Following confusion over a leaflet distributed across Fermanagh by Sharon Stephens of Ethical Property Partners (EPP), where she was offering to buy houses, local Erne West SDLP councillor Adam Gannon, who'd previously raised his concerns over the property investor's approach, has now joined forces with her to signpost housing help in his district.

In the autumn of 2022, many homeowners across the county received a letter through their doors from Ms. Stephens which outlined that she was a local property investor who wished to buy their house, claiming that she would like to make a "free, no-obligation, guaranteed offer" for their property.

The Impartial Reporter was contacted by a number of the letter's recipients who were concerned that it was a scam. Councillor Gannon also received a letter and at the time he told this newspaper that he had "massive concerns" about how EPP had marketed their service.

However, Councillor Gannon has since joined forces with Ms. Stephens to distribute leaflets signposting housing help to the people of his district, Erne West.

Speaking to the newspaper recently about how the collaboration came about, Councillor Gannon said: "When I originally received communication from EPP, I had concerns regarding their advertising. I then had contact with both Sharon and Frank Flegg, the founder of EPP, where we had multiple conversations about the original advertising. Following on from this Frank assured me that my concerns will be taken into account in future review of their advertising."

Councillor Gannon explained that during his conversations with Ms. Stephens, she expressed a desire to establish links with local charities and begin some work with them.

"As a local representative, I pointed her in the direction of some local charities and organisations who deal with homelessness. She contacted and met with them and has begun to work with some of them to help individuals the charities work with," he said, adding that as part of a change in advertising and leafleting, Ms. Stephens and Mr. Flegg had asked him if he'd be interested in helping put out charity information in Fermanagh via a new leaflet.

"Both myself and many of the charities and organisations believed it would be worthwhile getting information out which could help people struggling in Fermanagh and if it was successful, it could have a positive impact for people here," said Councillor Gannon.

Addressing the negativity from the original EPP leaflet drop and scam concerns, speaking to The Impartial Reporter, Ms. Stephens said: "We're really upfront about what to do. There's no hidden agenda, there's nothing going on here that's anyway on-toward. We're just going out to people and saying, 'look, if you have a house for sale, we are happy to explain what we do and how we might be able to help'.

"That leaflet that goes out has my face on it, it has my home address on it. If you turn up at that address in Omagh, I will be on the doorstep. Is that the action of a scammer? That's the first thing I would say to anybody," she added.

She went on to explain that EPP operates through a network of partners covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The company also works with charities to provide housing solutions for adult homelessness through its Stepping Stones project and the company is currently seeking charity partners to extend to Northern Ireland.

Talking about collaborating with Councillor Gannon, and working with local housing related charities to produce this new 'Housing Help Signpost' leaflet, Ms. Stephens said: "I reached out to the Housing Executive, First Housing, Women's Aid, Action for Children and said, 'look I'm putting together a piece of information, would you be interested in being featured in it because you're helping people, you can give them advice around housing, that's the focus of it'. They said yes, I provided them copy and they signed it off."

The leaflet has thus far been distributed to residents in the Erne West area of Fermanagh.