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Company sold unnecessary service plans to vulnerable customers and told them they would be charged if they cancelled

• Your Home Care Services Ltd (Company number 13286071) targeted vulnerable pensioners to sell home maintenance plans
• The company used aggressive tactics to sell unnecessary cover for household goods
• It also used a fictitious London address and failed to file company accounts

A company which sold home service and maintenance plans has been wound-up after cold-calling elderly customers to sell them plans they did not need.

Your Home Care Services Ltd, which was registered to an address in London that investigators discovered did not actually exist, targeted older and vulnerable people for their sales pitches, including people whose finances were under Powers of Attorney.

The company was wound-up on 27 February 2024, following an investigation by the Insolvency Service which found that it had used high-pressure sales techniques to entice elderly customers into buying unnecessary service-cover for household goods. The Official Receiver was appointed as liquidator of the company.

Mark George, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

Your Home Care Services Ltd targeted the most vulnerable people.

It used aggressive techniques and mislead customers into signing up to plans that they didn’t need.

The Insolvency Service will work to remove such companies from the business arena, to ensure members of the public are protected.

Investigators found that the company regularly told customers they held an existing maintenance plan, despite the customer having no recollection of such a plan.

The company also told people that if they cancelled the service plans without renewing, they would be charged for cancellation.

It also knowingly sold plans to cover items which were already covered by existing maintenance plans, or for items which were so old that cover was not appropriate.   

Customers told investigators that callers were occasionally aggressive during sales calls.

The company failed to cooperate with the investigation, and did not hand over books and records, as required by investigators. It also failed to file its first set of accounts, due in December 2022, and investigators discovered that the company had submitted a fictitious registered office address  in London to Companies House.

All enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to the Official Receiver of the Public Interest Unit: 16th Floor, 1 Westfield Avenue, Stratford, London, E20 1HZ. Email: piu.or@insolvency.gov.uk  

Further information

• Your Home Care Services Ltd (Company number 13286071)
• Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for DBT. Further information about live company investigations is available here.
• Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available here.