Limiting your commitments
Step by Step
Buying a holiday home/aircraft or boat is a major investment for anyone, and we know you will want to be extremely careful about exactly what you are getting into. We work on the basis of a strictly limited commitment which protects your financial position throughout. Our step-by-step process ensures that at each stage YOU decide whether you want to continue, and guarantees that you do not have a major financial commitment until you are satisfied with the asset to be purchased.
Trust & Confidence
The biggest question most people have revolves around this question: when large amounts of money are involved, how can everyone’s interests be protected in a group of strangers? It’s vital that the members of a group are confident about co-operating with each other. The OwnerGroups Company ensures this in two ways. Firstly, we tailor your group’s agreement to your particular needs before you are committed to joining a group. It spells out clearly and comprehensively the conditions under which everyone joins. Secondly, wherever possible, we arrange for the group members to meet each other before committing themselves to full membership of the group. In effect, each group is like a small, private club – in fact, many groups end up calling themselves clubs.
Steve Last, President
Our Process
Step One
Registration
The registration forms on this website allow you to tell us what sort of investment you are looking for, whether it be a holiday property on the French Riviera or a canal boat in East Anglia. We charge a small fee for Registration of £10 (approx $13); this ensures that all of our registrations are from people serious in proceeding. We then compare your registration with other entries in the database and try to put together a group who are looking for a similar sort of thing. At this stage we can just compare general objectives, specifics come into play at a later stage! This will allow you access to our more detailed pages about how we work, and to our value calculator.
Membership Level – Bronze
Step Two
Negotiation
Once we have identified a group of people with a similar vision we can start putting together your OwnerGroup. We will contact you and if you are interested in going on to this stage we ask for a payment of £250 to show commitment. You will then have access to a number of documents, including a draft “Shareholders’ Syndicate Agreement”. This is a formal business document that covers all the subjects which need to be agreed between the members such as Shareholdings, Capital and Running Costs, Voting, Share Sale and Transfer, Meetings, Budgets, and Disposition of Assets and Profits. We encourage you to show it to your lawyer or other professional advisers if you wish, to ensure that everything which you would want to see covered is dealt with. Once you have discussed this draft agreement, and hopefully even met the other potential members of the group, we can produce a final agreement tailored to your group’s wishes. During this stage you will have a dedicated private area on this website where you can discuss issues and download all the relevant documents.
Membership Level – Silver
Step Three
Exploration
Once this stage is reached you will have formed your group and we can start finding exactly what you are looking for. Even at this stage the only significant commitment you will need to make is to cover actual external expenses that the OwnerGroups Company will start to incur on your behalf. To cover these costs you will be asked for a deposit of £750 (approx US$950) which is placed in a separate Client Account in the name of your group. We use these funds to cover the cost of setting up the group’s legal identity and for our asset search. We report back to you with each prospect we find, making full use of video and photos, and including our cost estimates, so you can get a real feel for it. In preparing our reports and cost projections we take account of the fact that some members might decide not to continue – we try to avoid an unpleasant surprise for the rest if it does happen. You can then consider these recommendations, decide whether you wish to proceed and hopefully decide to purchase! If you decide not to proceed beyond this stage, your commitment is limited to your share of the costs actually incurred up to that point, the balance of the client account is returned to you.
Membership Level – Gold
Step Four
Completion
Completion comes once you have reached a final decision, when The OwnerGroups Company completes the negotiation and purchase formalities on behalf of the group. Our legal associates do all the checking and searches for title, and The OwnerGroups Company acts as your agent until the transaction is complete and the asset is handed over to you. During this Completion stage, we can also make any special arrangements your group may require; for example, if a property is situated in a location where a car is essential for convenience and enjoyment, you may decide it would be more economical to have your own group vehicle rather than have each member individually rent one or drive it from home; we can arrange the purchase or lease of a suitable vehicle. The same applies to any other special facilities such as sports equipment; the group decides what it wants, and the OwnerGroups Company arranges it. Our task is to provide the group with their dream-come-true, resulting in the best possible facilities at minimum cost to each member.
Membership Level – Full
Step Five
Organisation
Once your group is established and enjoying the use of its asset, we can help with the year-on-year running of the group. You will have your own private section on this website where you can keep up to date with the latest news about your asset, where you can organise who uses it when with our airline-rostering based allocation system, where you can view up to date financial details of your group and even chat with our members of the group. Costs for this service can be found on our ‘small print’ pages and will be fully laid out when you form the group.
