Looking to sell your property fast but not sure who to trust? Complete our contact form
Looking to sell your property fast but not sure who to trust? Complete our contact form
Critical Analysis:
When you’re selling your property, it’s of vital importance to know who you’re working with.
In here, you’ll find everything you need to know about Ziphouse Ltd and whether you should trust them to sell your property quickly and whether they’ll give you an optimal price.
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Company
Established in
2016
Members of NAPB
Yes
Members of TPO
Yes
Registered with ICO
Yes
Approved by CTSI
No
Will “Ziphouse Ltd” pay all of your legal fees?
Yes (if using their solicitor, otherwise £500 contribution to own legal fees)
Do they ask you to sign a contract?
No
Government verified transactions
Yes
Cash offer
Average sale time
21 days
Fastest sale time
7 days
Availability
Not listed
Complaints procedure
Yes
Customer service
4.7 / 5
Google rating
5 / 5 (2 reviews)
Trustpilot rating
4.3 / 5 (19 reviews)
Reviews.co.uk rating
N / A
Feefo rating
N / A
4.7 / 5
(source: Companies House)
Ziphouse is a quick property buying company. They offer competitive prices for homes in exchange for a fast sale, and even claim to guarantee the best price.
They are also able to offer a range of additional services, including cash advances of up to 10% on exchange of contracts, help with finding your next purchase or rental, and even a rent back scheme which allows you to sell your home but continue to live there.
They can give you a no-obligation quote in just 24 hours and purchase your property in as little as 7 days, and they claim to buy homes in any condition anywhere in the UK.
Whether all of that’s true, will be revealed in this review.
When working with them, they’ll buy the property from you at a price that satisfies both parties involved, and then sell it for a profit.
You’ll get a slightly below-market price but you’ll achieve a prompt and effortless sale with no stress of delays.
This type of sale is perfect for people in a rush, who don’t have time for unnecessary red tape.
Ziphouse takes pride in its ‘experienced, approachable and compassionate’ customer service, which is ‘flexible to your needs’. They also claim to be as transparent as possible, to make the selling process simple and straightforward.
They claim to buy properties with a longer-term view, often adding these to their own buy-to-let portfolio. This means they are less dependent on the immediate property market and can make a more considered offer.
They provide a range of services, including a cash advance to help fund your move.
However, their Trustpilot reviews are limited and their overall score is not as high as many competitors.
Ziphouse appears to have no hidden charges and no legal fees.
It’s important to remember:
You won’t get the full market value of your property, especially when asking for a very fast purchase, but you will sell quickly and easily.
A typical estate agent will take 6-9 months whereas a fast home-selling company can do it in mere days. You’ll be sacrificing a negotiable percentage of cash for an exponential increase in speed-of-sale and a major reduction of headaches and legal complications.
Whether this is right for you will depend on your individual circumstances, and your cash home buyer should explain your options to you without obligation.
Yes, Ziphouse is a member of NAPB.
The National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB) was specifically set up to protect homeowners looking to sell their houses for cash to a property buying company.
The NAPB continuously screens its members in order to see whether they’re maintaining the necessary business integrity, legality, professionalism and customer service.
It’s mandatory for all NAPB members to also register with The Property Ombudsman (TPO) and abide by the TPO ‘Code Of Practice For Residential Buying Companies’.
However, being an NAPB member itself, is completely voluntary. Nobody forces these cash home buyers to become members, they do it of their own volition.
Ziphouse is regulated by TPO and strictly follows the TPO code of conduct.
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) defends the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints of maladministration or a violation of rights.
It has been providing consumers and property agents with an alternative dispute resolution service since 1990.
TPO has a specific category for fast home sale companies, such as Ziphouse.
These companies have to adhere to a strict ‘Code of Practice for Residential Buying Companies’.
Yes, Ziphouse have been registered with the ICO since 2020.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent regulatory body set up to uphold information rights.
The ICO also governs all forms of data collection and advertising intelligence.
By being registered with the ICO, Ziphouse has to protect its customers’ data at all times.
The ICO also has a Free Online Checker where you can verify whether a company is registered with them or not.
As far as we can tell, Ziphouse are GDPR compliant.
They have a published privacy policy on their website. This details how your data is collected, used and stored, and what steps are taken to protect it.
The privacy policy states that the site only uses cookies which are required for functionality, and it does not mention marketing cookies or third-party cookies. However, we were unable to verify if this was the case.
Users are urged to err on the side of caution when providing personal information, and always read any cookie agreements before clicking your consent.
It’s not certain whether Ziphouse have cash on hand, and they do not explicitly state this on their website.
However, our team of investigators found one of their investment vehicles within Companies House, which allowed us to validate that they do have government-verified transactions.
There are seven of these transactions listed between March 2012 and December 2022, however, this could be simply due to the fact that they are using a different company name to track and register their other Companies House transactions.
Nevertheless, in light of these findings, we cannot say for certain whether Ziphouse have or don’t have cash on hand which they use to buy properties.
In general, we’ve discovered that very few fast home-buying companies actually have disposable cash on hand.
Most of them are unregulated small businesses or worse – individual opportunists pretending to be big organisations who deliberately mislead.
These companies don’t have their own cash but attempt to raise funds by low-balling their offer and getting finance off the back of the difference between their offer and the market value.
For this reason, it’s less risky to work with home buying companies that have a significant number of government verified transactions.
Yes, Ziphouse have traded for more than 5 years.
They have been in this industry since 2016, however, Companies House records suggest that the business changed hands in 2021.
We use the ‘over/under 5 years trading time’ as a metric to gauge whether a company is an established entity with a lot of experience under their belt or just a newly founded business that may have ulterior motives.
Not all newly formed companies are scams but it’s still important to check how long they have traded.
Ziphouse offer the industry standard of up to 85% for your property, subject to location.
In our experience, only the very best homes will achieve this kind of offer, and only if they meet certain Stamp Duty exemption criteria.
It is more likely that you will get a maximum of 80%.
That said, Ziphouse say that they will offer you their best price upfront, and that they will give you a guarantee of the best price for your property (although they do not give any details of this guarantee).
The only way to be sure of their offer is to request a price for your home.
Below you can see some of the perceived benefits of using Ziphouse instead of a generic high-street or online estate agent.
Getting 70-80% of the market value for your property when working with a fast home selling company is fair.
We’ve discovered that with sub-par home buying companies you’ll often get between 60 – 65% and sometimes even less.
Inferring from this, Ziphouse gives reasonable offers in the context of fast home selling companies.
Of course this doesn’t mean that every home achieves that kind of valuation as it depends on a myriad of factors. Sometimes there are justifiable reasons why you may receive a lower offer.
Fast house sales within 7days are a bigger risk for the buyer, as they do not have time to complete the full range of surveys and searches required for due diligence. To cover the increased risk, you will normally be offered less for your home if you want to sell this fast.
Ziphouse say that their average sale time is three weeks, although this can be accelerated if you need a faster sale, for example to avoid repossession.
According to the latest Statista research, the average number of days taken to sell property in UK from September 2018 to November 2020 is 65 days.
This includes selling properties via estate agents, actions, fast-sale companies and everything else under the sun.
Again, this graph represents every single method of selling a property, combined together.
And because of the vast number of fast home sale companies in the UK, this number is considerably lower than what it would’ve been if it only were estate agents and actions.
Remember when it comes to speed of sale, nothing beats a quick home buying company:
We didn’t find any charitable initiatives which Ziphouse supports.
Nevertheless, some companies prefer to donate privately or anonymously rather than stating it publicly.
Supporting a charity is by no means proof that the home buying company in question is necessarily ‘good’.
In fact, dodgy home buying companies might purposefully support and/or pretend to support a charity just to win brownie points and credibility in the eyes of the customer.
We didn’t find anything that raises suspicion during our thorough research of Ziphouse.
Our investigators sifted through all of the data and legal records of Ziphouse and everything was clean.
However, we’ll redact this paragraph at the first glimpse of dodgy practices.
We never stop researching and our unbending commitment to excellence doesn’t waver.
This paragraph is only valid up until the ‘Last Updated’ date of this review, which can be found at the top of this page.
As far as we are aware, Ziphouse haven’t received any additional awards or prizes.
They haven’t won any competitions either.
There’s nothing more we could add.
To assess the overall user experience (UX) of ziphouse.co.uk we first analysed their website for ease of use and intuitiveness.
They make it very easy to get a free quote/cash offer for your property within 24 hours or less, although they do not have a freephone number.
You can request a quote for your property by clicking their button on the website, or by calling their landline number. You can also email info@ziphouse.co.uk.
They also have a live chat feature for customer questions and queries.
We calculated their First Response Time (FTR) by messaging them at approximately 1 PM on a non-holiday weekday (on a Thursday to be exact) and used a stopwatch to estimate how long it took them to respond.
Ziphouse Ltd responded in 1 minute 18 seconds.
Which is much faster than the industry average. And a fast FTR is something we consider highly important, especially in this sector.
A faster response time suggests that the home-selling company is better equipped to deal with customer queries.
And if they’re better equipped to deal with customer queries, then it means they’re investing their resources where it matters the most.
It’s rare to see a customer-centric cash home buyer and the more we research Ziphouse, the more they appear to be such.
We also asked if they offer some sort of ‘Client Satisfaction Guarantee’, and if yes, what would that guarantee consist of.
They currently don’t offer a Client Satisfaction Guarantee but they’re happy to help resolve any issues and problems, within reason, as soon as possible.
In this turbulent market, a fast home buying company should preferably have a formal complaints procedure on their website, where clients can express any disagreements, issues or just plain dissatisfaction with the overall service.
By having such a complaints procedure in place, the home buying company shows that they are willing to listen and if possible, rectify any problems that may arise.
Ziphouse have a very thorough internal formal complaints procedure which is outlined clearly and concisely on their website.
Also, you can submit a complaint through The Property Ombudsman because Ziphouse are a TPO member.
A legitimate quick home buying company that does what it promises shouldn’t have a problem letting you speak to their past customers.
Of course they need to have the permission of the individual involved and provide some kind of proof that it is a genuine past client of theirs.
We strongly encourage all our readers to ask to speak to a past client.
In this section, we’ll discuss what the public thinks of Ziphouse and what online reviews the company has received.
Keep in mind that online reviews can be easily faked.
It works both ways.
The company in charge might hire fake review writers to write positive reviews.
Or on the other hand, their competitors might hire fake review writers to write negative reviews and tarnish the said company’s reputation.
Also, social media followers can be artificially inflated.
That’s why we deem this section as purely anecdotal.
Nonetheless, we use trained researchers with a sceptical eye to go through Ziphouse’ social media presence and online reviews.
There were a limited number of independent reviews for Ziphouse, although these were generally favourable. The customer reviews quoted on their website are all from 2020 or earlier.
None found.
We didn’t find anything suspicious with Ziphouse’ social media, TV and online presence, nor with their customer reviews.
We also didn’t find anything suspicious with their domain rating and backlink profile nor their unique monthly search traffic.
Ziphouse claims to be at the forefront of the UK property buying market and to fully understand all of the challenges that come with selling property.
They claim to offer a best price guarantee and will buy any property in any condition.
However, their independent reviews are limited and we were unable to verify how this guarantee works.
Ziphouse are members of the NAPB and TPO, and they are registered with the ICO.
They give competitive cash offers relative to the fast home sale industry and they can buy your property in around three weeks, or sooner if required. They can also offer a rent-back option, which allows you to stay in your home after the sale.
They have a straightforward complaints procedure both internal and external via the Property Ombudsman.
We will be continuously updating this review as we do with all of our other content. If Ziphouse decide to alter, amend or modify something, then we’ll make sure to adjust our critique and score accordingly.
We want to help out as many people as possible. That’s why we created this comprehensive, in-depth Ziphouse Ltd review.
If you are looking to sell your property extremely fast, message us through the live chat or send us an email.
Depending on your preference and circumstances, we’ll connect you for free with one of our strictly vetted, ethical partners.
It might very well be Ziphouse Ltd or another more befitting company for your needs.
They will help you sell your property as fast as possible for the best offer you can realistically achieve.
They will take care of all of the legal processes and fees and you’ll get the cash straight into your account in as little as 7 to 28 days, depending on your circumstances and preference.
Ziphouse Ltd is just one of the many fast home-buying companies in the UK.
In order to make sure you choose the right one, it’s best if you compare them all.
Look at their strengths & weaknesses, their pros & cons and make an informed decision.
It’s essential to know you’re in safe hands, that’s why we’re here to help.
Use our company comparison table to find a reliable and trustworthy service, and decide whether expediting the sale of your property is the right thing for you.
This review is being constantly screened by our investigator team and will be corrected in line with the emergence of new evidence.
If a company contacts us with a genuine and verifiable piece of information which supports their cause, then we’ll immediately redact the review and point to that information.
On the other hand, if we discover that a company which we’ve previously praised for a certain industry trait, starts to dabble in dodgy practices, we’ll also redact the review immediately.
We’ll point to our new findings and will adjust the table metrics and scores accordingly.
For this reason, make sure to take notice of the ‘last updated’ date at the top of this page.
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