Would-be home buyers lose thousands on unfinished flats

Prospective buyers say they feel "lied to" and "angry" after losing thousands of pounds reserving unfinished flats.

People paid up to £5,000 as a "reservation deposit" for apartments in Tollesbury House, Ipswich, with some being told it was expected to be finished in November 2022.

The development remains uninhabited and, after losing the fee when she pulled out, one buyer has been left asking "how long do you wait for something to be built?".

The JaeVee group, the developer, denied any misconduct and said "buyers were required to exchange contracts within an agreed timeframe", adding they lost their non-refundable reservation deposits because they did not comply with contractual deadlines as was normal in the industry.

The group has ongoing plans for more than 500 properties - mostly flats - across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and London.

But some sites have faced years of delay, including Tollesbury House, a 16-apartment development in Ipswich's Duke Street, near the waterfront and university.

The BBC has seen a Facebook promotional video posted in January 2019 of JaeVee director Ben James Smith saying the development was expected to be finished in "15 to 18 months".

In 2022 - and with the flats still not completed - Janeane Slinn paid a £5,000 reservation deposit for an apartment.

The agreement was done with a "view to formally exchange sale contracts within six weeks" after receiving a pack from solicitors and stated an "anticipated completion date" of 29 November 2022.

Ms Slinn pulled out in March 2023 with the building still unfinished, but has been left out of pocket despite asking for her deposit back.

She said: "There must be something somewhere that says they've got to hold up their end of the deal as well as me holding up my end of the deal – they haven't built something."

Ms Slinn added: "You just feel a bit stupid, don't you? You think 'how gullible can you be to give £5,000 to people you don't even know who they are?'."

Asked about the delays at Tollesbury House, the developer said there had been a challenging economic environment across the sector during the past few years which had led to industry-wide delays.

Retired engineer Paul Sigston, 65, was looking for a home after moving back to the UK from the Netherlands in 2022. He also paid £5,000 as a "reservation deposit" and was given the same anticipated completion date in his reservation agreement.

But he asked for his money back in October 2022, writing in a letter to JaeVee that the walls weren't finished, there were no windows and "I don't think there is any chance the project will be ready for completion in November [2022]."

He said he received "absolutely no reply" to that letter and has not got his money back.

Two years later, Catherine Bullough paid £2,500 - a half-price discount for first-time buyers - in March 2024 to take a flat "off the market".

"From then on in the problems began," she claimed.

The 32-year-old was given an "anticipated completion date" of 8 May 2024 and visited weekly, excited to see progress, but "there was just absolutely nothing happening".

"Even the management office that was there when I went to look around had packed up and left," she said.

"I was being put under real pressure by the sales team to exchange contracts. I was getting phone calls most days... yet the property remained looking exactly the same."

Ms Bullough pulled out in September 2024 and while she was aware her deposit was non-refundable believed the agreement was void "because they hadn't fulfilled their end of the contract".

"I feel like the whole experience from start to finish was one of being lied to, being told false information time and time again about what was happening with the sale and with the property and it's impacted me massively," she said.

Ms Bullough said she "can't believe" others were "in the same position" as her.

"We all handed our money over, we've all not seen any of what we were promised and it makes me so angry."

Director of JaeVee Mr Smith told the BBC "at no stage did [JaeVee] say the apartments were ready at the point of reservation".

He said: "Withdrawals occurred due to buyers failing to exchange, not due to [JaeVee's] actions.

The company said the building work at Tollesbury House, which is part of a much larger phased development, would be finished in May.

The developer pointed to a challenging economic environment across the sector over the last few years which had caused industry wide delays.

The JaeVee-linked group uses private investment to help fund the purchase of sites for development, like Tollesbury House, and advertises returns to investors of up to 100% when those properties are developed and then sold.

The BBC has spoken to an investor who - tempted by these sorts of returns - invested more than £84,000 combined in JaeVee's Ferry Boat Inn project in Norwich and Eastern Escape in north London in the summer of 2019.

More than five years on, one of the JaeVee subsidiary companies developing the sites is in administration and the other is in receivership.

The investor said communication had been sporadic but JaeVee "did like to contact [us] when they were looking for money for more investments – that seemed to happen a lot more frequently than giving updates on the current ones".

The JaeVee group has said it is in the process of buying back both the Eastern Escape and the Ferry Boat Inn sites using a bridging loan and that the interests of investors in these projects were being protected.

The investor - who has expressed fears for their money - said they had felt some reassurance as JaeVee was sending out more detailed updates on projects than it had in the past, but they are still waiting to see results.

Director Mr Smith said the "situation highlights a broader issue within the unregulated property development finance sector" and claimed lenders can exert pressure on put development companies "to extract additional fees and penalties from borrowers".

While seven Jaevee group-linked companies are in administration or receivership, Mr Smith told the BBC the group had an "extensive portfolio of successful developments, demonstrating our commitment to investor success and project delivery".

They include a "boutique" hotel in Wymondham, Norfolk, "high-end" residential homes in Northbourne, Kent, and turning a former seafront hotel in Sheringham, Norfolk, into flats.

He claimed "these examples reinforce that JaeVee has consistently acted in the best interests of its investors".