TLF Anti-Rip Off Fund

[Lemonhead]

In light of the recent developments to one of the beloved members here, a number of ideas were mentioned for helping to prevent others from getting ripped off.

Phillip's idea for a general Pay Pal account and Shirley's suggestions that followed for a think tank of sort started the wheels of thought a turnin'.
I would like to springboard off of those good ideas and get a discussion going as to how we could best avoid further horror stories similar to Tess's.

Why don't we set up a fund of some sort to have a trusted, permanent legal representative for members? The shady legal pratices is the hurdle that would be easiest to bypass. The end result hopefully being one legal office to rep TLF members and assist in their property purchases in Turkey. I'm way out of my league here in regards to the legalities of such doings. Can one of our laywerly types please chime in?

Is it possible to have members do a cross check of who we've had sucess with? I'm sure Carol & Mushtaq's views and ideas of available references would be golden.

Perhaps it's all a pipe dream. But I still would like to hear if this is an idea worth looking into or if at all even possible. We have a lot of very savy members here and maybe we can kick around some ideas to take care of our own in this way or others.

Thanks for letting me start the topic. Even if it is far fetched.

Now get thinking.

[immac]

That sounds like a very bad idea. Way beyond the scope of a forum and full of legal and financial pitfalls.
People must be responsible for their own financial and legal affairs.

Ian

[newhorizon]

The raising funds idea is all a good idea BUT this is after one has already been ripped off. That said, if the inevitable has happened, it is nice to have general fund, maybe one that avoids Paypal fees of 3%? In general I try and avoid paypal/Ebay's partner as much as possible, unless I am forced to doing a transaction that involves E-Bay.
Paypal makes millions in fees for even receiving money -all the 3%'s do add up. Cannot a beneficiery/charity or even a savings bank account be set up that we can all donate to?

There has to be major changes in the way foreigners buy property in Turkey. The foreign investment needs protecting. Builders, agents etc need regulation and need to be answerable to someone?! At the moment there is nothing!
I'm also one statistic to add to the thousands who have paid all and got nothing and now paying more in legal fees...with what end is anyone's guess?!

To stop this happening to others in the future I think bigger action needs to be taken, other than chat shows, popular mag's - as we've been seeing this on tv programs, chat shows, small columns in glossy mags for years -has it changed anything? No.

By all means get the exposure but this needs bigger changes at government, Council levels to prevent this happening to others in the future.

[pineapple1]

In my humble opinion for what its worth I think each and everyone of us should write to the Conservative party pledging our support at the election if they enter talks with Turkey about the rip off merchants , ........ or cheat a bit like the govt and promise them too !!!!! I also think a charge of £10 a year membership would create a good start to any fund set up which could be paid into a bank or building society ..... And i have a Turkish Lawyers phone number in LONDON should anyone need it ......more trustable i think .....Diane

[saoirse]

I think the idea of a general fund is quite sound.

I am uncomfortable in pitching one deserving members cause against another especially as recently we have had at least 3 members very deserving including Tess

I appreciate such a funds use for legal advice etc could be difficult but surley its worth exploring

[Modgirl]

Not to sure if this will sound right, here goes. Why do we pay upfront for the property that we are interested in? does it sound to stupid to say that no one pays for any property ( off plan ) or otherwise as we do when we purchase at home maybe removing the temptation of spending money before the property is built. If builders realise that we don't pay untill all documentation and build are complete and that they will not see a penny of our hard earned cash. When you look at the amount of property not sold and empty should that not tell us that alarm bells should be ringing out and something may be amiss.

[Martyn]

Originally Posted by Modgirl

Not to sure if this will sound right, here goes. Why do we pay upfront for the property that we are interested in? does it sound to stupid to say that no one pays for any property ( off plan ) or otherwise as we do when we purchase at home maybe removing the temptation of spending money before the property is built. If builders realise that we don't pay untill all documentation and build are complete and that they will not see a penny of our hard earned cash. When you look at the amount of property not sold and empty should that not tell us that alarm bells should be ringing out and something may be amiss.

I think we all realise that now, many pay the lot up front but the best policy is only to pay a deposit until they are ready to hand over the completed documents.

[Terry the Celt]

I too think the idea of a fund is a good one.
I think the only problem you will find as with the Pebble Ali,Rainbow fund etc etc that being realistic its always the same hardcore of members who contribute to anything.
Yes we have 14000 members ok but I would be willing to bet that the people who give are perhaps less than 200.
That kind of support just isnt enough for a fully fledged legal fund and I for one get emotionally torn between the causes at times.
So many causes need support and the few who regularly contribute have difficulty doing the right thing.
I really dont think TLF has a large enough core of REGULAR SUPPORTERS to cope particularly as some members were even unhappy about a £5 a year membership fee not long ago.
Tess is a wonderful cause and rightly so but when I think about the fight to get poor Soo some money and donations to Pebbles memory,it is difficult relying on the same core of active members.
I would say for any donation fund the activity is well below 200 members and with a membership of 14000,the psyche of it has to change!!
Is it a forum just for discussion or are we going to be more generous as a TOTAL forum otherwise its unfair on Mushtaq who supports it all.
TLF membership of 14000 has to really give it some thought as to what they are prepared to do as we have too many inactive non participating ones to make some of these funds viable. The same caring ones are under pressure each time and that needs to be looked at.
Having said that I personally dont begrudge the lovely Tess ONE PENNY and I seriously think a lot more of the 14000 members should feel the same!!!

[KKOB]

I think we all need to accept that whilst we may have 14,000 registered members of the forum there is a hardcore of just a couple of hundred who are regular posters.

Many members on the list have either been banned for a variety of reasons or haven't posted anything for well over 12 months. Pick any page on the Members List and you see what I mean by looking in the "Last Visit" column.

There are also a large number of members who often visit the site and "lurk" but very rarely post.

[saoirse]

I wanna be a lurker-it sounds cool!

what do I do?