Daniel Burton from Unida Place Resurfaces

Daniel Burton from Unida Place Resurfaces

8:01 AM, 29th November 2013, About 11 years ago 5

Text Size

Channel 4 TV have tracked down Daniel Burton of Unida Place in Scunthorpe. The self proclaimed “Rent to Rent Guru” vanished from London back in August this year leaving both landlords and tenants 10’s of thousands of pounds of of pocket. More details in this 5 minute News clip courtesy of Channel 4 TV. Daniel Burton Unida Place

Mark Alexander, founder of Property118.com said….

“obviously we feel for the tenants who have lost their deposits but landlords arguably have an even bigger problem. They let their properties to Unida Place in good faith but probably have a very small chance of being compensated for any losses they will now suffer as a result of lost rent, damaged properties, fines for unlicensed HMO’s and any Court awarded damages for evictions undertaken by Unida Place and unprotected deposits. Many of these landlords will still be housing tenants who paid Daniel Burton’s company but rents were not passed to them. Burton’s agreements with tenants are equally spurious, possibly even unenforceable.  These tenants will probably hold the property owners responsible for their losses. We saw the potential of a disaster such as this looming and had a Rent to Rent agreement professionally drafted by renowned contracts Solicitor Justin Selig to hold operators such as Daniel Burton personally accountable to property owners. Sadly Mr Burton didn’t use this Rent to Rent agreement.

Fortunately, not all Rent to Rent operators are rogues and many of them want to to the right thing by their landlord and tenant customers. More ethical operators are prepared to put their money where their mouth is and have purchased the Rent to Rent contract template, as have many property owners who are attracted to the concept of the scheme which can work well if operated by a financially sound and trustworthy business.”


Share This Article


Comments

Neil Patterson

10:06 AM, 29th November 2013, About 11 years ago

No chance of anyone getting their deposits back. He obviously used the money on starting a new business hundreds of miles away.

What a joke that Legal and General vet him first. Did they ring his mum?

Daniel is just typical of the hundreds of idiots I have seen in the housing market over the years that think they are being clever. They convince themselves and gullible people around them into believing their own nonsense.

They just have no experience or understanding of how the real market works. What happens is people research and understand 10% of the market with no understanding or knowledge that the other 90% even exists and then think they have all the answers.

DO NOT believe anyone that says they have something that sounds too good to be true.

Rant over.

11:38 AM, 29th November 2013, About 11 years ago

The sad thing is that Daniel Burton was lauded as the U.K.'s No.1 Rent to Rent expert and asked to speak at high profile events, upselling newbies to his courses.

On that basis, it seems that Whitegates were not the only people not to do any due diligence on Mr. Burton.

Simply putting Unida Place into google brought up horrific reviews from tenants who had lost significant amounts of money or who had been treated very badly.

When I tried to warn against this, I was attacked by the GRQ community for being a naysayer and neg head.

There is a lot more to come out about the Daniel Burton/Unida Place story I think ...

Neil Patterson

12:19 PM, 29th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Vanessa Warwick" at "29/11/2013 - 11:38":

If they think you are a Neg head they would really love me NOT!

Keep up the good Fight on Property Tribes Vanessa as GRQ schemes are nearly always immoral, illegal and ill thought out.

I wish you had conducted the C4 interview. That would have been brilliant !!

13:53 PM, 29th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Thank you Neil.

If we, as a community, do not speak out against the rogues then we will get tarred with the same brush.

A am not anti-anything ... just pro the truth.

Well done to Mark, you, and the P118 community for also promoting best practice.

At the end of the day, tenants are our clients, and without them, none of us have a business.

I will always speak out for treating tenants with respect and giving them a safe home, protecting their deposits, and dealing with maintenance issues in a timely manner.

Tenants are people, not a rent payment for the likes of Daniel Burton to be the Emporer with the new clothes!!!!!

Mark Hulbert

20:14 PM, 29th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Clearly we do need best practice and to keep our industry reputation as good as possible. Having said that, many businesses founder, for a variety of reasons. Daniel Burton admits that he has made mistakes and tenants have been treated badly. I've only seen him speak on one occasion, and I've watched the Ch4 interview - and I don't think he is the type of person who would have done this deliberately; he needs to be given the chance to repay his debts and turn over a new leaf. What would be really useful would be for him to continue to give his lectures and explain/warn us all about what went wrong, how it happened, and help us (and him) to avoid such problems in future.

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

or

Don't have an account? Sign Up

Landlord Tax Planning Book Now