Todays Property 'millionaires'

[spyguy]

I would have posted this earlier but the HPC was down.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2514745/The-couple-went-millionaires-living-benefits-Their-business-worth-35m-disaster-struck-What-followed-tested-marriage-limit.html

The story was on the main page and has been hidden to the femail section.

Easy names to google. Hardly the brightest bunch.

'Has he any regrets about his financial strategy? 'With hindsight, perhaps it was naive to put all our eggs in one basket.' '

One basket!!!!!

It might have help if you'd actually bought the fking basket you put the eggs in you fkwit.

[longtomsilver2]

Haha, I only had to read the headline only to guess rightly he was a property millionaire.

Blame the banks, why not everyone else does.

[eric pebble]

I would have posted this earlier but the HPC was down.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2514745/The-couple-went-millionaires-living-benefits-Their-business-worth-35m-disaster-struck-What-followed-tested-marriage-limit.html

The story was on the main page and has been hidden to the femail section.

Easy names to google. Hardly the brightest bunch.

'Has he any regrets about his financial strategy? 'With hindsight, perhaps it was naive to put all our eggs in one basket.' '

One basket!!!!!

It might have help if you'd actually bought the fking basket you put the eggs in you fkwit.

Mmmmm.......

I wonder if their "pwoperty empire" was built on

LIAR LOANS ?

[spyguy]

'Christopher, who will only give his age as '50s', has applied for hundreds of jobs only to be told he is 'too old' or 'overqualified'. He has been told to 'dumb down his CV'. '

He was born in Jul-1952

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/director/3358384/christopher-tudor-whelan

Dates don't tie up with article:

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/director/3358384/christopher-tudor-whelan

[Si1]

He blames the banks, which is part correct, I think they are enormously though not wholely culpable

SO, who allowed the banks to behave like that then?

[Venger]

He blames the banks, which is part correct, I think they are enormously though not wholely culpable

If I were a banker I would have green-light applications to certain business people to borrow. Even if I personally thought they were over-extended. At certain points in a cycle, them wilfully carrying a lot of debt, against their over-valued portfolios, so they can be tested to whether they can survive. The best part being if not, the acquired assets can be sold cheaper to many new entrants to have a share. If you didn't lend to them in the boom, they'd probably complain about it.

These business people were not being dragged into the banks to force them to borrow, to acquire portfolios they proudly thought were worth £30m and if they expected could never heavily fall back from that level. The borrowers can take expert advise along the way. They can decide they're safe and instead pay down debt and stop trying to acquire more and more.

Top comment with nearly 4000 thumbs up: The banks have ruined the lives of so many people. This is a heartbreaking story.

Even getting windfalls from their property/developing over-extending (imo).

At his appeal against the ban, he told the court how the credit crunch had hit Tudor Whelan Property Holdings, the firm behind the Knight's Bridge apartments development in Lancaster and owner of the former Warehouse nightclub, which is now up for sale.

"We're going through a torrid time like a lot of property-related businesses at the moment," he said. "It's very difficult keeping one's head above the water.

"I'm at various meetings with bankers and legal advisors trying to restructure and get the business surviving basically. Without my licence it's proving very difficult."

Miss Lisa Judge, defending, suggested the ban might be reduced to three days a week. But Judge, Mr Roger Farley, decided to quash it altogether. Tudor Whelan will now apply to recover the costs associated with the application.

In 2006 Mr Tudor Whelan was paid more than 50,000 for the Roman gravestone which went on show to the public this week.

http://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/local/businessman-has-driving-ban-overturned-1-1173194

About the find (under one of his developments): http://forums.canadi...-tombstone.html

The developer confirmed to The Times that he was "in discussion" over selling it through Sotheby's. Asked how he had felt when it was unearthed, he said: "The archaeological guys were more excited than me. I thought, 'Oh my God, this will hold up the development'. At the end, the proof of the pudding is how much it is worth."

Edited November 28, 2013 by Venger

[cybernoid]

They rode a bubble. Good for them, but as we all know on here it wasn't a victimless situation and they were on the right side of it. Its not as if they could have ever experienced the lifestyle they had under more usual circumstances. They were lucky to have lived as they did... it is not sad they no longer have it, it is lucky they came to know it at all.

[Venger]

They rode a bubble. Good for them, but as we all know on here it wasn't a victimless situation and they were on the right side of it. Its not as if they could have ever experienced the lifestyle they had under more usual circumstances. They were lucky to have lived as they did... it is not sad they no longer have it, it is lucky they came to know it at all.

Banks can sell on debt to other institutions? She seems not to have known this basic fact. Wonder what some of money they put aside to pay for legal and other financial advise along the way.

Maybe their 'case' forms part of the Tomlinson report. So many businesses that are "viable" if they weren't over-extended with so much debt, outbidding others in the market along the way, with free-spending luxury habits to support.

The report, by Lawrence Tomlinson, the "Entrepreneur in residence at Mr Cable's department, claimed RBS put some "good and viable" businesses into default for profit.

[Millaise]

So they reckoned their portfolio was worth £30Million, but it was auctioned off for £10Million when the bank called in the loans.

Makes me wonder whether this reflects the true level of house price overvaluation...3 bed semis should typically be around £70k?

There was an interesting post in the DM comment section suggesting that receivers bill the bank to the tune of about £750 an hour, so this ensures that there is never any money left over.

[Nationalist]

The article doesn't quite explain how the banks managed to move in on them. Was it a margin call? Or were mortgages repayable on demand at no notice? Seems unlikely.

Perhaps they were already in arrears in the "good" times.

The scandal we haven't had yet is the administrators giving kick-backs to bankers for feeding them businesses to eat. Admins cream off the top so it could be a nice little earner.

[cashinmattress]

The story itself is preposterous.

These shysters probably brought down a football teams worth of suckers ('investors') who helped finance their lavish lifestyle.

Imagine the dinner party convo's now...

[John51]

On the dole and renting a car?

[The Knimbies who say No]

On the dole and renting a car?

Yes, best not to get too worked up over the Wail's take on things, probably mostly fiction.

[StainlessSteelCat]

Shame it wasn't the Wilsons.

At least it sounds like it was a commercial property empire rather than BTL. But, yes, basically too much leverage for the banks to feel comfortable and not quite big enough to be too big to fail (and take the banks down with them if the banks called it in).

[winkie]

Maybe if they hadn't spent so much money freely and easily, and instead invested it back into their business whilst at the same time repaying their debt obligations they would have not gone under......not the first, not the last.