The Sham Evaluation
REJECTED
They demanded we increase our offer before they evaluated it
This page is about one day
Everything you've read so far is the broad story. This page is different. This page is about what happened on a single day in late October 2025.
We're going to walk through the emails, hour by hour. We're going to show you exactly what was said. And we're going to let you decide whether what happened that day was a genuine evaluation, or something else entirely.
Every quote on this page is from emails we hold. Every timestamp is real.
Two months of waiting
In late August 2025, we made a settlement offer to Funding Circle. Our business had collapsed. We had lost everything. But we didn't disappear. We didn't ignore their letters. We came forward with an honest offer of what we could pay.
We expected negotiation. Perhaps a counter-offer. At minimum, a conversation.
Instead, we got silence.
September passed. We provided documents. Bank statements. Income and expenditure forms. Everything they asked for. October came. A phone call here and there. They were "reviewing." More documents requested. We sent them the same day.
Two months. No decision. No counter-offer. No clarity.
Then came a morning in late October.
That morning: the smoking gun
Early that morning, an email arrived from Funding Circle's Recoveries team. We expected news on our settlement offer. What we got was something stranger.
The email asked for two pieces of information: the current market value of our home, and our outstanding mortgage balance. The reason given was that this information was needed "to proceed with the evaluation."
Fair enough, we thought. They need more data. We'll provide it.
But the email didn't stop there.
In the same message, Funding Circle wrote:
"We require you to revisit your current settlement offer... and explore all available avenues to increase the amount..."
Read that again.
In the same email where they said they needed information to proceed with evaluating our offer, they demanded we increase it.
How can you demand someone increase an offer you haven't yet evaluated?
The contradiction at the heart of everything
This is the moment that exposes the whole process.
If you haven't evaluated an offer, you cannot know whether it's too low. You cannot demand it be increased. You have no basis for that demand. Not unless you've already decided the outcome before the evaluation began.
That morning email did two things simultaneously:
1. It represented that an evaluation was still pending. They needed information "to proceed." 2. It demanded we pay more. Before any evaluation had taken place.
These two positions are mutually exclusive. Either they were still assessing the offer, or they had already decided it wasn't enough. It cannot be both.
But their email was both. In the same message. On the same morning.
Our response: we asked for clarity
A couple of hours later, we replied. We didn't ignore them. We didn't refuse to engage. We responded in writing, the same day.
We made three points:
First: We were not in a position to make a "revised offer." We had already offered what we could genuinely pay.
Second: We asked them to evaluate the existing proposal. The one they had held for two months without decision.
Third: We said we would not discuss personal asset values over the phone, but if something was genuinely required for the evaluation, they should email us the exact questions and explain why they were needed. We would respond in writing.
This was not a refusal. This was a request for a proper process. Given that they were raising the prospect of a charge over our family home, we wanted an audit trail. We wanted clarity. We wanted to understand exactly what they were asking and why.
We thought that was reasonable.
The rejection: 96 minutes later
Less than two hours after our written response, Funding Circle replied.
Our settlement offer was rejected.
No follow-up questions. No deadline for providing the property information. No explanation of what specific fact was missing that prevented evaluation. No counter-offer.
Just rejection.
And then, in the same email, they pivoted immediately to what they actually wanted: security over our home.
The timeline
Let's put this in sequence:
That morning: Funding Circle emails. Says info needed "to proceed with evaluation." But in the same email, demands we increase our offer.
Two hours later: We respond. Please evaluate the existing offer. Put any questions in writing.
96 minutes after that: Funding Circle rejects the offer. Pivots immediately to demanding security over our home.
Four hours. That's how long the "evaluation" took.
An offer that had sat with them for two months. Rejected in an afternoon. With no intervening step between "we need information to proceed" and "rejected."
What this reveals
There are only two possible interpretations:
Interpretation A: The property information was genuinely required to evaluate the offer.
If so, why reject the offer the same day? We hadn't refused to provide the information. We'd asked for the questions in writing. No deadline was set. No follow-up was sent. The rejection came within hours.
If the information was genuinely needed, the fair response would have been to specify exactly what was required, explain why, set a reasonable deadline, and wait. None of that happened.
Interpretation B: The property information was not actually required to evaluate the offer.
If so, why describe it as "required to proceed with the evaluation"? That representation was misleading. The evaluation could apparently proceed without it, since it proceeded to rejection that same afternoon.
Either way, the process was not genuine.
Either they rejected an offer without the information they said they needed, or they misrepresented what was required. Neither option looks like a fair evaluation.
The real goal
What became clear that day, and what their later correspondence confirmed explicitly, was that Funding Circle was not interested in evaluating our cash offer on its merits.
They wanted something else: a charge over our home.
Months later, they put it in writing. They stated that any "realistic repayment plan" needed to include security over our property. They made clear that when they consider "financial position," they mean all assets, including our home.
That context explains the October emails. The request for property valuation and mortgage balance was not neutral fact-finding. It was groundwork for what they actually wanted: our home as security.
When we asked for the process to be conducted in writing, they didn't engage. They rejected the offer and moved straight to their real objective.
What a fair process would have looked like
We're not saying Funding Circle has no right to consider our assets. That's not the point.
The point is that what happened that day was not a genuine evaluation. Their own emails prove it.
A fair process would have looked like this:
- Specify exactly what information is needed
- Explain why it's needed to evaluate a cash offer
- Set a reasonable deadline for response
- Pause the evaluation while waiting
- And critically: don't demand an increase before you've reviewed what's on the table
Funding Circle did none of these things.
They demanded more money before they'd assessed the existing offer. They rejected the offer within hours of saying they needed information to proceed. They set no deadline. They asked no follow-up questions.
That's not an evaluation. That's theatre designed to justify a predetermined outcome.
Five months later
As of the time of writing, Funding Circle still has not made a counter-offer.
They rejected our offer in October. They rejected it again in January. Each time, no alternative figure. No explanation of what amount would be acceptable. No negotiation.
Just one consistent demand: security over our home.
The "evaluation" was never about finding a number that worked. It was about getting a charge on our property. When we wouldn't volunteer one, the cash offer was rejected. Before it had even been properly reviewed.
The record
Every quote on this page comes from emails in our possession. Every timestamp is documented. Every claim can be evidenced.
We came to Funding Circle with an honest offer. We engaged in good faith. We asked for a proper process.
What we got was a demand to pay more before any evaluation, a rejection within four hours, and a pivot to securing our home.
That's not a settlement process. That's pressure dressed up as procedure.
The "evaluation" was a sham.
Why do they want a charge?
This page shows what happened. But it doesn't explain why Funding Circle would reject cash in favour of security over your home.
The answer lies in how the business model actually works. A charge is patient. It waits. Sale or death, they get paid. Cash closes a file. A charge keeps it open forever.