ELLIS PROPERTY PARTNERSHIP

[CroatiaSun]

Has anyone had any dealings with this company? Are they legitimate?? Are they related to this site??

[Peter Ellis]

A client mentioned them the other day. They are nothing whatsoever to do with us and we don't know who they are otherwise. They appear to be taking a substantial fee from people and saying they will find them a property in Croatia, on which IIRC they then also want a fee.
As far as I can see they offer nothing that someone couldn't do for themselves on the internet for nothing.

I certainly wish they had a completely different name! They are not related to us in any way.

[CroatiaSun]

Thanks for clearing this up. I am a bit concerned as they are offering apartments for sale that I know for a fact are sold!!
Is there anyone I can notify to make sure these apartments are taken off their website??

[Lorna]

Ellis property partnership is based in Bletchingly in Surrey, you can find their address if you go to findaproperty.com

[B Heywood]

I've had some dealings with this company: my wife and I were looking for a house to buy on Vis island, and came across Bernard Ellis' firm on www.findaproperty.co.uk, where we saw an advert for a house for sale on Vis that sounded absolutely amazing. A terrace, sea view, right on the harbour front, £80,000, in good condition.

The catch? He wanted £1000 just for us to view the place!

There was no chance we were going to do that, but we needed more information on it, so humoured him and asked for a photo or two, confident that from said photos we would be able to figure out where it was and have a look ourselves when we returned to the island - after all, it's crazy to pay that sort of money merely for a viewing, refundable on purchase or not.

On receipt of the two photos, his property turned out to be exactly the same as a renovation project we had seen on the website of a company called Dalmatianvilla, that we had booked to view on our next visit 10 days hence - for €80,000!

The photos were identical, too - and he was wanting to charge a whopping €40,000 more than another agent for the same property…? We should have known – if things sound too good to be true it’s usually because they are.

We paid €50 to view the place through Dalmatianvilla, and...

First things first – the asking price may well have been €80,000, but they’d be lucky to get half that seeing as the place would need a further €200,000 in order to make it habitable. It was HUGE, but not far off a ruin. Stairs wobbled, floors creaked, walls shook, and there was a mummified, dead rat on the landing. Some doors wouldn’t open, there was only half a roof, and while the terrace was great, the stairs leading up to it required a few Hail Marys to climb. Rotting floorboards, cracked masonry...

Oh - and it didn't have a sea-view at all.

Not exactly as advertised! We contacted Bernard Ellis thereafter and offered to send him a copy of the video we made of the viewing (standard for each place we saw). To his credit he took our concerns about misleading adverts on board, but my advice would be simple - avoid using such middle men. They clearly don't check over their properties before advertising them and then charge a grand to view rubble. Use reputable local agents you can trust instead - and do plenty of your own research first; properties are advertised when not actually for sale in Croatia as well as the UK...

Buyer beware, indeed...

PS - We found our dream house the same day through another agency, bought it in september and are doing it up as we speak.

BH

[BEllis]

FOT THR ATTENTION OF PETER ELLIS

Dear Peter,


We have not met but I would welcome the opportunity.

I regret that there has been some confusion due to us having the same surname and to put the matter right, I will be changing the name of our company.

I would be grateful for the opportunity to explain to your readers who we are and what we do, and answer the comments made by B.Heywood which were posted on February 16th 2005 at 10:19 am.

Firstly - who are we?

My name is Bernard Ellis and I am an acquisition agent who has been visiting Croatia for over 25 years. I have many contacts and friends in the country. I understand the system of purchasing and selling property and have considerable experience in this field from having conluded over the years many purchases and sales on a regular basis on behalf of clients.

How do we differ from estate and real estate agents?

We only represent the buyer and not the seller. We provide a personal service on a one-to-one basis by firstly establishing from England the buyers particular requirements and then by offering suitable properties which meet their criteria.

We have an extensive connection of local dealers who will source properties for our clients. Often these properties are not generally advertised for sale but we obtain the details of what somebody is thinking of selling or our contacts know of someone who may own several houses and would be open to receiving an offer for one of them. Our contacts also keep in touch with classified advertisements in local Croatian newspapers. Apart from this we have good connections with estate agents and builders with whom we cooperate rather then compete.

What therefore can I offer my clients more then they can either do for themselves or obtain from estate or real estate agents operating in Croatia?

Twenty five years experience in the Croatian property market and unlimited time and attention to meet their individual needs. Many of my clients do not have the time to research the market for themselves and this is where we come in by helping them to locate what they are looking for and by doing all the ground work.

Other clients do not have the time or live in counties too far away from Croatia to allow for regular inspections so we do it for them. They can rely on us to give an impartial description and report because we have no vested interests with the seller and only represent the buyers.

In the last 6 weeks I have travelled to Croatia with 5 different clients, all of whom purchased one or more properties because we had clearly identified their needs before we left England. Last week I travelled to Croatia with a journalist and a well known theatre critic and today I asked her for a reference and to follow is what she said:-

You’ve heard it’s an ‘emerging market’ and you dream of a lovely little house or apartment in Croatia. Maybe you’ve even been doing some background research. But, if like me you have little time to make many visits and explore the options, how do you go about finding that holiday home?

I’m used to researching, it’s my job as a writer and journalist. But even so the amount of information out there on the internet, television and in publications can be overwhelming. At some point you have to make a choice and happily for me it was the right one. I decided to use the services of Ellis Property Partnership.

I arrived, with a fellow investor, at Heathrow Airport to meet Bernard Ellis who was accompanying us to Croatia to view properties. We’d had discussions ahead of time on location, size and price. Bernard has been visiting Croatia for over 25 years so was very useful and helpful in refining our search. I had been regularly checking the website for new additions and also knew his people on the ground in Croatia were keeping an eye open for something that would suit.

Everything went extremely smoothly. Bernard had booked our flight tickets and accommodation and we just reimbursed him. When we arrived in Split we were met by Denis, Bernard’s contact, and were driven to our hotel in Split. The next two days were packed with viewings. We were looking for an apartment we could use but also let. We saw off-plan, on-plan, mainland and island. Everything was organised and we were driven to each site. It went like clockwork. We even managed a little sunbathe at a café table in between visits.

Not only was the whole process so simple but we were travelling with people who know the country well, speak the language, and could answer any of the questions we might have. And yes, in just two days we found our place in the sun. We will be close to Split in a brand new apartment overlooking the ocean. It’s just a ten minute walk down into Trogir, a most delightful town by the sea. The architecture reminds me of Venice and I’m looking forward to sunny lazy days sitting by the palm-lined promenade with a glass of lovely Croatian wine. That’s of course when I’m not on my own terrace with its sea view.

We’re still have to go through the legal process but will have our hands held all the way. There will be no worries over finding a local solicitor or notary as that will be arranged for us. When we finally get the keys we have decided to use the company in Croatia to provide a reasonably priced furnishing package. And then the adventure starts when we go out and see it finished and ready to use.

I was most impressed with Croatia and equally impressed with the service provided by Ellis Property Partnership. I couldn’t have imagined an easier time.

Michele Nevard ( writer ) London 16th March 2005


This encapsulates our service.

We are not a large company and I work as an individual assisting those who require my expertise by undertaking to try to help them to find exactly what they are looking for. I ask them to make a commitment to me by paying a £1000 subscription fee because my service is extremely labour intensive and therefore I can only deal with serious buyers. This registration fee is refunded by way of a deduction from the 5% commission I charge on a successful purchase. Each person who subscribes to the service receives an agreement which clearly sets out our conditions of engagement. Anybody who is not satisfied with the service we offer will have a refund of the £1000 subscription. There is no time limit to our service and we will continue with the client for as long as it takes to find what they are looking for. We oversee all the formalities and legalities to make sure the property has a clean title and when successfully purchased it is correctly registered in their name.

We are not a "fly-by-night" company. We have substantial assets and have banked for twenty years with:-

Coutts and Co, 440 Strand, London, WC2R 0QS

Any prospective client is welcome to ask their bank manager to contact our bank who will willingly supply a reference regarding our respectability and trustworthiness.

Lastly, concerning the report from R. Heywood, these were not clients of ours. They did not pay a subscription and we were not representing their interests. They did contact me to tell me they were trying to buy a property on the Island of Vis. At that time the neighbour of my partner from Bosnia Herzegovina had bee offered a house in Vis, which neither of us had seen, but which we did advertise for sale on the instructions of the owner. I told R. Heywood about the property, but also made it clear that I had not personally inspected it and could make no comment regarding the condition of the property or the asking price. They said they were going to Vis in any case and if I could obtain some photos and the address they would look at the property. We supplied this to assist them and also my partner's neighbour. Mr Heywood makes some comment about the price but for certain if they had been interested this would have been negotiable and the vendor would only have been able to expect to receive the value of the property, which may have been completely different from the price he is asking. As for the cost of renovations, I can not comment other then to say that it is in no way feasible to spend €200,000 renovating a small property of that size and if they were clients of mine I would certainly be recommending that they obtain some alternative quotations.

As for the £1000.00 subscription fee well this as you will now have noted is refundable and is only made to avoid time wasters so that we can concentrate our efforts on serious buyers and give them as much of our time as they need.

Now I welcome the opportunity for you to publish this letter in your chat room and as I visit Croatia frequently it would also be a pleasure to meet you, at which time you will know that I am sincere in my endeavours, that I do give good value for money, and on a personal level I can say I only do this work because

" I love Croatia. I love meeting people and assisting people to find something nice in a stunningly beautiful country which has enormous potential for rising rental income and good capital growth "

I look forward to hearing from you

VERY KIND REGARDS


BERNARD ELLIS
ELLIS PROPERTY PARTNERSHIP
SPRING HOUSE
SPRING BOTTOM LANE
BLETCHINGLEY
SURREY
RH1 4QZ.

Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Mobile: [phone]

E-Mail: [e-mail]

[B Heywood]

Dear Bernard

Thanks for your email. I can understand that my remarks may well have upset you - however, I don't think what I reported was in any way inaccurate - everything that I have posted had in fact already been communicated to you, practically verbatim (I pasted my "post" from the email I sent you).

The reason we felt that your service has been misleading is because you were advertising the property in question as something it was not. You did indeed admit to us you had not seen it yourself, but your original advert in no way reflected what was actually for sale, and on our return to the UK, after we had made contact, your advert had not even been amended. I admit that you were under no obligation at any time to supply us with the two photographs; however, this was the minimum we demanded to see before considering parting with £1000 that would be refundable only if we completed through you!

After we realised the house was the same as one we were already booked to see through another agent, we declined to use your services further.

As it turned out, it was just as well, given that the house hads no usable ceilings, floors, stairs, furnishings, roof, and that each walls were structurally unsound! The video we made of our viewing shows this all too clearly - and given that it is surrounded on all sides by other residences it would not only need the work I estimated, but also permission from each neighbour and the adjoining Hotel Tamaris. To restore this former small hotel (300sqm - not that small at all!) would require serious structural work, the likes of which cause noise and take a lot of time. €200,000 was a conservative estimate, as you'll be able to see when I finally remember to send you a copy of our tape. I don't really feel you are in a position to challenge my estimate right now given that only one of us has to this point actually seen the property...

I have no quarrel with the Bernard Ellis Partnership, or the way you do business. You are quite free to do as you please. On an open forum I have simply expressed my opinion that the buyer might be better off doing more of their own research. Essentially, your advert was hugely misleading, your sales price was 50% greater than that advertised locally by two different estate agents and you hoped to charge £1000 for anyone to even view it when local agents will do so for just €50 - or less! There may be many people looking to invest in a Croatian property that have less time and more money than me; I'm sure your service would suit them just fine. For someone looking purely to get a good deal, however, even you have to admit the figures mentioned above just don't stack up in your favour...

I wish you every success for the future, but respectfully suggest - as before - that you do at least look at the properties you are advertising before offering them for sale. I wouldn't put a deposit down to buy a car I'd neither seen nor driven. And without having seen or driven it, I wouldn't sell it either. Would you?

With very best wishes

Ben Heywood

PS. Then house we did buy is being renovated as we speak. It's going to look beautiful.

[Croatiasun]

I would also like to put in my 2 pence worth... I have recently bought two properties, both of which the Bernard Ellis Partnership are actively selling as available, which they are clearly not.

A friend has also bought three and my brother has bought one, again, all of which you are offering for sale.

By the way, we bought these properties without any problems, nor did we pay anyone a "fee" to view them. We didnt even pay commission upon completion.

www.croatiasun.co.uk

[Bernard Ellis]

There still seems to be some confusion about the conditions of service of The Ellis Property Partnership.

We do not sell information we offer a service and it is a very good one ( see reply # 5 - March 16th 2005 )

We offer the service for 5% commission of the purchase price of a succrssful purchase. It is good value for money and we have very many satisfied clients.

We charge a subscription fee of £1000.00 so that we can identify genuine buyers from casual enquiries. This upfront refundable fee enables us to use our time with those who really want and need our help. Without any doubt there are those who don't such as Ben Heywood who rightly did not use the service and the writer of " reply 7 " who also did not use our service and why should he having no need of our help and doing very well on his own.

If you don't need the service, don't use it and dont pay for it, but why knock it because it does assists many people from all over the world and is a great help to many buyers.

IF ANY OF OUR SUBSCRIBERS ARE NOT HAPPY WITH THE SERVICE WE GIVE WE REFUND THE £1,000.00 SUBSCRIPTION FEE

WE ONLY WANT TO DEAL WITH THOES WHO WE ARE ABLE TO ASSIST AND NEED OUR HELP

May I ask " reply 7 " to supply the details of the six properties purchased by him, his friend and his brother. I will check them out and if the information is correct I will remove the properties from our lists and thank " reply 7 " for his help.

The same applies to any other visitor to the chat room, and details of any inaccuracies will be gratefully received and acted upon

THE BIG POINT IS DOES THE CHAT ROOM WANT TO HELP IN A POSITIVE WAY OR IS IT JUST A FORUM FOR UNLOADING ROCKS AND AS NUMBER 7 SAYS " PUT IN HIS 2 PENCE WORTH " CONSTRUCTIVE OR JUST A PLACE TO GAIN POINTS ON SOME SORT OF AN EGO TRIP

The replies that follow, if any, will speak for themselves as did number 7's reply.

I WILL NOT DEFEND OUR SERVICE AGAIN IN THE CHAT ROOM BUT I WILL ASSIST IN ANY WAY THAT I CAN ANYBODY WHO WOULD LIKE MY HELP.

YOU CAN CONTACT ME ON "[e-mail] "

BERNARD ELLIS
ELLIS PROPERTY PARTNERSHIP

[JC]

Bernard,

I know the Croatian market well and have looked at some of the properties you offer on the web. They do strike me as being extremely expensive.

If you changed all you pound signs to Euros you would be closer to market prices (but still some way away). Are you suffering from a technical glitch or should your buyers doubly beware?

[BERNARD ELLIS]

FOR GUEST JC REPLY 7

Thank you for your comments.

The asking prices are negotiable, but I welcome your comments. Why not be specific?

Please contact me, if you can offer positive assistance " I WILL ACT ON IT "

I hope to hear from you


BERNARD ELLIS
ELLIS PROPERTY PARTNERSHIP
SPRING HOUSE
SPRING BOTTOM LANE
BLETCHINGLEY
SURREY
RH1 4QZ
ENGLAND
TEL 00 44 ( 0 ) 1 883 346 365
FAX 00 44 ( 0 ) 1 883 344 719
MOBILE [phone]
E-MAIL [e-mail]
[e-mail]

[ndilvgbmrxr]

MY LAST REPLY WAS FOR GUEST 9 NOT 7 SORRY BUT I HOPE TO HEAR FROM JC

[BEllis]

Please note that from the 1st April 2005 the Ellis Property Partnership will be changing the name of the company to; Croatian Acquisitions Limited

There may be some time lapse during which the name Ellis Property Partnership will still be used, but I am sure that Peter Ellis will be happy to note our action to avoid any confusions caused by us having the same surname. It was easy to change the name of my company, but Peter will understand that I will not be able to change my surname!

The confusion has proved unsatisfactory for our company as well as Peter Ellis.