Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKIK) has fined the company Home Broker 330,000 PLN for violating the collective consumer interests. It accused the company of a slew of dishonest practices, including inducing consumers to invest in the construction of the hotel 4 Colours, which has never been finished.

Among the subsidiaries of Poland’s Getin Holding capital group, Home Broker is a financial intermediary that operates in the real estate industry. From 2010 through 2013 the company offered consumers the opportunity to buy apartments in their 4 Colours hotel, complementing the opportunity with financing from two other Getin Holdings subsidiaries, Getin Noble Bank and Idea Bank. It signed more than 400 agreements, but the building was never actually finished.

UOKiK opened proceedings after receiving numerous complaints from consumers, who accused the company of misleading them as to the certainty of profiting from an investment in the hotel, failing to inform them of the financial risks, and pressuring them to sign contracts as quickly as possible.

UOKiK’s analysis revealed that the company’s marketing materials were pushing the investment as “highly attractive”, particularly as the guaranteed annual income from renting out a purchased apartment would run to as much as 20,000 PLN. Consumers would need to invest only 60,000 PLN to purchase the rights to own a room. The rest of their investment could be obtained in the form of a mortgage from one of the parent company’s banks. The company claimed the mortgages would be granted with special conditions, and the lowest interest rate available on the market would be extended. This the competition Authority challenged as untrue.

UOKiK also determined that Home Broker failed to inform clients of the risk they faced in investing, a practice the company stuck to even when financial problems and delays crept into the project, threatening investors’ ability to obtain the advertised rate of return. Investors also then learned they could not transfer ownership of the premises they’d put deposits down on, and would lose those funds. UOKiK found that the company first downplayed this fact, then outright hid the information from consumers.  

In addition to the 330,000 PLN fine it imposed, UOKiK has ordered the company to put an end to the dishonest practices. The decisions is not final and may be appealed.

Additional information for the media:

Press Office, UOKiK
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw
Phone.: +48 22 827 28 92, +48 22 55 60 314, +48 22 55 60 430
E-mail: [SCODE]Yml1cm9wcmFzb3dlQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]