

 

Shared Ownership also has the technical label Fractional Ownership and is a type of ownership used for almost any large lifestyle purchase where the buyers do not expect to use the property for the majority of the year and therefore look to share that property with other individuals. Examples of this are yachts, jets, cars and of course property – namely holiday homes.

 

As you have probably guessed, holiday homes in the main, refers to Villas and apartments of very high value. These are sometimes called private residences or resorts and represent a marketplace far removed from what Sun Coast Leisure operates within. However the principle is very much the same. A group of strangers are able to club together to buy a property and then share the use and ownership costs of that property. In the case of what we are doing, individuals can buy into a property for less than €8,000 and have a minimum of 2 weeks stay in a property in Spain, Portugal or Italy.

 

To bring order and flexibility to the arrangement, rules and procedures have to put in place and managed by a property management company. Of course the entitlement of when each co-owner gets to use the property also needs to be agreed and managed.  We do this and also set up a legal structure so that any individual buyer is able to sell his share at any time without needing the consent of the other co-owners.  This is known as a mezzanine structure and involves the setting up of one or more companies –it varies depending on the countries of the buyers, the country of the property and the rules in force of the community.

 

When a whole development is being sold on a Fractional basis, the developer pays for the structure to be set up (Polaris World for example), however when dealing with individual properties we pay this upfront cost and ask the seller to pay a third, as a returnable deposit.

 

This payment is protected and processed through one of the largest worldwide online payment gateways offering complete protection against fraud. We do not accept cash payments, Moneygrams or Western Union and if people wish to pay by transfer, it is paid into a fully registered SL company account.

 

Some of the Shared Ownership properties available are priced so that the seller (normally a Developer) receives 150% – 200% of the market price. The reasons for this are varied and include increased marketing  and administrations costs (multiple sales contracts for each property) and  accessibility at a lower price (i.e. buy into a €1million Villa for just €200Thousand).

We offer sellers on average 25% above the market value for the individual properties we sell. We feel that this is a reasonable amount from both the prospective of the buyer and seller.

The seller is able to liquidise their investment and possibly place their money  where it can do more good for them and in some cases release the financial burden of a mortgage that leaves them with no or negative equity on the open market.

 

For the buyer, nobody likes to pay more than they have to, but to own part of a property in a 5 star resort for just €7,000 - €10,000 is unheard of anywhere else. Very few working families are able to use their Holiday homes more than 3 – 4 weeks of the year and after a number of years of ownership, choose to use it less than that. We speak to many people that cannot afford to use their property in peak season because they need to rent to cover some of the costs of ownership. So for a fraction of the costs of a full purchase and ownership, a person can enjoy what others have paid more than 20 times more.

 

When they want to sell their share after 5 years or more, they sell their share of the company and should get more than they paid, tax-free and without Capital Gains Tax. Some have pointed out that in effect, should the property value increase by more than €3,000 in the time they own it, the net cost of holiday accommodation would be free!

 

We are not aware of any customers that  have lost money through dealing with us and would be happy to respond to anybody whom has had negative dealings with Sun Coast Leisure.

 

 

Colin Reeves

Consultant

 





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02 Nov 2012 2:24 PM by inspectahomespain Star rating in Orihuela Costa, Spai.... 2417 posts Send private message

Vip Supporter

I always welcome it when people take the time to respond to these types of queries because it is only by the exchange of this type of information do people learn and unlike many other posters on these and other forums I do not hide my identity and contact information and I have had a business established in Spain for many years

Unfortunately there have been many organisation that have appeared with new websites, new ideas and they have all been very keen to relieve people of upfront money for the promise of a service and I include well documented cases on here involving people like Key Lounges, Overseas Keys and the numerous people that have offered to recover buyers deposits, all have come and gone and ripped people off.

They have also targeted people through databases that they have acquired, and the holiday and property sales websites sending unsolicited e-mails

You are in my case quite correct as I use a UK based web management organisation where the domains for example www.inspectahomespain.com have been registered for 8 years and are all certified by independent checks on website verification engines

I also have been operating the property management side for 3 years and have many reference clients who are happy to pay €300 for an advanced management fee, not  a few thousand euro

I cannot believe that a successful property management company, as you claim established 8 years, would not have a website, a domain or contact details in Spain

The Corvera Holidays website has been operational for almost 2 years, receives 600 hits per day and actually generates rental income for our clients, inspectahomespain and the snaggingforum for 6 years and I have been posting sensible information on here, and writing articles since the forum started

I agree that one of the best ways to promote a business is through actual success stories and all I commented on, and suggested is that this should perhaps be promoted as a new venture, not off the back of a rental business that may have been established for 8 years who may be using questionable means to mail or contact people, rather than advertising the benefits of a scheme and generating enquires, as I said before the typical boiler room approach which is widely commended on this forum

As you quite rightly say that you are not aware of anybody that has lost money through your company and scheme but what you are reluctant to provide are success stories or details on how many contracts have been concluded

 

 

 

 

 

 



_______________________
Roy Howitt Independent Property Consultant www.sonrisaproperties.com www.snaggingspain.com WE CAN FIND YOUR DREAM HOME 627 955 748



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19 Nov 2012 9:18 PM by charlie-uk Star rating. 2 posts Send private message

Hi,

I have also had a suggestion of a possible offer. I am also concerned about having to pay an upfront fee of £1495. I do not feel confident so if anybody have actually gone through this exercise maybe we could have some feedback. I will keep an eye out. One thing that also caught my attention was that I was told that normally in the UK when an offer is placed on your property you have 48 hours to decide whether to take it or not. However, they will want an answer within 36 hours. That is really not a long time to decide and that made me feel a little pressured.

It would be very good if Sun Coast Leisure could provide us with contacts of people who have been through this previously as sellers and maybe they would not mind being contacted or provide a statement in reltation to the sale.

 





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20 Nov 2012 8:18 AM by inspectahomespain Star rating in Orihuela Costa, Spai.... 2417 posts Send private message

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I stand by my original comments on this on the basis that any company that aske for a large upfront fee for something that has no guarantees, track record in Spain, and is unwilling to provide references has to be a little suspect

Also  charlie-uk if they have a potential offer I am assuming that you have a 4 bedroom luxury villa  or a property is of very high value which they have visited so that they know that it is suitable
 

Here's another question they say that somewhere in their mail that the fee is refundable, what happens if you pay the fee and then they make a stupidly low offer for your property, will you still get a refund and in what timeframe but if as they claim in their mail they average 25% above the market value they must have some great references to give you

To me the whole approach seems high pressure selling



_______________________
Roy Howitt Independent Property Consultant www.sonrisaproperties.com www.snaggingspain.com WE CAN FIND YOUR DREAM HOME 627 955 748



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20 Nov 2012 6:11 PM by Charlie-UK Star rating. 2 posts Send private message

Hello Roy,

Thanks for your response.

I belive that you recieve the offer before you pay the up-front fee - but I agree it still sounds risky - and again - if it sounds too good to be true it normally is. Have many of us learned that over the last 5 years or so!! Well I have and I am not sure at all.

However, depending on how I get on I will update the forum.

Thanks again

Charlie-UK





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20 Nov 2012 6:21 PM by inspectahomespain Star rating in Orihuela Costa, Spai.... 2417 posts Send private message

Vip Supporter

As I said before why you, why your property, have you given them permission to market it for sale, where did they get your data from, so you pay your money and the deal doesn't happen

Really confusing



_______________________
Roy Howitt Independent Property Consultant www.sonrisaproperties.com www.snaggingspain.com WE CAN FIND YOUR DREAM HOME 627 955 748



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21 Nov 2012 7:10 PM by Dinpaul Star rating in London. 23 posts Send private message

Hi

I have been contacted, out of the blue, by Sun Coast Leisure with an offer for my property. I don't know where they got

my details from. I have been made an offer and have now received an email asking for up-front fees of £1595. This all sounds to good to be true, now that I have read the posts on this forum I can see many other owners think the same. I think I will give them a wide berth.

Diane





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21 Nov 2012 7:30 PM by ojosazul88 Star rating. 171 posts Send private message

 Listen, Just walk away, this is a SCAM. Its incredible how many people just cannot  see through these scams, 419 Nigerian scam, "pump and dump scams" "boiler room" scams, they all play on peoples vunerable side, in this case you need to sell your property and your rational side goes out the window when a sudden "offer" is presented to you. A few months ago i uncovered a boiler room scam for someone, presented 100% evidence of the scam to them yet they still sent the crooks over 70k!!, No suprise the money has been lost. Why? Because they believed the high returns would help their financial problems so rationality went out the window.

Im not even going to bother investigating this situation described by the OP, just walk away and smile knowing you still have your 1500 pounds.

 


This message was last edited by ojosazul88 on 21/11/2012.


This message was last edited by ojosazul88 on 21/11/2012.



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21 Nov 2012 10:00 PM by Dinpaul Star rating in London. 23 posts Send private message

I think I will do just that! thanks





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22 Nov 2012 7:36 AM by inspectahomespain Star rating in Orihuela Costa, Spai.... 2417 posts Send private message

Vip Supporter

Perhaps Colin Reeves who originally posted a response on this thread would like to respond on here answering the questions and peoples concerns

They have  a really interesting Facebook page which is really odd for a company trading in The Costa Del Sol featuring a load of things to do in Murcia and kittle else plus all website have a UK mobile phone number and I still cannot find any record of this property management company in The Costa Del Sol



_______________________
Roy Howitt Independent Property Consultant www.sonrisaproperties.com www.snaggingspain.com WE CAN FIND YOUR DREAM HOME 627 955 748



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22 Nov 2012 4:23 PM by ojosazul88 Star rating. 171 posts Send private message

 "They have  a really interesting Facebook page which is really odd for a company trading in The Costa Del Sol featuring a load of things to do in Murcia and kittle else plus all website have a UK mobile phone number and I still cannot find any record of this property management company in The Costa Del Sol"

Also, their website was only registered in May this year through a hosting company called Heart Internet in Nottingham, their website is a "shell site", just something you buy off the shelf very cheaply.Very amateurish and poorly put together. There is no record of a company trading in the UK or Spain under that name, there was one in uk but dissolved in 2009. Ok its possible they trade under a different name in Spain but there are red flags here. With other fractional ownership/boiler room scams, they set up and target their "marks" quickly so no complaints etc can be found on google, scam warning sites etc. They can then shut down and restart another similiar scheme with a new website.






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