Are Lord Titles A Scam? Or Completely Legit?
We've written a few of these articles: including Established Titles, Sealand Titles and (the less reputable) Elite Titles.
There are numerous companies in the UK where you can buy titles such as Lord, Laird or Lady and the industry is quite often subject to some withering critiques. It seems as though many believe that selling titles is a scam, and there are more than a few examples where this claim is true.
So, when we came across Lord Titles we thought that we would do a deeper dive into the company to see whether they are legit, or a scam.
Who Are Lord Titles?
It seems that Lord Titles is simply a website brand name, and it is operated by Essen (London) LTD (Incorporated in 2014) based in London. The directors of the company are Paul and Louise Heading, who are almost completely invisible online other than being linked to a string of companies on the UK government registry (companies house).
While the company seems to be based in London, the Estate for Lord Titles is based on the outskirts of the Lake District in the North of England; on the Hougun Manor Estate. After a lot of research, we know that the Manor of Hougun is an area of the Lake District, but most of the information about the Estate is from the Lord Titles pre-amble.
Interestingly, there also seems to be a member's Facebook page for Wansley Manor. There is a long story (unravelled by our research) behind this that we will talk about at the bottom.
What are the Online Reviews Like?
The online reivews for Lord Titles are few and far between. There are very, very few reviews at all - especially on 3rd party review sites.
What we did find is a mixture of good reviews, and negitive reviews. The most recent claimed that banks do not accept the title deeds as a proof to change the customer title; therefore, the service is a gimmik.
Is Lord Titles Legit or a Scam?
We will not make any assertions here as to whether Lord Titles is a Scam, but there are plenty who suggest that they are indeed conning unassuming customers.
Firstly, an article published in the Nottingham Post on March the 25th 2009 lambasted the company as a complete scam, and referenced the website faketitles.com which was set up by Richard Bridgeman the Earl of Bradford (after he found somebody falsely using his son's title).
He claims that Lord Titles had been selling titles using an Imaginary Manor in Chelmsford (he is very likely referring to the Wansley Manor above) and after receiving a backlash they moved the operation to the lake district. Apparently, there is a manor by that name in the area however, the Earl suspected that Lord Titles simply registered the name as a trademark and there is no evidence that the company own the real manor, or has any historical links to it.
A Lord Titles spokesperson said : "It's perfectly legitimate to grant a non-exclusive trademark licence based on historical manor names."
They also claimed to be: 'doing nothing wrong'.
The Trading Standards Institute said they could not comment specifically on the site but said: "The people operating a website have to be careful they actually do have the ability to sell what they are purporting to sell.
"Anyone purporting to sell something must be able to sell it and must describe it clearly and accurately.
It is clear in law that you cannot buy a noble title in England. It must be bestowed onto the person by the state or member of the Royal family.
Unlike the Scottish counterparts, there is no Lordship loophole in English law, so it is not possible to buy a lordship title legally.
Another interesting point to draw out is that a small part of the company's terms of use may provide some evidence to suggest that the titles will not be accepted by the legitimate organisation and for official documents:
Enssen (London) Ltd offers no assistance, guarantee, compensation, reimbursement, nor can make warranties or representations in respect to amending personal documents or third-party data
The review above from Trustpilot also suggests that many customers have had an issue getting the change of title done on official documents.