Would you raffle off YOUR home?

That’s what some desperate sellers are doing. But get it wrong and you could be fined — or even go to jail

HOMeOWnerS who try to sell their houses by handing out raffle tickets to potential buyers could face jail if they bungle the draw.

desperate sellers who are struggling to get the price they want for their properties through estate agents are turning to so-called home raffles. But Money Mail can reveal that some of these sellers are falling foul of the complex rules that govern these types of competitions.

The Gambling Commission, the regulator for lotteries and other forms of betting, says it has seen a rise in the popularity of house raffles and is concerned that many homeowners do not realise they are breaking the law.

It has been in touch with 11 property sellers in the past few months who have all since withdrawn their raffles or been forced to change the terms and conditions of their competitions. WHAT EXACTLY IS A HOME RAFFLE? A rAffle, or lottery, is where you pay to enter a competition and the result is based purely on chance — like a tombola.

The only difference with a home raffle is that instead of a nice bottle of wine or cuddly toy, the prize is someone’s house.

for the seller, the idea is to flog enough raffle tickets to cover their asking price and legal costs. Most set up a website to advertise their competition and charge between £2 and £5 a ticket in order to attract as many entrants as possible. Once they hit their target total, they then select a lucky winner at random.

But while it might sound simple, it isn’t. There are strict rules about how raffles and lotteries can be run and who can organise them.

You cannot, for example, run a lottery for your own gain. It must be for a good cause and you may need a special licence. This means that if you set up a raffle based only on chance, it is likely to be deemed an illegal lottery and shut down. This leaves you with two options. The first is to run a prize draw where you can charge people whatever you like to enter as long as there is a test of skill involved.

This means you must set a question sufficiently difficult that it will prevent a significant proportion of the population from entering.

Alternatively, you can run a free draw. If you do this, you are allowed to sell tickets but you must also offer a free entry option such as sending in a postcard, for example. The free entry route must also be properly publicised. It cannot be buried in the small print.

Television shows get away with advertising competitions that have a very easy question because they are actually free draws.

The question is just included to make the competition more fun.

If you break the Gambling Commission’s rules you could face a fine of up to £5,000 or up to 51 weeks in prison. You could also be hit by a 12 pc per ticket charge by the taxman. So if you sell 50,000 tickets at £2 each you face a £12,000 bill. Sarah Gardner, executive director of the Gambling Commission, says: ‘We don’t want to see members of the public getting into trouble because they don’t understand the rules about lotteries, so we strongly urge people to read the advice on our website and take legal advice.

‘If you run an illegal lottery you could face prosecution and, if convicted, a fine or imprisonment.’

The advertising watchdog also has strict rules regarding how raffles can be advertised. BEWARE STRICT PAYMENT RULES And many online payment systems such as PayPal are now refusing to allow homeowners to use their service to collect ticket money.

Sellers can ask entrants to pay the money direct into their bank account but many people are reluctant to do this as they will not get their money back should the competition turn out to be a scam.

You may also be able to accept debit and credit cards, but you will need to find a company willing to process these payments for you.

renu Qadri, 49, a former antiques dealer, wants to move to a smaller property because she can longer work and is struggling to pay the mortgage. She tried to sell her fivebedroom flat in Blackheath, Southeast london, through an estate agent for £1.3 million but got only one viewing in six months.

She tried lowering her asking price by £50,000 but still had no offers. So after reading about other sellers raffling their homes, renu decided