Law firm Regulatory Legal has told FTAdviser it has “kicked off” the process of making claims against advisers whose clients are invested in the Brandeaux range of student accommodation funds.
The student property investments started to be wound up in January. They had originally been suspended last summer due to liquidity concerns, which Brandeaux blamed on the Financial Services Authority’s move in 2011 to ban the sale of unregulated funds to retail investors.
More than £1.1bn is invested in the sterling share classes of three funds - the Brandeaux Student Accommodation, Brandeux Dual Asset and the Ground Rent Portfolio Plus funds - which are all domiciled in the British Virgin Islands.
Tobias Haynes, a paralegal at Regulatory Legal, told FTAdviser that the firm is representing 20 former investors with cases ready to proceed to the Financial Ombudsman Service and Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
The firm has become known for representing investors in high profile cases, especially those that have been the subject of varying forms of regulatory intervention such as Arch Cru, Keydata and Harlequin.
Investors would not need to go through a law firm to file a claim with either Fos or FSCS. However, Mr Haynes said Regulatory Legal hoped to persuade most advisers to settle cases before they were formally submitted.
He explained: “The claims are likely to succeed as seven recent cases brought to the ombudsman ruled in favour of investors, so we’re hoping most advisers will settle.”
Mr Haynes said here are a few potential court claims, but the first lot of cases are all less than the £150,000 Financial Ombudsman service claim limit.
He added that several clients were also invested in the Mansion student accommodation unregulated collective investment scheme, which was forced to suspend redemptions earlier this summer.
“People are interested and we’re likely to start making claims there too,” Mr Haynes said.
Despite rumours that the Brandeaux funds were to be sold, no deal has yet been reached, with plans for an initial public offering of assets suspended at the start of July.
