In Focus: When things go wrong  

Case study: I felt encouraged by the govt to transfer my pension

The scheme was sold in two ways: bricks and mortar hotel rooms and fractional ownership. Sales were widespread in the UK, but concentrated heavily around certain pension providers such as Rowanmoor, which eventually collapsed under the weight of TRG complaints.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme now deems fractional shares as illiquid and without value and has started to compensate investors. 

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Davis maintains he had agreed with Aitchison that he wanted to take a regular income in retirement and he was projected an annual income of £11,000 plus state pension. Aitchison says he only quoted the figures supplied by the advisers.

But when Davis approached the property scheme they told him he had to sell his shares in the properties to get this amount of money out, something that took him by surprise.

TRG meanwhile has been trying to buy back properties sold to UK investors. Davis says he was offered €30,000 (£26,500) for his shares, a fraction of his original investment, which he refused.

carmen.reichman@ft.com