Regular readers will know that I’ve been campaigning for the regulation of sale-and-rent-back schemes for nearly a year.

This week, I read a report in The Observer about a victim to one of these schemes – and it actually turned my stomach.

The couple, Owen and Moira Martin from Plymouth, sold their home to a sale-and-rent-back company because they had £26,000 of credit card debts they wanted to pay off.

They sold it at a £45,000 loss because they wanted to be able to stay in the property as tenants.

The day after the company bought their home, the company told them the rent had gone up by £100 a month and they had to pay 11 months in advance.

The couple paid up again – meaning that, in total, they had paid the company more than £50,000 for the privilege of staying in their home.

But despite all this, a few months later, they were evicted and their home was repossessed anyway.

It turns out the sale-and-rent-back company never bothered to pay a penny of the mortgage.

Thank God the Office of Fair Trading has cottoned on to what these schemes are doing. Last month, it joined the Fool in calling for these schemes to be regulated.

I just hope it doesn’t take much longer for the Government to get its act together – while more people like the Martins suffer.

Edited at 2008-11-11 16:28:14