The Business end of the Season

As a lifelong Southampton supporter I am of course delighted that they are fighting hard for promotion to The Championship. Also involved in the race for the play off places are the MK Dons. The Dons, under the shrewd leadership of Pete Winkelman have performed wonders for such a new club (they were founded in 2004).

As we approach the business end of the season, whilst my dreams are for Southampton, I will also be following The Dons. They epitomise the hard working, committed and enthusiastic persona that is Milton Keynes.  

Focus on... Repossessions

London House Franchise Owners undertake many instructions to repossess property. Of course, the national number of properties being repossessed is a general reflection on the economy but we find that our numbers remain fairly constant. We are well versed in properties of all types and undertake both residential and commercial repossessions. We arrive on site and after the bailiff has executed his warrant we take over. Working to a detailed report form we make all the arrangements to ensure the property is suitable for our clients needs. From reading the meters, advising the utility companies, changing locks, securing the windows, clearance, repair etc we organise it all to leave the property safe, hygienic, secure and ready for resale.

Repossession service

A Tale of Two Cottages

We were asked to locate an individual and recover a shortfall of £50,000 following repossession and sale of the property by our banking client. Our only starting point was the property sold but following our motto of "Never Assume", we visited the property, "Rose Cottage", one of a pair of semi-detached cottages in rural Oxfordshire and a lady came to the door saying our man was not there, wrong address, he was next door.

Finding this strange we conducted further searches including recent planning applications and there we had our answer.

Once upon a time, he owned the whole house but when his business started to fail he divided it into two and the bank sold only half the security they had - he was still living in the other half!

LHI & The Electoral Register

The Managing Director of London House, Godfrey Lancashire, has warned that the Government's plan to remove the Edited Electoral Register will make it much harder for investigators to trace consumers who have changed address without advising their creditors.

London House franchise owners, who provide a private investigation service for businesses and private individuals, often have to trace debtors for their clients. According to Lancashire the removal of the Edited Electoral Register will not only make it harder to trace debtors, but will also increase the risk of mis-tracing, which will result in an increasing number of wrong consumers being approached for debts they do not owe.

Lancashire said: "London House and industry colleagues have been campaigning for access to the Full Electoral Register for some time. We think it is simply illogical to quite rightly allow the use of the Full Electoral Register to check identity and lend money, but then not to allow us access to the Full Register to correctly identify consumers and help them deal with their debt.

"Most importantly, this is stopping us dramatically reducing the chance of mistakenly approaching the wrong consumer simply because we can't get access to the best and most reliable source of data that is sitting there but can't be used. The Electoral Register is a unique source of data that can't be replicated in any other way.

"We understand the motive behind examining who should have access to the Electoral Register and for what reasons, but ask the Government please don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and create a new set of issues which are easily avoidable".

"We want to help the honest consumer find a solution to repay their debt but limit the power of those consumers who want to avoid repayment of debt they can afford."

Godfrey Lancashire at The Franchise Magazine

London House news [Mar. ‘11]

What a busy month! It's still early days but I would suggest that we have had our best exhibition yet at Londons ExCel arena. We had a good number of enquiries from people who are interested in joining the London House network. We are now busy making appointments and the diary is beginning to fill with prospective Franchise Owners who wish to visit us here at London House.

Our individual Franchise Owners web pages are now up and running and can be accessed via the "your nearest office" page on our website. To see an example click here London House Chelmsford

Our blog continues to be developed and will be live by our next newsletter.

This week we are holding a training course to help people with commercial debt collection (B2B) - a growing area.

Please contact us if you would like help.

Commercial Debt Collection

Godfrey Lancashire

The Magnificent 7

We received an instruction from a major firm of solicitors in London, working on behalf of a private bank, to trace and then serve 7 individuals with High Court documents for overpayment of commissions on a £35M share transfer scam. The only information provided was names, false addresses and passport details.

The subjects' last known addresses were in Spain, New Zealand and England.

The operation was named "The Magnificent 7" and our task, once traced, was to serve all 7 individuals at the same time (UK, 10.00am) irrespective of their location. During the course of the operation it became clear that The 7 were very elusive and transient. A team of four was commissioned onto the enquiry and after 14 months we were able to confirm addresses for all 7 subjects. The team was then deployed to travel and serve the High Court documents in London, Wellington in New Zealand, Madrid and Gijón in Spain and Gibraltar. The team was all in place 24 hours beforehand and at 10.00am UK time the next day, all 7 were successfully served. Negotiations then began between our instructing solicitor and their individual solicitors.

Focus On… Outstanding reputation

London House is very proud of it's reputation and that of its Franchise Owners. It is important to our clients, and their clients, that they use a firm of investigators that plays by the rules, as it is their reputation which is at stake.

We CRB check all our Franchise Owners and staff. All of our offices carry Professional Indemnity and Public Liability insurance cover.


All hold a Consumer Credit Licence, are registered for Data Protection and are individual members of The Credit Services Association thereby working to a published Code of Practice.

This is vital when we are working "in the field" or in the office for our clients tracing people, process serving or any other instruction we are asked to undertake, and gives us the competitive edge.

What's in a number?

In Milton Keynes we are all agreed that it is a city of continued growth with a "can do" attitude where we buck the national trend in the current economic climate - but do we?

I have recently seen figures produced by The Insolvency Service (thank you Peter Windatt at BRI for the details) which cover the period 2000-2009. These show, for instance, that in MK (per 10,000 population) the rate of bankruptcies increased from 5.3 to 17.3, the total individual insolvencies increased from 7.2 to 31.1 and I could go on. The surprising figure for me is that the Milton Keynes average for bankruptcy orders was 21.2 per 10,000. The average for the rest of England & Wales was 17.3. It seems we are not immune.

London House news [Feb. '11]

As mentioned last month we are exhibiting at the London Excel Arena. This takes place this week and we are busy with final preparations.

We are also putting finishing touches to the pages of individual web sites for each of our franchised offices. This will help with continuing to raise the profile of London House and help our franchise owners to grow their own local business.

Finally, we are developing a company blog. Who would have believed it! More news on this shortly. How time moves on. Things have certainly changed since we began 15 years ago.

The First 15 Years

Godfrey Lancashire

Time Ladies & Gentlemen Please

A private client of ours entered into a verbal agreement with a colleague at a dinner party to open a music bar in Venice. Over a period of 6 months our client transferred funds in excess of £170,000 into a business account for the refurbishment work. A few months later he visited to see how the work was going. The bar was closed and the partner had vanished.

We took the case on and appointed local lawyers Geoffrey Leaver to work with us in an attempt to recover the money.

We travelled to Italy and by using field based tracing enquiries we managed to locate the subject. Shortly after this there followed a 4 day covert surveillance operation which helped us to identify assets valued at €350,000.

Geoffrey Leaver then obtained a judgement in the High Court for in excess of £200,000 plus costs which led to an order being registered in Venice to freeze all assets. The assets were later sold by the Italian Judiciary.

Focus on... International work

Many of you will remember that we rebranded to "International". This was to reflect the growing levels of work we are undertaking overseas. We have a large and reliable network of agents around the world who work to the same high standards as ourselves and within the relevant law of the country in which they are operating. We can provide a full range of services overseas including, trace, surveillance, discreet enquiries, asset investigations and process serving. Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information or a quotation.

Out & about

Milton Keynes enjoys a huge variety of networking options and events on most days. We are regular attendees in the area and find it an excellent way to keep in contact with friends & clients. Why not meet us at the Midsummer Breakfast Club on the last Thursday of each month. I have also just come back from The Credit Services Association conference in Leicester. As ever it was very informative with some excellent speakers. The networking evening and opportunities throughout the day are always good value. See CSA.

LHI at The Franchise Show 2011

London House International Ltd are Banking, Legal, Insurance Consultants and Investigators. A specialist in financial & commercial investigations, London House was established in 1995 and now has over 40 offices in the UK and an agency network throughout Europe and other parts of the world.

We provide a comprehensive range of investigative services to a blue chip client base that includes many of the UK's, and overseas, major financial and legal institutions. Our core business is gathering information and providing comprehensive reports to enable our clients to make cost effective decisions and assist them with any appropriate action.

Our range of services includes: • Trace Enquiries • Process Serving • Pre-Repossession Reports • Property Repossessions • Commercial Debt Collection • Surveillance Operations • Fraud Investigations • Discreet Enquiries • Insurance Claims Investigations • Road Traffic Accident Plans & Photographs • Drug & Alcohol Screening


Remember: We'll very please to meet you at Stand 417
Read about us at The Franchise Magazine

Order free tickets for The Franchise Show, Excel London 2011

London House news [Jan. '11]

Again this year, in February, we will be exhibiting at The Franchise Show at Londons ExCel Arena.

This will be our third year at the show and further details, including free tickets, can be found on the link within this newsletter.

We are seeing increasing numbers of enquiries from prospective London House Franchisees, and this show gives us an excellent opportunity to further our continued growth.

Godfrey Lancashire

Former President Honoured with Lifetime Membership

The Credit Services Association (CSA), the voice of the UK debt collection industry, has honoured one of its former Presidents - Godfrey Lancashire - with Honorary Lifetime Membership following the announcement of his retirement from the CSA Board.

In a presentation at the CSA Gala Dinner in September, current CSA President Roger Lucas spoke of Godfrey's considerable contribution to the collections industry, notably as a strong advocate of proactive media communications that had helped improve the public face of collections nationwide:

"In his term as President many of us looked forward to his speeches, not just for the informed and interesting content, but also for his delivery," Roger says. "They were always eloquent and never boring! This eloquence, backed by a quick thinking intellect, was made full use of by the CSA in asking Godfrey to respond to many requests for interviews on radio and TV.

"Not many trade association representatives get anything from Nicky Campbell on the BBC's prime time consumer program 'Watchdog', but Godfrey clearly won the man's respect and in so doing made most of us feel proud, and advanced the image of the collections industry in the minds of many."

Dr Lucas said that Godfrey's work included representing the CSA in numerous meetings with MPs and Ministers, and ultimately influencing Westminster opinion: "We may never know what the value of such meetings may finally deliver," he concludes, "but we are completely certain of the value of Godfrey's contribution to our Industry, as a real giant."

Although retiring from the CSA Board, Godfrey will continue as the managing director of his own tracing and investigations business, London House International.

London House news [Dec. '10]

We have now held our annual Franchise Owners' Conference in the wonderful surroundings of Whittlebury Hall, Silverstone. This event grows every year, and this year was no exception. Many of our Franchise Owners joined us (those that could not were completing repossessions, undertaking surveillance, or snow bound!) and we listened to some excellent speakers in the morning who were clients and friends of London House. Our thanks go to Parry & Co Solicitors, Concateno Drug Testing Services, The Credit Services Association, Forensic Vetting and Derek Arden for their support.

The afternoon was given over to London House matters and an opportunity to share best practices and discuss the continued growth of London House.

Of particular note is the award of Franhise Owner of the Year, voted for by the Franchise Owners themselves. This year the award went to Dave Williams of Central London for his continued support and help given to the whole network. Well done Dave, it's very well deserved.

Godfrey Lancashire

London House news [Nov. '10]

As ever, it is a busy time at London House. We have just finished training a new franchise owner (Marc Borgia in East Surrey & Mid Sussex) and we are delighted to say he has successfully passed his exam.

 When a new franchise owner joins us, they visit us at our Head Office for a 2 week residential training programme. This is a very comprehensive course covering all aspects of the work that we do, the Court system, Data Protection, and the law, amongst many other areas. This training culminates in a written exam (which the new franchise owner must pass before we sign them off). In the meantime, we ensure that they have in place the necessary insurances, register for Data Protection, obtain a Consumer Credit Licence and become a member of The Credit Services Association (thereby working to a published Code of Practice).

We are also quickly approaching our annual Franchise Owner Conference which will again be held in the wonderful surroundings of Whittlebury Hall. Each year our franchise owners join us to hear presentations from clients and industry experts, share best practices and keep up to date with developments at London House.

Godfrey Lancashire

Stepping Down, But Not Out

You may be aware that Godfrey Lancashire is stepping down from the Board of the Credit Services Association at the CSA & DBSG Annual General Meeting on 9th September 2010.

Godfrey has served on the Board of the Association for almost 14 years, and his dedication, vision and commitment have undoubtedly helped to shape the industry we see today and paved the way for the future.

Godfrey’s particular passion for the raising of industry standards has been evidenced in his interest in the development of industry training and the shaping of the CSA diploma, of which Godfrey remains a tutor.

With a successful term as President, Godfrey has since taken the CSA Public Affairs lobbying to great heights, and has graced the halls of Westminster on numerous occasions to fly the flag for our industry and create awareness of the challenges we face.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Godfrey for all of his hard work and dedication to the CSA, and there is no more fitting place to do so than in your own London House publication! Godfrey – your support to the industry has been unwavering and your contribution great. You will be missed.

Dr Roger Lucas

President, Credit Services Association