Claim Information for Nurture Investors
Investors in property schemes backed by Yale or Nurture Housing Association contracts may be eligible to join a ‘No Win, No Fee’ group action claim against their conveyancing solicitors.
You may be eligible to make a claim for the inflated purchase price of your unit, even if are currently receiving returns.
Our solicitors are currently reviewing investors’ paperwork and are offering free, no-obligation consultations and webinars for affected investors.
Am I eligible to claim?
If you purchased a property which was sold to you with a Yale or Nurture Housing Association agreement then you may have a claim against the solicitors who acted for you on your purchase. This claim will not affect your ownership of your property or your agreement with Nurture.
This page is intended to provide information about the proposed claim and to let you know how to participate.
We are currently working with a Top 100 UK law firm who are interested in progressing these claims as a ‘No Win, No Fee’ group action.
Key Information:
The proposed claim is against your solicitor and their insurers, not Nurture Housing Association.
The claim will not impact on your ownership of your apartment or your agreement with Nurture.
There is no upfront cost to participate in the claim and no commitment until you choose to sign up to the terms.
What is the claim about?
When you bought your property, a solicitor acted for you on your purchase. Their job was to check the paperwork and warn you about anything unusual or risky before you committed.
We are investigating whether many investors were not given those warnings — about the price they paid, about the agreement they signed with Yale or Nurture Housing Association, and about the risks inherent in the scheme.
If your solicitor should have warned you but didn’t, you may be entitled to claim compensation from them for professional negligence.
Solicitors in England and Wales must carry professional indemnity insurance, so a successful claim made against them is paid by their insurer.
The value of your claim will be broadly as follows;
The price you paid for the property, plus,
The interest you would have earned on that money if you had invested it elsewhere at a normal market rate of return, less,
The returns you have actually been paid since you invested, less,
The actual market value of the property now, which our research suggests is only a fraction of what you paid.
Why MIGHT I HAVE a claim?
We have reviewed documents and Land Registry records from investors across several developments. Our early findings point to several issues a careful solicitor should have spotted and explained.
These issues include:
The price you paid.
In many cases, an apartment was bought by an intermediate company and sold to the investor on the same day for around twice the price. Our enquiries suggest that this immediate increase in price was diverted to an offshore company. It did not go to the company who you would be relying on to pay your monthly returns.What your solicitor saw.
On a same-day resale, the buyer's solicitor should normally be able to see both transactions. Our solicitors will check if you were properly informed about the price difference and the identity of the seller.What you actually signed.
Investors seem to have been told that their property would be leased back from them by Nurture. The contracts we have seen appear to be management agreements rather than a leases.
Management agreements and leases are legally very different — this can have serious implications for who is responsible for the property and for the tenant.
The difference between a lease and a management agreement is important and should have been explained to you.The "exit after three years".
Many investors believed they are entitled to sell the property back after three years at a profit. In the agreements we have reviewed so far, that option does not exist. The buy-back option that does exist in the contracts is not able to be exercised by the purchaser.Costs and charges.
Some leases carry unusually high service charges or ground rents, which can reduce what the apartment is worth on their own.Whether the purchase was part of an ‘unregulated collective investment scheme’ (UCIS).
In the UK, a collective investment scheme (CIS) can only be promoted to the general public if it has been authorised or recognised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Schemes without that status are known as unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS), and it is illegal to promote them to ordinary retail investors. If a scheme was run without FCA authorisation or promoted in breach of these rules, investors may have grounds to recover their money.
The issues above are not yet proven, and each investor's position will depend on their own paperwork.
We are currently working with a Top 100 Legal Firm and a specialist barrister who are reviewing all of these issues and assessing investors’ position.
The more investor documents we can show them, the stronger their advice will be.
Will the claim affect my property?
This is the question we are asked most frequently, so here is the direct answer.
This claim will not involve Nurture Housing Association. Nurture is not a party to it, and the claim asks nothing of them. It is a claim against the firm of solicitors who acted for you on your purchase.
You will keep your apartment and your agreement. This claim will not mean you need to sell, forfeit, end your agreement with Nurture or give anything up.
This claim is about the past, not the future. It asks whether you were properly advised when you bought your property. That question has the same answer whether Nurture keeps paying or not.
If the payments continue as everyone hopes, you may still recover money for advice you should have had.
If the payments stop, you may be glad you protected your position while there was time to do so.
Why act now? I am still being paid.
We understand that investors’ main concern is the continuation of their monthly rental payments.
However, we would advise investors to check their eligibility to make a claim whilst they are still being paid for a number of reasons;
There is a time limit.
A claim like this must usually be brought within six years, often counted from the date you exchanged contracts. In some cases a further three year limitation period may run from when you first realised there was a problem, but that is harder to rely on. If you bought in 2020 or earlier, time may already be short.Records don't last forever.
Solicitors don't keep files indefinitely, and firms merge or close. Asking for your file now protects the evidence your claim depends on.Claim groups are often stronger together.
A group of investors sharing common evidence is usually stronger, and more cost-effective, than individuals going it alone.You may still have a claim even though your rent currently continues to be paid.
For all of these reasons we would strongly advise that investors check their position now rather than waiting.
How can I take part?
Taking part is very simple.
1. Register your interest.
This takes two minutes, online. Tell us your development, how much you paid and roughly when you bought.
2. Let our solicitors get your file.
We'll send you a simple authority form so our lawyers can request your file from your solicitor. You'll get a copy for your own records.
3. Our solicitors will review your file and will advise you on your position.
If you are eligible to make a claim, the solicitors will send you the terms on which they are willing to represent you.
The terms will be on a full ‘No Win, No Fee’ basis and there will be no payment required upfront. Their charges will be a percentage of the damages recovered on your behalf. You can decide at that stage if you want to proceed with your claim. You are not committed to anything before that.
There is nothing to pay at any stage before you have made a successful recovery and registering your interest does not commit you to anything.
Register your interest
Register your interest in joining the legal action group for Nurture investors.
Our solicitors are currently offering free, no-obligation reviews of Nurture investors’ documents to assess whether they may be eligible to join a legal claim against their conveyancing solicitors.
Keep up to date
We will also send you periodic updates on the progression of our action group and invitations to webinars for affected investors.