McCarthy & Stone deals under scrutiny

Retirement housing provider McCarthy & Stone, came under fire in a Channel 4 documentary which criticised the way it operates a part-exchange scheme. The Dispatches programme filmed McCarthy & Stone sales consultants offering less than the market value to people taking part in the scheme, despite promising it the price would be competitive. An undercover reporter was used to assess what McCarthy & Stone would offer for a four bedroom house in Worthing, west Sussex in exchange for a flat in one of its developments priced at £269,950. The agent involved offered around £65,000 less than market value for the four-bedroom home. This was despite the agent telling the undercover reporter that she would not be any worse off if she decided to use the part-exchange scheme. Commercial law expert Professor Christian Twigg-Flesner told the programme that the difference between the McCarthy & Stone offer and the market value was unacceptable’.