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Property Pension Club

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Membership section- introduction

Introduction

Service schedule

Conditions

How to join

 

Membership - Introduction

We have a number of different grades of membership we call them types, reflecting the use you want to make of the clubs resources.
Like other clubs involved in providing quality assistance in property the cost of providing this is not cheap, and has to be covered by some means.

The model we have chosen to use involves two separate stages, membership subscription costs and costs to use specific services.

Represented as a formula this is

Clubs outgoings = clubs income = subscriptions + charges

Membership subscriptions.

These are made up of a joining fee and regular subscriptions or you can become a life member and pay a single higher one time fee. Life membership is financially viable where you expect to use the services of this and other clubs we work with for 8 years or more. The membership type you select, is based upon the expected help you will need and what range of services you wish to use.

Specific service charges

The concept is that every service provided costs something to provide and this cost is partly offset by subscription fees received, and partly by service charges to use the specific service, depending on the membership type more will have been included, so you will have less to pay on service charges.  Not all services are available to all membership types, this is because to do it this way would be more expensive to members than them upgrading to another membership type to get the service, something that you should always consider anyway.

The service charges are usually made up of registration which includes the first chunk of help or time and then ongoing charges beyond that, we try where we can to vary the registration charge aspect rather then the ongoing charges, to account for different members using services.

What is included and what charges are currently applicable to each member type is shown against the services in detail, but in overview is shown on the service schedule.

A little history.

Originally we had just one group of members, and the total costs of running the club was covered by sponsorship, by the service providers we use. This in concept was attractive as members had no membership costs, however it did mean that many services had to be limited until after someone had used a major service, so as to get sponsorship and we had limited expandability, so have had to stop all new members sighing up from time to time, so as to be able to give a good service to existing members.

Then we wanted to join in with some other clubs and share resources, and our system of membership was insufficient to allow us to do this and incompatible in structure.

The solution was to have a range of membership types, as other clubs have, so that we could then allow our members to utilize their services and for their members to access ours.

The other effect is that we now will have an income, so can put more within the membership, rather than everything being on top of it.

So what you may ask, about the existing member, they have been given a type as well. Those who were members before the change over to types was announced, get to use most of the services of other clubs as well, and still don't have to pay any subscription, but also have been given the option to switch to one of the new types, with incentives to do this.

Using services from other clubs

By changing our membership types structure to line up with some other clubs we have been able to do a deal where you as a member of this club get the use of services from that club and likewise their members get to use our services. The club most relevant to us is the Self Build Homes Club. Property Club International has the same type structure and our members will be also able to use their services in a similar way soon, at the moment they don't have anything in the UK.

So what are the membership types.

This is in part defined below and in part within the Service schedule in overview or the individual service pages looking at them in more detail.

For UK members this is currently:-

Membership
type
Membership costs Description
Bronze Joining Fee  £1,200

Monthly subscription £68

What is included:- Questionnaire approach to defining how we can help you best, otherwise you can look through services and request those you feel are relevant. A chance to meet up with a consultant at some point when he is in your area, or as a part of a group, identified to have similar interests to you. 

The service availability and costs for this membership are defined in the service schedule.

Overseas property excluded for first 3 years membership.

Self build/build to let :- Affordable homes, mostly estates but some in fills, of standard size and similar style to the average new house on a modern estate, but probably around 40% cheaper. Mostly 1, 2 and 3 bedroom homes, of similar design with a single garage.

Silver Joining Fee  £2,200

Monthly subscription £99

 

What is included:- telephone conversations with a consultant at an early stage to sort out what you wish to do. 

The service availability and costs for this membership are defined in the service schedule.

Overseas property can be included, when we have other trips going to the area, for first 3 years membership, full service after that.

Self build/build to let :- Executive homes, larger homes, rooms or plots. Built normally on estates, infill, or a small site with one or two properties. May involve replacing another property. Attractive to those who could afford an average home or better but would like a large home, higher rooms, and other features of an executive home at about the same price as a standard home. Probably around a 40% saving on homes of a similar design. Also smaller homes more geographically limited, for example wanting to be in a particular village or small area.

Gold Joining Fee  £4,200

Monthly subscription £168

Plus time and expenses specific to the project, beyond what would have been involved in a project involving a standard executive home, this is often extra time spent undertaking work and negotiating with planners so as to get planning consent.

What is included:- Meeting with a consultant at an early point to help you firm up a personal plan and get moving fast. 

The service availability and costs for this membership are defined in the service schedule.

Overseas property included in Europe and North America. After 3 years membership worldwide.

Self build/build to let :- Larger executive homes, and where location becomes more important, perhaps a view, near a river or lake, in landscaped setting. Could be on an estate but more likely to be a single home or one of a pair in a larger plot. May involve knocking down an existing property and replacing, particularly with country settings. The above with around a 40% saving, barn and mill conversions, with variable savings depending on site and style,  plus contemporary homes individually designed and perhaps more difficult to get planning consent for, with often a lower saving.

Platinum Joining Fee  £8,200

Monthly subscription £200

Plus time and expenses specific to the project

What is included:- half to full day meeting with consultant to look in depth at your plans and produce a personal definition for you, work through business models and show you many examples etc.

The service availability and costs for this membership are defined in the service schedule.

Overseas property included worldwide

Self build/build to let :-  Mansion, new large country home, or exceptional position. These often require large sites and the area has to often be more select.  

Diamond Joining Fee  £25,000

Monthly subscription £500

Plus all time and expenses specific to the project

What is included:- Executive service, direct number to H3KPP service, meeting and help to line up with your needs. 

The service availability and costs for this membership are defined in the service schedule.

Self build/build to let :-  Palace or larger mansion home internationally. Exceptional situations.

Copper

This is the odd group of members that previously did not have a type and they get exactly the same services as they did before at no change in cost. They have all been, or are being given incentives to switch to the new grades. In most cases the copper membership type is being treated as if it was a gold life membership type within the new structure.

The new ones are based on increasing amounts of help included  so have a variety of inclusions in the membership, and in many cases, what we are actually able to do is to vary the cost of services based on the membership type. Some services that have to be used in conjunction with other clubs and have defined needs can be tied to specific types. For compatible services with other clubs treated as a gold member type.

Membership of this membership type is no longer open to new members.

A more complex table with the above rates as well as options for paying subscriptions annually and life memberships including joining fees or upgrading to life memberships, as well as other upgrades is shown below. 

Type Joining fee Monthly subs Annual subs Upgrade 1 type*  Life membership including Joining fee Upgrade to life membership
Bronze 1200 68 816   7728 6528
Silver 2200 99 1188 1600 11704 9504
Gold 4200 168 2016 3100 20328 16128
Platinum 8200 200 2400 6100 27400 19200
Diamond 25000 500 6000 20900 73000 48000

Self Build and build to let:- The selection of membership grade relates to the type of opportunities and plots that you will be introduced to. This has nothing to do with how you finish the property or other options that you add, therefore if you see the home you would like as being similar to a standard  executive home in your area but prefer to have a better finish, perhaps a nicer kitchen, bathrooms, power saving, central vacuum, music system and more, then its still an executive home as far as the club classification is concerned.

Changing one grade up to a defined point can be done by just paying the difference, after that its calculated either by using the table above or taking half of the type you are on joining fee from the joining fee of the type you want to move to and revising the standard order.

Life membership is more economic when you expect to be a member for 8 years or more. As you can switch membership between clubs this is very viable for many.

Deciding which type is for you

This depends on what it is you envisage doing, if its build to let, then this is fairly straight forward, but there is also additional help on the SBHC site at www.Self-build-homes-club.co.uk  .

The service schedule covers the availability of each service to members of different types and the way the charges are structured, while this is not detailed enough to use on its own and the service description pages give the full picture it does allow a better idea of the differences of the membership types. This can look complicated as we have so many services now, the best idea is to just concentrate to start on those that you think you will want to use early on.

If you are still undecided then we suggest you go for gold initially, as what we had as the original grade when we set this club up is for other club services treated as a gold member.

Can you join now

Check the how to join page to see the current staus and if we are taking on new members.  When we are not able to take on new members check out the SELF BUILD HOMES CLUB, as membership of that club also allows you access to our services.


Common section on all pages

Property Pension Club Ltd is registered in England and Wales no 4197351. 

Initial enquiries to arrange appointments or in relation to any member service can be sent to ppc @ start-page.org. (there should be no spaces before and after @, we show them here to try and stop our emails being flooded by robots). If you don't get a reply within a few days please call the clubs main number on the contact us page. There have been some problems experienced from time to time where emails get lost, and is not connected with our systems, but larger email handlers routines that edit out emails coming through some mail servers in error. 

The Property Pension Club was established by New Atlantis, a non profit company limited by guarantee, with its prime objective to improve the life of its members. Services and administration is managed by Maximum Coverage Ltd. This web site provided and maintained by Atlantis Virtual World Ltd. A variety of other companies are involved in the supply of services, many through an international service company set up by New Atlantis to allow the coordination of quality services world wide. 

General notice: The club and providers of the information are not financial advisors, the information we provide is equivalent to that you might reasonably expect to find in a quality magazine. It is, as far as we can, well researched, facts checked, and independent, unless clearly shown as a club service. The application of this knowledge is down to you and you must decide what is relevant to you in your own circumstances and if you do not have the ability to decide for yourself  you should seek whatever legal or financial advice that you feel is appropriate. Our crystal balls are well polished, but the future even for us can be less than accurately viewed, and therefore you should consider any projection or view that we may present in relation to the future as a mixture of foresight based on information and probability, personal views with a bit of guesswork thrown in, in exactly the same way as any other person or organizations forecasts are. We will of course try to update our information and views as developments occur, or governments or others change the rules of the game. We can make mistakes, or have written something that makes perfect sense to us, but may be unclear for others, if you feel we have then you should let us know, we also like to be told what a good job we are doing.

Copyright: the information on this web site is our copyright, but you may print out copies to give to others or use yourself. You cannot sell it or include it in other works or web sites without our permission.  You can link to any of our pages from within your own web site without asking us, providing that you do not do this in such a way that makes it look as if you are connected or recommended by us. You may also offer downloadable copies of our free publications to be downloaded from your web site, but we would prefer it to be  downloaded via a link to our site so that the latest copy is always available, if you don't know how to do this please ask.

Problems: To report any problems on this website, or if emails go unanswered, please see the contacts page.