Berkeley Homes Collective

Collective Update

In response to the high-level of continued media interest and multiple enquiries, we have decided to post this update to let you know the current situation with the Berkeley Homes Collective.

Since the group began in 2008 we have provided support, guidance and a collective front against Berkeley Homes who were intent on bullying individuals with their high-pressure sales and closure techniques and subsequent heavy-handed threats to those who could not complete on the original terms. Berkeley didn’t expect to deal with a highly organised group of buyers and we were able push back on Berkeley’s demands.

The group was called the “Berkeley Homes Collective” because we are a group of people with common experiences and all with similar problems with Berkeley Group. The group has a flat structure with no appointed leaders – it is a collective of individual people with a common goal.

We campaigned outside their marketing suites, gatecrashed their 2009 AGM and were featured in dozens of national press articles, TV programmes and radio shows. At the same time, we noticed that Berkeley went through 3 PR companies and it was obvious that they were ill-prepared to deal with a customer revolt. The writing was on the wall and they should have seen it coming – we gave them plently of warning that we were all facing problems with mortgages and completion funding since early 2008 – still it made our campaign a lot easier dealing with a disorganised bunch of old suits.

Most of the Caspian buyers have resolved their disputes in various ways. Berkeley’s love of secrecy means most people will not speak about what happened to them in the end, therefore we are reliant on the public record to find out what happened with the cases filed at the High Court. According to the public record, none of the cases filed by Berkeley at the High Court in London in relation to Caspian Wharf actually made it to trial. If you know differently, please let us know and we will update the blog. We believe that all of the cases in relation to Berkeley’s London developments were filed at the High Court, but there may be isolated cases outside London at local County Courts – if you have information you would like to share, please email admin@berkeleyhomescollective.com

Buyers at the Royal Arsenal development are still being held in limbo nearly 2 years after their contracts were rescinded and initial legal threats issued. Berkeley sent out pre-action protocol letters in July 2009 (the step before actually initiating legal action at the High Court) and then abruptly stopped. These buyers have lost their deposits, lost their flats but are not released from their contracts, even now (May 2011).

Berkeley could come looking to sue them sometime up to 6 years after the rescission date. Quite why Berkeley has decided to leave all of these people in limbo, no-one really knows, but its perhaps due to the PR disaster and complete failure of their attempts to drag the Caspian buyers through the courts. Berkeley got no-where and racked up huge legal bills as well as generating a load of bad PR in the process. No point in suing people for damages if they don’t have any money – that’s the first rule of litigation! Nonetheless, we’d ask BH to do the right thing and bring closure to the Royal Arsenal cases and let people get on with their lives. Surely, you are not going to keep them hanging on for the next 4 or so years?