Forum Topic

Beware Chiswick Property Developer.

Sadly, Kam or Kambiz Babaee, the well-known TV personality billionaire property developer has been made bankrupt.  It has been published in The Gazette Notice ID: 4554512 – He is local to Chiswick. I hope he doesn’t owe anyone on this forum any money or is working on your property.

Jenny James ● 272d11 Comments

TV property developer Kam Babaee appears in court over allegations he swindled a businesswoman out of £ 2 million in rent.Via the Daily Mail. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13838927/TV-property-developer-appears-court-allegations-swindled-businesswoman-2million-rent.html

Jenny James ● 72d

I knew there would be more to this story. Kam or Kambiz Babaee is now listed to be in court for commercial fraud. Case number: CL-2024-000490 https://caseboard.io/cases/15f0929a-d082-40c3-872b-7bec34958376

Jenny James ● 81d

If agents don’t ‘value’ a property why do they send out marketing letters offering to do just that?

David Turner ● 235d

It's a surprisingly good read for a legal document. The judge finds it hard to hide his/her amusement in the judgement at some of the claims being made by Mr Babaee.

Francis Rowe ● 235d

Have you seen the judge’s decision and details of the IVA? It’s an interesting Sunday morning read. Search for ‘Oliver Elliot IVA Proposal Fails to Stop Bankruptcy’ on Google. He offered to pay his creditors 1p in every pound but only after Kam Babaee had earned £300k per annum. Apparently, he owes his friend John Caudwell £17.1m and with the other debt it totals £25.3m, but Kam Babaee’s only asset is a smart car worth £1,000! The judge said that Kam Babaee was attempting to 'rig' the vote on the IVA with a view to avoiding bankruptcy. Isn't this criminal? Kam Babaee sounds like a lovely, trustworthy man, not! I’m wondering where the £25+ million pounds has got to? I think there will be more from this story.

Jenny James ● 237d

I am not up to speed on the details of the case but I think Trump overvalued his assets to get loans and undervalued them when it came time to pay his taxes. In this case if an estate agent valuation was used it an application to remortgate then that could be problematic but it is probably correct to say that the price that an agent markets a property for is not normally seen as a proper valuation.

Francis Rowe ● 259d

I may be wrong but didn't the Trump situation have tax implications?

Nicholas Beard ● 260d

Just as a point of detail selling agents don't as a rule "value" a property, they assess and recommended and asking price.There is an important legal difference.Professional valuers are qualified and are primarily appointed by a lender to safeguard their exposure on the property.The final say so on the asking price is down to the owner and it's up to the agent to agree or decline to take the business.

Adrian Irving ● 260d

You may be right on this although misvaluing of assets is something that got Trump a huge fine and, whatever the circumstances, it will be skirting on the edge of illegality.The potential problem for the creditors is that the agent may be reluctant to sell the property at levels that the judge considered more justifiable because it would confirm the misvaluation. It might be an idea to speak to the regulator which I think for the agent concerned would be Property Mark (NAEA) who may be able to persuade the agent to give up the instruction and hand it on to another one to be properly revalued.

Francis Rowe ● 260d

I may be wrong but I believe that an agent would have to follow the instruction given to them by their client. Although the initial value of £9million would have clearly been wildly overinflated, Mr Babaee would have claimed the refurbishment was of such a high quality that the price was justified. Although they may not have done anything illegal, there will be reputational damage to the agents who were instructed on this sale.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 263d

I caught up with this story at the weekend. It looks like he is actually profoundly broke rather than using bankruptcy to hide from his creditors. It's a sad story all round particularly the poor guy from Chiswick who has lost huge amounts due to the terrible quality of work done on his home. He should get something back when The Vicarage is sold. If you want to look for villains in this story perhaps the spotlight should be on the estate agents who overvalued the house.

Francis Rowe ● 264d