Discussion forum shut down by property firm

The ConsumerDeals Equity discussion forum was today closed down following a threat of legal action by Mount Street Holdings. The reason given is that an unstated percentage of the messages posted by the company's customers allegedly contain defamatory material relating to Mount Street Holdings plc, Equity Asset Management Limited, CPM Asset Management Limited, Pier Management Limited and Regis Group plc. The removal of 61 messages posted by Mr Andrew Zahn, the CEO of Mount Street Holdings, was also requested. As Mr Zahn has been a welcome and active member of our forum for some time now, the reason for this change of heart is unclear.

Neither Mount Street Holdings nor Equity have contacted ConsumerDeals regarding this matter. Instead, they have elected to force our web hosting company to remove of all 800 messages posted over the last year.

Equity has recently been in the news regarding a fraud probe in Vange, Basildon, Essex.

ConsumerDeals would like to apologise for the inconvenience that the forced removal of our forum by MSH has caused, both to our site visitors and to customers of Mount Street Holdings and its associates, who are now no longer allowed to have their say publicly on this site.

Forum back online

The  Equity forum is back online, and the dispute has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. Thanks to everyone for their support

Forum suspended pending legal action

The ConsumerDeals Equity discussion forum was today voluntarily suspended was suspended, following threats of legal action made against us by Peter Butler, the former Managing Director of Equity Asset Management, a property management company based in Southend-on-Sea.

The initial complaint and threat of legal action was directed at the poster of a thread entitled "Peter Butler canned over Basildon". The message was removed, and the following statement was received from Peter Butler, and published at his request: "Mr Butler has asked us to confirm that he has resigned as MD of Equity Asset Management in accordance with his contract and in circumstances totally unconnected to any matters related to Basildon or indeed any other matter which could be construed as detrimental to his status".
It is our understanding that "Basildon", referred to in Mr Butler's statement relates to the fraud probe regarding the management of 35 blocks of flats on the Chestnut Road Estate, over which Equity Asset Management claim responsibility for upkeep. This story was highlighted in the Basildon Evening Echo on the 11th of June 2004

We are in negotiation with Mr Butler to resolve this matter, and hope to be able to reopen the forum shortly.