Is there any way to get my money back after multiple crowdcube investment failures since 2014?

I think the problem is the administrators sold the remains of the business.

If it’s gone down the way I think it might have, the new owners don’t have any obligation to give anything to previous shareholders

Thanks for your reply. There had been no information on why they did this it was expanding. N perhaps the owner made a profit for herself. Is there a legal way to create. A boycott of the chain?

Regards
Francesca

Nutshell:

  • Owner A makes terrible mistakes/has awful bad luck and can no longer operate. Owes lots of money to everyone, and business goes in to administration.
  • Administrator is trying to get the best result they can, even if resulting in pennies on the pound, and not all creditors are treated equally so some end up getting nothing. They sell business to Owner B
  • Owner B is a whole new owner starting from square zero, as it were. They’re not responsible for anything Owner A did. Then can very well incur debt going forward, but they’re not responsible for any past debt.

That’s why a company can appear to still be operating but owe you nothing - lift the covers off the surface and you’ll find it’s not the same company after all.

Also, in this case the owner absolutely is not making a profit. The money from the sale is going to cover as much debt as possible, it’s not filling the owner’s pocket.

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It’s also pretty unfair to boycott the new chain owner over the last chain owners actions…

To be blunt. Your money has gone, there’s nothing you can do.

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Hi
Thank you very much for your detailed reply. You can see I don’t understand much at all about investing the difference with filmore and Union is I don’t remember receiving an apologetic email explaining why the business has gone into liquidation from the owner. I went into a branch when I happen to be in Yorkshire in the summer and they thought it was expanding and there was no sign of any issues anyway it’s another one consigned to the graveyard
Regards
Francesca

Looking at the article they may have over expanded

Regards
Francesca

The Filmore Union Administration still has not been completed - extended until 23 May 2021.
The last Administrators Report stated that shareholder will not recover any of their investment.

What I am unsure of is whether the EIS loss relief can be claimed before the Administration is completed.

hello I haven’t even bother to look into the EIS loss relief but I think I exhausted or my possible tax refunds 5 years ago when I made several regrettable Investments on crowdcube the only return I ever got was from grind Bond and recently Holly and Beau have kindly returned my investment and doubled it

Hi Fran - think I have a few too many losses to ignore so will go down the Loss Relief route.

Definitely look at the option to at least get the tax benefit back… will lessen the impact…Good luck

You can still claim loss relief on EIS scheme shares even if you still own them. You just need to be able to demonstrate to HMRC that they are of negligible value (although you probably don’t even need to prove it, just need to tell them).

“If shares in an EIS-qualifying company fall in value to zero, in certain circumstances investors may have the option of making a negligible value claim, by informing HM Revenue & Customs that the shares are worth nothing or next to nothing, even if they haven’t been sold. Usually, a claim for loss relief is based on the price at which you sell your shares, but if the shares have nil value you may be able to make a claim for the amount of the effective loss.”

If you don’t know where to start or aren’t sure if you are even entitled, just write to HMRC with your personal info and perhaps a copy of your EIS form (good as proof but not required) and state that you bought x shares of this company on y date and you believe they are of negligible value now so want to claim loss relief, and see what they say.

When I have written to them in the past about things like this (where i am not sure exactly what i am entitled to or exactly what the rules are) they will either process the claim and send you a rebate or reply asking for the information they require.

The only way you can lose out here is by thinking you’re probably not entitled to anything or it’s too much hassle. Good luck!

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Thanks for the link - just a few to process - Chilango; Circuitree, Filmore and Union, Hopstuff, MyShowcase, Sugru and possibly Gripit.
Not a great success story so far - looking forward to FT bailing it out oiver time

Thanks

Regards
Francesca

Just to update, Filmore & Union was dissolved on 06 Jul 21. Will look to claim the EIS loss relief on the 21-22 Tax Return

@Fran It sounds like you are in a bit of a pickle and although I am new to investing there may be an avenue based on some of what you said. Maybe other more experienced community members here may be able expand on this - if it is appropriate to you.

You said:

I understand that the financial rules say that companies have to exercise due-diligence in selling their products. If you were under a lot of stress, particularly if you were seeing a GP or mental health practitioner, it may be that you did not have full capacity to make sensible decisions at the time that you made these investments? If it can be shown, on the balance of probability, that you did not have capacity and that a regulated organisation did not exercise due-diligence in making sure that people without capacity could not use their service, there might be a chance that you could get some money back.

I don’t know your circumstances, so this is just one potential avenue. I think Crowd Cube have pretty thorough terms and conditions around your money being at risk, but they may or may not have things in place to ensure that people making investments have capacity.

Capital.com are an example of Due Diligence done properly. Try signing up for their app (or don’t actually) and they pretty much ensure that you have capacity, because you have to take tests and answer questions, or learn through their InvestMate App. I know for a fact that Crowd Cube do not do this, and if I had invested £25,000 during a period of recorded stress or mental health problems, I would certainly look at going down this route.

Good luck and I really hope you get somewhere with this.

If the parasites at Crowdcube are prepared to use their Success Tax to skim off the profits of customers who invest in companies on the platform then they should also be prepared to share the losses and partly reimburse customers who back doomed companies.

It’s only fair.

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Would make more money from that than I have from cr@p investments so far :upside_down_face:

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Forgive my harshness but is this just a long winded way of saying:

‘I invested a large sum of money in high-risk companies hoping for a high-reward. That gamble did not pay off and now I want my money back.’

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Have no problem with the losses, just part of the risk of investing. Just wish CC were more open about the failures rather than just trumpeting the upside. Not too many forums for investors to discuss the issues unless anyone can suggest any?

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Don’t say that this means freetrade has to be the 1% that makes it.