Buy to Let Magnate Defends Controversial Schemes

Simon Morris, a buy to let magnate from Leeds has defended himself over the controversial schemes of his buy to let firm Morris Properties. Dozens of investors who bought properties from Morris Properties, a subsidiary of SRM Holdings claimed that the properties were sold at inflated prices and failed to cover mortgage payments, which resulted in the repossession of the properties. Some investors attempted to cover the losses by selling the properties and learnt that they had depreciated by an average of £100,000. Simon Morris has been battling the allegations from investors for around 2 years. His company, SRM Holdings, and its subsidiaries were first placed in administration and soon after that Morris himself was arrested in Leeds and accused of fraud and money laundering. However, no charges were brought against Simon Morris. He claimed that the properties were priced adequately and that he could not be blamed for the fact that things went bad when the investors bought the property, especially given that they had a choice not to buy. He also said that the properties that are claimed to be “overpriced” were bought by the investors when they were on top of the market, which led to their inevitable depreciation during the financial crisis. Let us remind that Morris’ scheme involved buying properties and renovating them, after what they were sold to investors as buy to let properties. Buyers were offered a gift of 15% deposit if they were able to secure 85% of the buy to let mortgage. Morris said the company could afford offering its clients a discount because it worked on the volume. It was worked in firm’s margins and the company made less profit.