The Highland Titles Nature Reserve On Tripadvisor

Currently there are twelve reviews of the Highland Titles Nature Reserve On Tripadvisor, all give it the full five stars. I believe most of these reviews are unsound, as they were mainly written by Highland Titles customers who have bought plots.

Until recently there were fourteen reviews, but two have been removed after complaints. One of those was by William Melnyk, a Highland Titles vendor from the USA (slight lack of integrity there I think!). The other one which was removed was by someone who had not even attempted to visit but had still given it five stars. As an aside, Mr Melnyk used to be an Episcopal priest, but was asked to resign at the request of his parish vestry, after it was discovered he was also a practising Druid!


The danger that reviews written by plot holders are liable to be unreliable and biased is beautifully demonstrated in the review by "Iwannahorn". The reviewer did not even find the nature reserve, took pictures of an ordinary field beside it and gave it the full five stars! This reviewer it seems, believes that an ordinary sheep field which could be anywhere, is deserving of a full five star nature reserve! The unfortunate lady also includes a picture of her plot which she also clearly failed to find.

 

It is quite clear to me, that reviews written by plot holders really cannot be relied upon to be objective or unbiased. The "thrill" of plot ownership would appear to result in a rather "rose tinted" opinion.

There is another review by owners of self catering accommodation in nearby Ballachulish, Craigavon Cottage, as they are likely to profit from people using their accommodation when they visit, I'm suspicious that this review might also not be entirely relied upon to be completely reliable.

The fact that after over a year on Tripadvisor that there are only twelve reviews surely indicates that there are in reality few visitors. Where are all the reviews by all those local people Highland Titles claim visit? Could it be that local people don't visit it much and those that do are much less than overwhelmed by the experience?

The Highland Titles Charitable Trust For Scotland Article

Earlier this year, the same people behind Highland Titles, were involved in starting an organisation called The Highland Titles Charitable Trust For Scotland, a Guernsey (not a UK) registered charity. It is interesting to see what Peter Bevis of Highland Titles wrote back in August of 2012 on the subject of Highland Titles and charities. This was published by Highland Titles in response to material published on the scots-titles.com website.

"Let me explain some facts of business. Enterprises such as Highland Titles register as charities for one reason only. To avoid paying tax, so that they can spend more of their money of the projects they advocate.  There are many taxes that can be avoided, tax on retained profits and sales taxes being the most significant.  In return they suffer the overheads of accountancy, which is a reasonable trade off most of the time.  Highland Titles operates in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. There is no tax on retained profits in Guernsey(zero). There are no sales taxes  in Guernsey (zero). If we registered as a charity, which we could easily do, we would have less money to spend on conservation, not more, as our accountancy costs would be considerably higher. Highland Titles is a family run business. We take no dividends or profits from it. We never have and never will. We refuse to waste money on unnecessary accountancy because pleasing you does not form part of our remit."

It would appear that the people behind Highland Titles have gone against their own good advice, and now one would presume, there is considerable amounts of unnecessary money being spent on accountancy rather than conservation. As Highland Titles had little or no tax burden already, what on earth would be the point of the charity if there are no saving on tax to be made?

I certainly do not agree that the only reason to register as a charity is to avoid paying tax, there is another very good reason involving transparency. In Scotland and England, registered charities are required to produce accounts which are made available to the public, and names of directors are published. In this way anybody can satisfy themselves to some degree that the business of the charity is being conducted in a proper manner which adequately benefits the cause. It also means that any claims made for income and expenditure etc. can be checked against accounts submitted to the authorities.

Guernsey registered charities on the other hand, have no such burden of financial transparency. The only requirement in regard to transparency required of Guernsey registered charities, is to publish their name, address, and charity number, nothing else.

In Guernsey, “The law neither specifically provides nor requires the Registrar or the organisation to make accounts available to the public….. the information that is published is limited to the name, business address and reference number of the charity.”

It is not possible to find out the names of the directors or trustees, it is not possible to examine their accounts, it is not possible to check any published accounts against those submitted to the authorities. There is no transparency at all.

I can find no firm statement either from Highland Titles or The Highland Titles Charitable Trust For Scotland that any revenue generated by Highland Titles sales is passed to the Charitable Trust. If you can find such a statement please let me know where it is, I'll be happy to report it.

This charity appears to offer no tax advantage, no transparency, no accountability, but will surely incur accounting costs, and perhaps even more salaries to be paid and marketing costs. If someone can explain how this is an improvement and will result in more of the available funds being spent on conservation, please do.

If you are of the opinion that The Highland Titles Charitable Trust For Scotland was set up for any reason other than as part of the Highland Titles marketing machine, in order to financially benefit the for profit Highland Titles company, you might want to consider revising that opinion. What other function could it possibly exist for?

You might also like to read about the promised Highland Titles Scottish charity which was mysteriously aborted after the inaugural AGM had been announced.

Buy A Lord Title Laird Title or Lady Title For Christmas

Christmas is coming, and I'm sure some people out there might be tempted to buy a bit of land and a Laird Lord or Lady title as a present. Well I'm afraid there is bad news, to put it quite simply, you can't ... sorry.

Despite what some of the vendors of some of these fake titles say, it is not possible to buy any of these titles. But it says so on their website you might say, and I agree it does, but if it does, it is a con, a lie.

There are no additional rights to any titles granted with the purchase of any kind of land in Scotland. After purchase you still have exactly the same right you had before to put any word, phrase, combination of characters you feel like in front of your name, and say it is your title. Ownership of land has no bearing on the matter at all. The whole thing has been made up by the people that try to sell them!

When you pay your money for one of these fake titles, you have bought precisely nothing, naught, zilch, nada, not a thing. Anybody that claims you become a Lord or a Lady by buying any land in Scotland is conning the public, pure and simple, you get nothing for your money ... except possibly a worthless personal right to a worthless miniature plot of ground.

See this link -  Do You Get A Laird Lord Or Lady Title By Buying Land In Scotland?

As a whole, apart from the non existent titles, the land sales are themselves usually very suspect. Please get this straight. It is not possible to own a souvenir plot of land in Scotland, note the words "not possible". You see under Scots Law, the owner of the land is whoever has their name in the Land Register of Scotland, or the Register of Sasines, nobody else. Whatever fancy document they sent you, however it is worded, the best you can hope for is a personal right to the land which will only be enforceable against whoever you bought it from. If for instance they go into liquidation, you can kiss goodbye to your land, it will now belong to the liquidator, and there is nothing you can do to get back what you did not really own in the first place!

See this link -  Souvenir Land Plot Ownership in Scotland

To put it simply

If any company claims or implies you get any title as a result of merely buying land in Scotland, they are lying.

If any company claims that you can be the real owner of a souvenir plot of land in Scotland, they are lying.

Let's give these lying con merchants the Christmas they so richly deserve

&

Don't buy a title for Christmas