At PropertyCorruption.com, we think we have a pretty good handle on the motivations behind the property market’s dysfunction. It’s a complex, interconnected landscape — but not an unintelligible one. With enough time, you start to see the patterns. The incentives. The silences.
But there’s still one part of the Editor’s story that we just can’t explain.
We understand the main players:
Oakley Property stopped responding to emails long ago. They’ve quietly abandoned efforts to chase last year’s service charges, instead relying on a hastily assembled paper trail — a desperate move for plausible deniability. There are two faces to Oakley: the property management side (which oversees the building at the heart of this story) and the estate agency side (handling sales and rentals). As of July 29, more and more flats keep appearing on the market — like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Most estate agents now avoid the building entirely. Oakley is beyond the point of no return, with too many unanswered questions surrounding resident attacks and cover-ups. Their silence speaks volumes. They are marketing the bulk of the sales and lettings in the building.
Winkworth is in a similar boat — still marketing flats in the building despite everything. No surprises there.
NatWest started with threats of repossession, then downgraded to “simple arrears,” and now they’re just asking politely for a direct debit form. Their approach is incoherent — and revealing. They are clearly terrified: of portfolio risk, of litigation, of liability.
Nationwide is following the same playbook at Natwest.
AXA has now reset its internal narrative four times. Each new explanation contradicts the last. They’re trapped in a spiral of lies — and they know it.
…and the list of entities goes on and on. All avoid SAR scope discussion at any cost etc
This kind of behavior makes sense. It’s cowardly, it’s evasive — but it’s logical. They’re panicking. They’re trying to make it to the next quarter without getting sued, exposed, or internally scapegoated.
But then there’s Knight & Knoxley.
And that’s the part we don’t understand.
Their team:
Knight & Knoxley is still marketing a flat in the building.
So why are they still participating?
Any buyer will inevitably uncover what’s going on — either during conveyancing (if the firm even takes the sale on) or after the sale when everything collapses.
So why are Knight & Knoxley still here?
Is it naivety?
Hubris?
Or just a blind faith in the status quo — a belief that nothing truly changes, no matter how much it cracks?
We have no idea.
And that, right now, is the last mystery in this unravelling mess.
We’d ask them but they won’t respond to our emails.