Reposessions Not Being Brought To Market

[Mr. Piddle]

http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Ex-Savills-boss-parachuted-in-to-help-bailed-out-RBS

Former Savills boss Aubrey Adams, 61, has been appointed head of property in Royal Bank of Scotland’s global restructuring arm.

His responsibilities will include overseeing West Register, the property management arm set up by the bank to acquire its repossessed properties, saving the bank from having to sell distressed properties at what could be a knock-down price on the open market.

RBS, 83% owned by the British taxpayer, has been trying to get rid of its more troublesome property exposures.

These are about half of the £87.3bn exposure in property RBS reported last year.

Adams was the CEO at Savills from 1991 to 2008. Over his 17 years’ tenure, he turned it into Britain’s most successful estate agent, transforming it from a loss-making country house sales specialist into a global property group making recent half-year profits of over £31m.

He announced he would be standing down in 2007, timing his departure just as the property market was diving.

Adams starts his new role at RBS on November 1.

So they are selling the repos to their property company for knock down prices instead of the general public? Well of course they are they cant have the peasants living for cheap!!

MODS - I HAVE POSTED THIS THREAD TWICE - ARE YOU ABLE TO MERGE THE TWO PLEASE!!

Edited September 28, 2011 by mason

[Mr. Piddle]

http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Ex-Savills-boss-parachuted-in-to-help-bailed-out-RBS

Former Savills boss Aubrey Adams, 61, has been appointed head of property in Royal Bank of Scotland’s global restructuring arm.

His responsibilities will include overseeing West Register, the property management arm set up by the bank to acquire its repossessed properties, saving the bank from having to sell distressed properties at what could be a knock-down price on the open market.

RBS, 83% owned by the British taxpayer, has been trying to get rid of its more troublesome property exposures.

These are about half of the £87.3bn exposure in property RBS reported last year.

Adams was the CEO at Savills from 1991 to 2008. Over his 17 years’ tenure, he turned it into Britain’s most successful estate agent, transforming it from a loss-making country house sales specialist into a global property group making recent half-year profits of over £31m.

He announced he would be standing down in 2007, timing his departure just as the property market was diving.

Adams starts his new role at RBS on November 1.

So they are selling the repos to their property company for knock down prices instead of the general public? Well of course they are they cant have the peasants living for cheap!!

[_w_]

Lending themselves the money to manipulate market prices ... this has got to be a very serious abuse of fair banking practice.

It's like we're back to the days of the robber barons.

Thank you Mervyn, you're a disgrace.

[SarahBell]

Lending themselves the money to manipulate market prices ... this has got to be a very serious abuse of fair banking practice.

It's like we're back to the days of the robber barons.

Thank you Mervyn, you're a disgrace.

It can't possibly be legal!

[_w_]

It can't possibly be legal!

It must be, they've been doing it for so long.

But it's disgraceful.

[Mr. Piddle]

It must be, they've been doing it for so long.

But it's disgraceful.

Well I thought selling a property to yourself was illegal - but im sure they have ways round it, after all rules don't apply to the big boys :angry:

[Bloo Loo]

http://www.estateage...-bailed-out-RBS

So they are selling the repos to their property company for knock down prices instead of the general public? Well of course they are they cant have the peasants living for cheap!!

its a scam of the first degree.

they convert bad debts into assets using this, I would say, illegal device...there is nothing "arms length" about this deal.

[zebbedee]

And the repossesee? could argue the bank did not secure the best market price, surely and see a windfall on the outstanding debt paid for by mugs like me when they need another bailout :angry:

[LJAR]

It doesn't matter,

all it means is that a different part of RBS is now sitting on an overpriced asset that will need to take a write down.

The point is that write down wont now be on the books of the bank, RBS will still lose the money.

[Mr. Piddle]

And the repossesee? could argue the bank did not secure the best market price, surely and see a windfall on the outstanding debt paid for by mugs like me when they need another bailout :angry:

Would the repossesee know anything about it? I suppose most go bankrupt after reposession anyway.

[Bloo Loo]

Would the repossesee know anything about it? I suppose most go bankrupt after reposession anyway.

the defaulter could be offered 100% back.

he walks, the bank uses the same money to "invest" in the shell, the shell forks out whatever it likes and marks the value at what it likes.

the bank is 100% paid, and has 100% again invested in the shell...an asset.

somewhere, there is an overvaluation to make it all work...while the shell sits on them, they can value at whatever they like, and they can jsutify the valuation based on actual purchases they make.

SCAM. 200% paid for an accounting scam

[SarahBell]

Continued here with more posts. http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=169852&view=findpost&p=3131774

Now who wont spot this message. I predicate SarahBell.

Which one?

[SarahBell]

You but you didnt post what you were going to post in the end.

I think my only comment on this was the is it legal? It's certainly not looking particularly moral. Now stop it!

:-p

[plummet expert]

Lending themselves the money to manipulate market prices ... this has got to be a very serious abuse of fair banking practice.

It's like we're back to the days of the robber barons.

Thank you Mervyn, you're a disgrace.

Another fraud you and I are not allowed to perform but 'they' are?!!! Disgusting and unhelpful. The coming dire financial wind will blow them all away....IS THIS IN THE BIBLE? SHOULD BE...OR PERHAPS NOSTRADAMUS WAS TALKING OF MYSTIC MERV WHEN HE REFERRED TO THE END OF THE WORLD?

(Sorry..had one too many glasses of wine vinegar - 6 bottles for half price plus 5% off )

Edited September 28, 2011 by plummet expert

[Fishbone Glover]

Maybe this chap can help?

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=169846&view=findpost&p=3131515

It's worth a try - email sent:

Hello,

I recently read the following paragraph on the Estate Agent Today website regarding the employment of an RBS executive:

"His responsibilities will include overseeing West Register, the property management arm set up by the bank to acquire its repossessed properties, saving the bank from having to sell distressed properties at what could be a knock-down price on the open market"

It transpires that RBS are 'lending' West Register the money to 'buy' these properties at below market rates, which is tantamount to using their position to manipulate markets. I believe that this is a serious abuse of fair banking practices, and is the kind of challenge that Mr Littlewood should be taking on, it would certainly be a popular subject with the general public.

Yours,

You never know!

[Bruce Banner]

If one bank is doing it they probably all are. They've got to rebuild their balance sheets somehow.

As HonestEA said the other day, once the banks' balance sheets are in better shape they can allow prices to crash 25%, although I think it will be more like 35%.

[Dr Doom]

I started a thread about this 2 years ago.

Banks Buying Back Distressed Properties Through Shell Companies

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=122299&st=0

Yes it's a disgrace.

[Giordano Bruno]

http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Ex-Savills-boss-parachuted-in-to-help-bailed-out-RBS

So they are selling the repos to their property company for knock down prices instead of the general public? Well of course they are they cant have the peasants living for cheap!!

I always suspected that repos might be being sold by lenders to friends or to themselves for knockdown prices. But it must by illegal, I would have thought, since they are not getting the best possible prices and the mortgage holder is liable for the shortfall.

[Dr Doom]

I always suspected that repos might be being sold by lenders to friends or to themselves for knockdown prices. But it must by illegal, I would have thought, since they are not getting the best possible prices and the mortgage holder is liable for the shortfall.

The case I looked at a couple of years ago, I downloaded the deeds, which showed the property had been transacted at an

artificially inflated value between the shell and the individual being repossessed, artificially inflated I assume so

the bank doesn't have to mark it to market and realise a bad debt on their balance sheet. Very enron-esque, not sure how

they manage to account for the shell without breaking accounting rules, as obviously they have to lend money to the shell

so that it can buy it off the repossessee for above-market value.

Would be very interesting to talk to somebody who's been offered this sort of deal by a bank.

[Milton]

I’ve followed a number of properties at auctions.

One example would be, A converted Barn, in a nice area, in Lincolnshire. [Valued at £350k at peak 2007 price.]

The house was a repossession, owned by a State Owned Bank, and I followed its progress as it went to auction on 4 seperate occasions over the course of a year.

Each time it received over ten bids. But never Attracted a higher bid than £110k.

At each of the 4 auctions, it did not meet the undisclosed reserve set by the bank. So each time it was withdrawn.

I found the last Estate Agent to represent the property. And called him.

The Estate Agent told me that the bank did not have to lower the reserve, as the taxpayer is bailing out the bank, therefore the reserve will be kept at stupidly high levels, until it is sold.

This occured over a year ago. And as far as I am aware the property is still sitting on the banks books.

The government complains about the “lack of housing” as a cause of the problem, yet they sit back and let the banks hold large amounts of the potential housing stock.

It should be illegal for foreclosed housing to have a reserve price.

While the banks keep hold of properties at reserve prices nobody will pay they can keep generating fictitous bonuses on "profits" instead of writing down losses.

False accounting and fraud aided and abetted by our corrupt government.

This is widespread in the States, bankers are simply holding on to property which have either been repossessed or where the debtor has walked away. The fraud is, that rather than selling at the true market value they are reporting that original price that was paid, in say 2006 as the current value on the balance sheets, when clearly it is not.

I suspect that this practice is also occurring in the U.K

Why do we bother working?

[Bloo Loo]

The case I looked at a couple of years ago, I downloaded the deeds, which showed the property had been transacted at an

artificially inflated value between the shell and the individual being repossessed, artificially inflated I assume so

the bank doesn't have to mark it to market and realise a bad debt on their balance sheet. Very enron-esque, not sure how

they manage to account for the shell without breaking accounting rules, as obviously they have to lend money to the shell

so that it can buy it off the repossessee for above-market value.

Would be very interesting to talk to somebody who's been offered this sort of deal by a bank.

they dont lend money to the shell...they buy shares.

[Mr. Piddle]

So what can we do about all this then, as a collective group? I doubt Dominic Littlewood will take it up, but as banks are mostly taxpayer owned (and we are that taxpayer) surely we have a right to have some say about this?

[Dr Doom]

So what can we do about all this then, as a collective group? I doubt Dominic Littlewood will take it up, but as banks are mostly taxpayer owned (and we are that taxpayer) surely we have a right to have some say about this?

[porca misèria]

It's worth a try - email sent:

You never know!

Your brevity is commendable.

I was looking for words like "off balance sheet", and analogy to NR/Granite. But I guess letting the journo figure that out for himself is probably better.

[porca misèria]

I always suspected that repos might be being sold by lenders to friends or to themselves for knockdown prices. But it must by illegal, I would have thought, since they are not getting the best possible prices and the mortgage holder is liable for the shortfall.

whodathunkit?

Perhaps they've been doing a clean-break deal: hapless borrower agrees to the internal disposal (however they describe it), bank writes off the negative equity.