Am I the only one that thinks this is highly suspicious

[SSuspicioumum]

Hi, so my mum is converting our home into individual flats. She is 65yrs old and she had a few builders come along to price up the works. She knows she won't be able to get a big loan at her age, but wont listen to reason. One builder that she is really drawn to, has offered not to accept payment and pay himself from the rent once the flats are occupied when he finishes building the works. Am I the only one that thinks this is highly suspicious even with a contract in place? Who works for free in this day and age.

Honestly the more I think about this the more
concerning it is. This is a scam. Has your mum got the start of dementia? (I don’t mean this to be offensive, it’s just a very extreme decision).

can you speak to the local police to see if you can learn more about him/if he’s known and dodgy and register her potentially vulnerable or something? Also extreme but just wholly bizarre.

Christ, I feel so stressed reading this. I hope you're okay OP.

Can you stop it in any way? Contact the police? I know that's extreme but this sounds like a scam to me.

Putting the builder thing to one side for a minute I agree with pp that the plan doesn’t seem that great. She’ll basically be living in an HMO in her old age. Managing the tenants will probably be quite stressful- just by law of averages she’s likely to have one difficult one at any one time. It will likely make her own home a lot noisier. If she’s happy to live in a one bed I’d discuss downsizing and investing the proceeds.

Also I’m not sure it’s necessarily a scam but there’s likely to be some sort of interest element added onto the costs so that she has to pay back more than the actual costs that might make the loan more attractive.

As you say, how does the builder benefit? He’s not doing this out of goodwill and how can he afford to do it? What does your Mum say about this?

Ever heard the saying “if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is”. There will be some huge benefit to him, as why else would he do it?

Totally. Even with a contract. What's in it for the builder?

He will claim ownership of the flats. It's pretty obvious what he is up to.

In the inevitable court case, his evidence will be 'why on earth would I defer payment unless there was something substantial in it for me? this little old lady very definitely agreed I could have ownership or shared ownership of one or two or all of the flats.

He's probably likely to be a good liar and more convincing than your mother and will win.

Don't let her use this man at all.