What is the NAPB?

The National Association of property buyers (or NAPB) is in essence a group, run by property buying companies, that attempts to “raise standards in the industry” you can find it on the website of dozens of Cash House Buyers. In fact there are 49 members currently registered on it’s website https://napb.co.uk/

This is what it has to say about itself;

“Formed in 2013 by a small group of companies determined to improve standards in the quick house sale industry, the NAPB decided to make it that a mandatory requirement that all members must register with The Property Ombudsman (TPO) to ensure:

All NAPB members follow the same professional standards outlined in TPO’s Code Of Practice
Home owners are treated fairly and are able to make an informed choice about how to sell their home
Home owners can access a free route to independent redress in the event of a dispute

TPOS has an excellent track record in driving huge improvements within the property sector and operates robust Codes of Practice in many areas, including the fields of Estate Agency, Lettings and Property Management.”

This really only means that they insist that its members are registered with The Property Ombusdman. A basic independent redress scheme whose criteria for a home buyer to join is that they have professional indemnity insurance, sign up to their best practice guidelines and have an adequate complaints procedure. https://napb.co.uk/

The NAPB makes it very clear that they are not a regulator or redress scheme;

“However the NAPB is not in itself a redress scheme or regulator, it can provide information to anybody who feels that they have been unfairly treated”

With such minimal criteria why does the NAPB exist?

History of the NAPB

On the NAPB website it states that it was formed in 2013, a company called named ASSOCIATION OF PROPERTY BUYERS (NATIONAL) LIMITED was incorporated on the 8th of January 2014 according to data from companies house;

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08836447

It was formed as a reaction to an office of fair trading report and subsequent investigation into the ‘quick house sale industry’ the introduction of the report states;

“Quick house sales can be beneficial to home sellers who want a quick, guaranteed and hassle-free sale. Our study has shown this to be a dynamic and innovative sector where some businesses have modified their business models to try to offer a better service to home sellers. However, we have also identified business practices that may not comply with the law and practices that fall short of the standards we would expect of businesses in this sector.”

There was a particular focus on 3 particular house buying companies whose practices were called into question and an open letter was sent to 120 house buying companies in an effort to improve standards in the industry.

Forming the National Association of Property Buyers (or NAPB) was considered a necessary step for the industry to try to clean up its practices through self regulation rather than leaving it to get into such a state that the government would have to step in and regulate, as they have done with estate agents.

The first members were House Buy Fast, not surprising considering that the NAPB is essentially run by them or at least the sole director of the NAPB, Jonathan Rolande, is also the director of Future Planned Relocation Services Ltd which House Buy Fast is a trading name of.

Back in 2014 there were only a handful of companies but now, at time of writing it has grown to almost 50 cash house buying companies.

Looking at the growth on a year by year basis you can see that after the initial influx in 2014, essentially the “founding members”. The number of companies registered with the NAPB grew by around 2-4 companies per year until 2020 which saw an influx of new members. Reaching 12 in that year and that increased rate continued into 2021 with 6 new companies registered.

What happened in 2020?

It seems logical to assume that the pandemic had something to do with the number of companies that joined the NAPB in 2020.

There were significant job losses in the house buying industry as the housing market was thrown into turmoil and things like estates agents being unable to visit properties and the majority of the personnel involved in house sales (solicitors, agents, government officers) being furloughed and house sales essentially coming to a halt.

Once the initial turmoil was over many house buying companies took the view that the market would have contracted so they needed to reduce their costs, including their payroll which led to layoffs.

It is not unreasonable to assume that some of these former employees decided to start their own companies which led to a surge in new quick house sale companies and NAPB registrations.

What are the criteria for joining the NAPB?

So how does a company go about becoming an NAPB member? There are 3 main things that you need to do as a property buying company to get on the NAPB website;

You need to be a company primarily set up to purchase UK property.
You have to be signed up to the property ombudsman – an independent redress scheme for the property market that also requires them to sign up to a “code of practice” for residential property buying companies.
You need to pay the registration fee.

The registration fee for the NAPB is around £250 per year and membership needs to be renewed annually.

What are the benefits of joining the NAPB?

For your membership you get a place on the “members” page of the website https://napb.co.uk/members/ which includes;

the company logo.
the company name.
a tag line or a few lines of information (provided by the company themselves).
the company’s contact phone number.
The company address
a link through to the cash house buyers website.

Alongside this you get the opportunity for additional exposure, every member is permitted to write a blog for the website and many of the buyers have “meet the buyer” blogs, which are short interviews usually with the directors of the house buying companies.

The companies are also allowed to include the NAPB logo on their website and marketing material.

The website also suggests that members get exclusive member benefits to certain services such as spicerhaart which according to their website “offer a total management service for repossessions, part-exhanges, relocation schemes, quick sale schemes and a range of other property sales” and mustbesold which is a property auction website and is in fact the auction arm of spicerhaart.

What information can you find on the NAPB website

Apart from the business information that is provided for each of the cash house buyers that are members of the NAPB the website also includes a regularly updated news section, frequently asked questions and a link where you can find the “code of practice” that the members have signed up to adhere to.

What does the NAPB do?

The NAPB has 3 main functions;

It “vets” cash house buying companies and the ones that pass its criteria are allowed to become a member thus assuring that some minimum standards are agreed to.
It provides information and advice to people that are looking to sell their house to a cash buying company. People can read the information on the NAPB website and there is a phone number provided that people can phone if they have a query.
It promotes and raises awareness for the cash house buying sector through PR and media mentions. It has been promoted on mainstream press websites such as the guardian through to property industry journals such as the property industry eye

On the website it also mentions that it is working with the government to get the industry regulated but it is unclear how active it is in this regard.

Limitations of the NAPB

The NAPB is a good first step on the journey to clean up the cash house buying industry but it is not without its limitations.

Lack of independence – the NAPB is run by the members and the director of the NAPB runs several cash house buying brands that feature on the website. This ultimately waters down the credibility that the organisation has with the general public.
No power to enforce breaches – the only thing that the NAPB can do if a company breaches its rules is cancel their membership and remove them from the website. They can also raise the issue with the property ombudsman but beyond that there is very little that it can do.
Lack of funding – The NAPB is entirely funded by the annual membership fees paid by its members. After administration costs and PR there is not much money to do anything that would make a real impact on the industry.
Joining is voluntary – if a company does not want to comply with the basic code of practice or other rules of the NAPB then it simply has the option to not join which means that there are potentially hundreds of cash house buying companies out there essentially doing whatever they like, using shady business practices and ripping off their customers and there is almost nothing the NAPB can do about them.

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NAPB Members

There are currently 49 members registered on the NAPB website. Some of the longest standing members of the NAPB have been there from the very beginning and some have joined very recently. NAPB members usually display the NAPB logo on their websites. The members appear on the members page of the NAPB in no particular order, in fact the order in which the members appear changes with each visit to the website.

The current list of NAPB members is;

UK Home Buyers
Sprinkbok Properties Ltd
We Buy Any Home
Spring
Stop House Repossessions
Smoothsale
Home House Buyers
FlexHomes
Any House Wanted
House Buyer Bureau
Quick Move Now
Estates UK
Sell House Quick Now
Fast Sale Today
Select & Build
Serene Homes
Need A Fast Home Sale
Open Property Group
PXS Properties
Property Rescue
The Assisted Sale Company
Sell Your Property 356
House Buy Fast
Zoom Property Buyer
Sell House Fast
Fast House Sale
We Buy Property
Property Buyers Today
Yes Homebuyers
Sell Your House Fast
Property Solvers Ltd
FreeMyHouse
Bye Bye House
My Homebuyers
Good Move
Quick and Simple House Sale
Highpoint Senior Living
Ziphouse Ltd
National Residential
Quick Buyers
Bettermove
Housebuyers4u
Property Sale Now
Quick Property Buyer
Halo House Buyers
The Property Buying Company Ltd
The Housebuyer
Speed Property Buyers
The Nice Sell

The increase in NAPB members since its inception in 2013

Number of companies joining the NAPB by year

Notable Absences

The majority of the largest cash house buyers in the UK are members of the NAPB with the exception of one of the biggest – National Homebuyers. It is unclear why they would not join as the barrier to entry is fairly low and a company that runs national TV campaigns could surely spare £250 a year, so it isn’t a funding issue.

A quick search on the property ombudsman website reveals that National Homebuyers are not signed up to the property ombudsman redress scheme so they cannot join the NAPB until they are. It is perplexing what they might object to in the code of practice. Perhaps they are worried that signing up to the complaints procedure could significantly increase their workload or maybe they are worried that their direct mail marketing approach doesn’t comply with section 3m “you must act promptly if a consumer asks you to stop canvassing them”. Whatever the reason for National Homebuyers absence it puts a question mark over their motives.

Another absence is webuyanyhouse.co.uk but this is a little more simple to answer, they do not actually buy properties. Despite their name being synonymous with the industry and their claims that they are the “UKs leading house buyer” who “can purchase your house in as little as 3 days” in truth they are a broker who will try to sell your house in the background through there sister estate agent company (after you have signed a tie-in contract of course). Due to this they do not qualify as a cash buyer and therefore can not join the NAPB.

How can you tell if a Cash House Buying company is a member of the NAPB?

If a cash house buying company (or We Buy Any House company) is a member of the NAPB they should have the NAPB badge on their website, it is generally included prominently on the homepage of the website and on the footer at the bottom of all of the pages.

Seeing the logo on the website however does not guarantee that the company you are looking at is a member of the national association of property buyers, this is an industry full of unscrupulous operators and some wouldn’t think twice about making false claims.

It is always recommended to visit the NAPB members page and check that the company you are looking at actually appears on there (unfortunately there is no search functionality currently available on the website so you have to scroll through all of the members) if the company that you have seen showing the badge does not appear on the NAPB website then you should report this to the NAPB via their contact page.

Conclusion

As the cash house buyer / we buy any house / quick sale sector continues to grow the NAPB is a necessary attempt at self regulation but with limited power, resources and voluntary sign up it falls short of being able to protect all of the general public from unscrupulous operators.

It does however provide a point of reference for diligent consumers to find cash buying companies that have voluntarily signed up to follow best practice guidelines and join a basic redress scheme so that they can be held accountable if they fall foul of best practice.

Being a member of the NAPB is not a green light that a company has high standards of customer service or that they don’t use questionable business practices, the property ombudsman guidelines for example do not prohibit the use of option agreements and the wording is ambiguous around when a company can reasonably reduce their offer price;

“The offer price should not be reduced late in the process without valid reason and the reasons should be fully explained to the client in writing”
Section 4i of the Code of practice for Residential Property Buying Companies

Some companies are very good at coming up with a “valid reason” for dropping their offer at the last minute.

It is still recommended that you carry out full due diligence before engaging with any cash house buying company whether they are members of the NAPB or otherwise.

Our reviews can be a helpful reference when it comes to choosing a company that is right for you. You can find them here.

Cash House Buyer Guru