I raffled off my £400,000 house and Ferrari for £2. Heartless trolls bombarded us with death threats and started a hate group
A WOMAN claims she was bombarded with death threats from trolls after raffling off her £400,000 home – and Ferrari is now doing it again.
Jennifer Matthews made the difficult decision to downsize from her five bedrooms detached house in December 2020 after he was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition.
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Jennifer had built the house in Adlington, Lancswith her husband David.
But the Covid pandemic meant that the normal sales process was more complicated than usual, and as viewing requests poured in, she found herself exhausted.
The couple decided to take the unorthodox approach raffle of the housetogether with her esteemed one Ferrari 360 Spin.
Jennifer, who was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia in 2016, had put the first house on Raffall, an online forum that used to matches.
Strict rules and regulations ensured that the couple was only allowed to disclose limited information.
And it led to them being inundated with conspiracy theories and allegations of fraud.
The vitriol hurled at the couple was so bad that a ‘hate group’ was even formed.
Recalling the harassment they faced, Jennifer, now 51, said LancsLive: “What happened with this crazy trip was that we got an awful lot of flak.
“We were getting death threats and people who had entered and not won became obsessed and said it was a scam.
“It brought out every kind of individual in society and even created a hate group. But we learned from it.”
A whopping 452,000 tickets were sold in the lottery, each costing just £2, although legal fees alone cost the couple £110,000.
The lottery was won by a Birmingham man who sold the house but kept the Ferrari and used the car money to pay for his two daughters weddings.
Jennifer owns several rental properties and has now started selling them as they become vacant.
She and David are also currently in the process of their own move to a newly built house elsewhere in Lancashire.
And despite the abuse they faced in the past, the couple is now returning to the lottery market.
She is now doing it again with another home and says it will help people struggling to get on the property ladder.
This time, entrants could win a three-bedroom mews house in Skelmersdale, which Jennifer has personally renovated.
Jennifer said: ‘I put it up for sale but two people whose offers were accepted were denied a mortgage.
“I felt so sorry for one of the buyers and I thought, ‘If I had been 30 like him, I wouldn’t have been able to get on the property ladder either’, so I started thinking ‘what can I do?’.”
Since Jennifer launched her latest lottery a few days ago, she has already sold almost 10,000 tickets, which cost just £1 each.
Raffall’s terms and conditions state that a minimum of 145,000 tickets must be sold to award the main prize.
If fewer than 145,000 tickets are sold, the winner will receive a cash payment equal to 50 percent of the total ticket revenue generated for this competition.
The pros and cons of a house lottery
In an ideal world, the benefits might be obvious.
You open the bidding and perhaps raise more than the property is worth, and the lucky winner is sure to get some money, if the tickets cost, say, £5.
It’s a win-win situation.
In 2017, Dunstan Low raised almost £1 million raffle of his six-bedroom mansion in Lancashire worth £845,000.
Low walked away with the asking price and donated the remaining £153,000 to charity after covering his legal costs.
But problems can arise from strict gaming laws, confusing fine print and scams.
Experts are warning competition entrants to be careful as a large portion of prized pads never change hands.
In January 2019, a Dorset woman who ‘won’ a £3million mega-house received just £110,000 after the millionaire couple behind the lottery decided to keep their house and pocket £500,000.
In 2021, National Trading Standards received 15 complaints, ranging from houses being raffled again and again without a winner, to draw extensions and winning prizes are subject to change.
In a draw that prompted an investigation by National Trading Standards, the same house was raffled four times. Each time, the host offered a smaller prize instead of letting the house keep about 40% of the money from each drawing.
“Consumers entering a housing lottery should go into it with their eyes open,” says Alison Farrar of the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team.
“Make sure you understand the terms and conditions of the lottery before entering.”
The advertisement should explain what happens if not all tickets have been sold. It must be stated whether a lower cash prize is offered, when the lottery closes and when the draw will take place.
If the date of the draw keeps changing, the organizer will have difficulty selling tickets.
Check the odds of winning. Competitions that specify the number of tickets they must sell give you the chance to calculate the odds.
Look for hidden accounts. Many advertisements state that stamp duty and legal fees will be paid. If they don’t, you have to foot the bill.
Check whether you can also pay the maintenance and council tax for the house.
Before you hand over your money, read previous reviews of the organizer’s lotteries, see how long they have been around and if there have been any previous winners.
If it’s a homeowner hosting their first raffle, then it’s a matter of buyer beware.
“If the house lottery isn’t for a good cause and it’s not free entry or a real competition, be wary,” says consumer expert Martyn James from Resolver.
“There have been numerous reports of the collapse of these lotteries and of dodgy, questionable practices surrounding who wins. Always contact the Gaming Commission before entering.”
To report a misleading advert, please call the Advertising Standards Agency on 020 7492 2222.
If you have paid for a ticket with no chance of winning or the prize keeps changing, report the draw to Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 0808 223 1133.
But if the host meets its minimum ticket goal and fails to award the prize, the winner will receive a share of compensation equal to 75 percent of ticket revenue.
All compensation payments are guaranteed and paid directly by Raffall.
Regulations limit Jennifer to publishing only internal photos of the house, as well as the specific location.
Although the first lottery meant that Jennifer was bothered by strangers, it also brought her something much bigger than just selling a property.
The process turned Jennifer into a cardiologist’s recommended person, which led to her condition becoming stable.
She added: “I just hope we can use this to help someone else.
“Things are tough at the moment and it would be nice to think we can get someone onto the property ladder.”
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