Mitzyboy

BBC Watchdog just did a programme on a couple of Austrians who have been ripping off brits on cds selling German Huut homes and then not building them. Sad to see that even with a solicitor and all the correct checks people still lost huge amounts of money.

The only thing the solicitor seemingly didn't do is check to see if the couple were agents for Huut homes - if they had they would have found they weren't

pwwm

Hi Mitzyboy

I just watched that as well, as you say even the solicitors etc got sucked in, and if it was really that easy to call the manufacturer, why didn't they? quite interesting though, usual scam with the "not time share".
On a similar note I was stopped in Winchester last year and asked where I take my holidays, I promptly told him I was on holiday, he then waffled on and said "no I mean where do you go abroad" to which I answered of course "I am abroad" he could not handle that one, so funny!

I digress, usual sort of watchdog programme nothing new really but...... I had heard though about the health scams.

Regards to all
pwwm

Hillybilly

Unfortunately people all too often take other people at their word regarding being an agent for this or a member of that or having this qualification or that endorsement.
Last year I met a couple who used a real estate agent who had printed on their business cards the NAEA logo (National Association of Estate Agents, of whom there are approx 40 members in Spain). They were not in fact members at all as a simple visit to the NAEA website followed by an email confirmed. They were taken in, to their cost. It's another warning to check things out for yourself.

Mitzyboy

What was the health scam .... my accountant arrived and I had to pop upstairs to the office

Nige

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and...20060509.shtml

Huut ? That's definately a scam. Who would fall for a name like Huut.

jdr

A few years ago, being an advertising plumber, I was sent a letter saying if I wanted to be come a Member of the Guild of Tradesmen, to send a cheque for 12 quid, and they didn`t even know who I was.
So much for paperwork

pwwm

Hi Mitzyboy

re the health aspect it was holiday makers around Benidorm and Canary islands, the Benidorm one was that, as I am sure you know if you have the new health card is it EHIC? not too sure. you get treated free in Spain, But hotel were sending sick and injured Brits to the local private hospital and not the NHS one, hence they were paying, but the team sent in a spanish speaking person to ask the same hotel receptionist where to go ,and she directed him to the NHS hospital.

The one in the Canary's, I am sorry but cannot remember if it was Tenerife or Lanzarote was a doctor called "Dr Needle" not her real name but she would inject people for anything and everything after taking a credit card number , one chap was told back in the UK that all he needed was 5 days antibiotic but she charged him 200 euros for daily injection.

Maybe holiday makers are not aware that here, as in UK we have private and NHS hospital, if I remember rightly the one in Benidorm was Hospital Levante.

Dull and cloudy today, typical as we have visitors arriving who will no doubt gloat and say it was sunny when they left the UK.

pwwm

Mitzyboy

Newspaper article .... got the name wrong origianlly

For many people, the idea of upping sticks and starting a new life in Spain is just a dream. But for at least 300,000 Brits it's a reality. That's how many of us now live as ex-pats, and the number is growing all the time.

But what if you'd poured your life savings, maybe even all your pension, into buying a dream home, only to get ripped off? That's the desperate situation many of the victims of the 'Huf Haus' scam found themselves in.

The scam was perpetrated by an Austrian couple called Wolfgang and Martina Kuehne, who ran a building company known as TS Construcciones from a base near Benidorm.

Huf Haus is a highly respected German company that builds ultra-modern designer pre-fab houses from glass and steel. It gained a huge following in the UK after the Channel 4 show, Grand Designs, featured one being built in under three months.

The Keuhnes marketed themselves, falsely, as the sole agent for the company Huf Haus in Spain and took vast upfront payments from unlucky customers promising to build a Huf Haus but never actually carrying out the work.

Because they lived in a genuine Huf Haus, which they'd leased from the Huf Haus company itself, they were able to pass themselves off as genuine. Unknown to the Huf Haus company, the Keuhnes used the house as a 'show home,' claiming to have built it themselves as a huge 3D example of their construction handiwork.

One victim told Watchdog how the Keuhnes ran their fraud. "Martina and Wolfgang were a very pleasant couple, welcoming, pleasant, professional. There was nothing there to ring any alarm bells: The fact that they were living in and showing us a Huf Haus made it right," says Denise Highley.

"They said it was a Huf Haus - we could see it was. Their brochure said that they built Huf Hauses, there were lots of pictures of Huf Hauses."

Denise and Jack parted with over €65,000 euro (£40,000) in upfront payments before they realised they'd been taken for a ride. The Keuhnes simply ignored their complaints and carried on stealing money to fund a luxury lifestyle.

The Keuhnes robbed many others: Watchdog spoke to seven British families who had all been fleeced for amounts ranging from 80,000 to over 100,000 euros. The list of victims also includes Dutch, Germans and Swiss ex-pats, many of whom were retirees such as the Highleys.