Leasehold Scandal

We recently bought a new build home using the Help to Buy government scheme where they loan us 20% of the house price and we only need to produce a 5% deposit. We were sceptical about the process as we had been told at the initial appointment that if we reserved a property we would get flooring, garden turf and carpets included in the price which was changed at the second appointment. The house price was initially £264,950 with double parking. We returned the following week to reserve the plot (off plan) that we wanted. We were told that we would get a £500 contribution to legal fees if we used their nominated solicitors. During the reservation process (we had a different sales person to first visit) we queried why the 2 parking spaces and flooring and turf were not detailed on the form. The salesman said 'no we don't include that and it's only 1 parking space because the college own the land, its out of our control'. I told him the first sales lady had told us we would get the extras free of charge and that the parking was advertised on their website. He said he would see what he could do. We said we would hold on the reservation until he got back to us. We also notice the reservation form stated the house was Leasehold. We did not know this and asked why it said that. He explained it was a leasehold property because the college owned the land and not the developer so it was only available as a leasehold. We were disappointed as it does not mention the leasehold basis in the brochure or on the website. He said it's ok because the lease is 499 years long and we won't need to worry during our lifetime and the land is safe because the college own it.

He got back to us a few days later and said the property we wanted was in high demand because it was end of terrace and would cost an extra £3k and the best they could do was £1,000 allowance towards extras and £500 unconditional contribution towards legal fees whichever solicitor we used. I argued back and forth as we wanted what we were originally promised but in the end we had to settle for the 1 parking space (we had run out of time to start the process elsewhere and we had to move within a tight timeframe and this was the last affordable house that was new build), £500 legal contribution and £1,000 flooring contribution although I put it in writing that we remained unhappy and still wanted to pursue the other promised items. I wrote to senior management and made a formal complaint which was never investigated and to date we have not had a full explanation as to why and how these false promise and false advertising came about.

FAST FORWARD to completion September 2016. We move in. We have paid for our flooring £4,400. We did not get the £500 legal fee contribution. We did not get double parking. We did not get turf. There are at least 40 defects in the house, shoddy workmanship and the flooring is well below standard. I report the defects and after hours and hours of visits and days wasted spent at home most of the get sorted apart from the floor. Most snags were remedied in a poor and slapdash way but the floor is unacceptable. 3 times the flooring company have been to our home and just made it worse each time. The developer refuses to compensate our time and inconvenience or the cost of the flooring.

Fast forward to January 2017. We remain unhappy with the sales process, the Customer Care and after sales service. Almost everything really. Except we have a house we own and feel secure in and although it wasn't freehold we had nothing to worry about because the lease was almost 500 years and therefore would not lose value and we would not lose the land during our lifetime. SO WE THOUGHT. We found out last weekend that the developer lied to us. THEY own the land. The Freehold was and should nave been made available to us. They committed crucial information we needed to make an informed decision, withheld information we needed to know and influenced / manipulated our decision by giving false information both verbally and via their marketing materials.

We felt sick. We could not believe this had happened to us. :mad: We started to talk to other home ones on our plot and realised quickly they had been told exactly the same thing as us; the Freehold was owned by the college and not the developer. We were all sold our homes using deception. As if it couln't get worse, we cannot apparently buy our freehold until we have owned our properties for at least 2 years. The developer is going to sell the land in less than a year's time to another company. We will not get first refusal because our homes are houses and not flats. Meaning our Freeholds could increase in price significantly and become unaffordable to us and out us in negative equity/financial ruin. Or we may not be able to sell our houses. There are so many possibilities and most seem to be negative. We have all been duped.

I was interviewed on the Victoria Derbyshire show on 02/02/2017. MP Sir Peter Bottomley also joined the panel and he was extremely supportive. This is getting media coverage and is being debated in Parliament so there is a tiny ray of hope. I am hoping that the fact we were all lied to will mean we can get our freeholds without an expensive legal battle. If anyone has any experience of this or can suggest any avenues we can follow or agencies that can support us I would really appreciate it.

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