Redrow won't let us out of Missives

GDB2222

whilst I have considerable sympathy for you, Redrow have only been unreasonable in one respect, namely the delayed completion of your new property. They are not responsible for the drop in values, and if the boot were on the other foot and house prices had increased they would not be asking you for an increase in price. normally, people sell their house and buy another one at the same time, so they are not caught out in this way. Unfortunately, you chose not to do that. For those reasons, I am not sure that you are going to get a very sympathetic reception at the newspapers.

You did not say who owns the present house, i.e. just you or you and your partner, and you did not say who signed the missives for the new house. However, assuming that you are both on the hook with Redrow, I would guess that your best bet is to do nothing at all. Stay in your present house, without bothering to sell it, and see whether Redrow in fact do sue you. you can always choose bankruptcy or the threat of bankruptcy in the future. In fact, if Redrow's valuation is correct, you are already in negative equity and not worth suing. They cannot issue proceedings against you until they have built the new property, which will not be for another couple of months. After that, it would take ages for a case like this to work its way through the courts, and hopefully your present house will lose even more value during that period. I say hopefully it will lose value because that will make you even less worth suing.

The best case position for you is that Redrow issued proceedings against you but then drop them when they realise that there is no money to be had from you. The worst case position for you is that Redrow do not issue proceedings, although their case would become statute barred after six years. My guess is that they will not issue proceedings unless they happen to choose you as an example case to encourage other people who may be in a better financial position than you.

To sum up, let Redrow know your financial position, so that they can see there is no money to be had from you, and just sit tight. The chances are that they will leave you in peace, at least if they have any sense they will. whilst this is all very upsetting, it will probably all blow over.

macphee70

franklee wrote: »

macphee70, You need legal advice from your own solicitor, do not use one recommended by the builder.

If prices had risen you would not have allowed the builder to put the price up after Missives so likewise you can hardly expect them to put it down now just because the market has gone the other way.

Likewise if they agree to buy your house in part exchange now you should expect them to offer current market price!

But you can negotiate based on threatening you will have to go into bankruptcy. However you do need to be aware it isn't all the builders fault as you as a sane person did sign on the dotted line!

So get your own solicitor on the case asap as costs against you for late completion will be building up!

Thanks for your advice, we didn't go with a Redrow solicitor as I didn't trust their or our interests and as for the house price you do have a valid point but they are not giving us the market value for our house, they are infact only offering £100,000. This is 20% less than the current market value of our house, now I understand they won't give the market value as they want to sell it on but 20% less.

To accurately represent this on the new house they would have to knock off £65k to bring it to the same percentage. Redrow won't do that, infact they have said they won't budge at all.

Thankfully Redrow haven't completed the property yet (2nd due date of May, its already 6 months late), hence why we are trying to get out before they do.

SouthCoast

You had independant legal advice and were advised to sign the missives?


http://www.scottishlegalcomplaints.com/home.aspx

GDB2222

macphee70 wrote: »

Thanks for your advice, we didn't go with a Redrow solicitor as I didn't trust their or our interests and as for the house price you do have a valid point but they are not giving us the market value for our house, they are infact only offering £100,000. This is 20% less than the current market value of our house, now I understand they won't give the market value as they want to sell it on but 20% less.

How do you know what the value of your current house is? if you had had offers at that level you would not be asking to part exchange. It does seem that everything is Redrow's fault and none of it is yours. if you had independent legal advice, did your solicitor not mention any of this?

franklee

macphee70 wrote: »

Thanks for your advice, we didn't go with a Redrow solicitor as I didn't trust their or our interests and as for the house price you do have a valid point but they are not giving us the market value for our house, they are infact only offering £100,000. This is 20% less than the current market value of our house, now I understand they won't give the market value as they want to sell it on but 20% less.

To accurately represent this on the new house they would have to knock off £65k to bring it to the same percentage. Redrow won't do that, infact they have said they won't budge at all.

Thankfully Redrow haven't completed the property yet (2nd due date of May, its already 6 months late), hence why we are trying to get out before they do.

In that case it's clear you drop the part exchange idea and sell your own house yourself for "market value". Redrow aren't obliged to pay over the top for your house as they probably don't really want the hassle of re-selling it and it will cost them to re-sell.

"Market value" to me is the price you'd achieve on the open market for a sale in a reasonable time scale. Getting a proceedable offer within a couple of months is more than enough time. How long has your current property been on the market and what offers has it received?

What advice is your solicitor giving you?

spinning_hamster_wheel

I don't know what your missives say but here's some general advice, you may wish to consider this; you have said that Redrow are already 6 months late in completing, have you concluded missives? There may be a stipulation in the missives that they can complete late but in relation to the unfair contract terms act 1977 I would say its a material term of the contract that the house has to be completed at some point, they can't keep you dangling while they decide to complete the house, if it is not ready within a reasonable period of time, that may be a basis to get out.

macphee70

spinning_hamster_wheel wrote: »

I don't know what your missives say but here's some general advice, you may wish to consider this; you have said that Redrow are already 6 months late in completing, have you concluded missives? There may be a stipulation in the missives that they can complete late but in relation to the unfair contract terms act 1977 I would say its a material term of the contract that the house has to be completed at some point, they can't keep you dangling while they decide to complete the house, if it is not ready within a reasonable period of time, that may be a basis to get out.

Thanks for tip, looks like it could be really useful.

As other people have mentioned my solicitor did mentioned that I was entering into a legal binding contract and that this could happen but with over 8 months to sell in what was a booming housing market we didn't think it would be an issue. He in fact recommended me to wait until I had sold but as anyone knows who has bought a new house all house builders are similar, they want a deposit and they want you to conclude within 14 days otherwise they will sell the house to someone else. WE really like the house location etc and we would still really like to but it its just we can't.

As far as knowing what its worth today I can calculate it using nationwide's HPI, we've also had numerous estate agents value it. Unfortunately its been on the market for almost a year now and while we had plenty of viewing at the start its dried up, houses in the area just aren't selling, we did at one point last June even have a offer but that fell through as they couldn't sell their house.

Its all just doom and gloom and has ruined our lifes for the last 12 months.

plumduff55

Hi, I can really empathise with your situation as my son and daughter in law are in the same position.

They signed missives for a new build flat in Glasgow due to be completed August '08, still not completed (does not even have gas/elec installed yet). They cannot get a mortgage now as the flat value has decreased so much. Their lawyer advised builder about 3 weeks ago that they were pulling out of contract as they were unable to get finance, so far the builders have not replied and have not re advertised flat. We did think their was a get out clause if flat not completed by Aug'09 but even that is looking woolly now.

My son and dil are coping by trying to ignore that this horrendous situation is happening, maybe not the best way, but the only way that they can cope.

They realise that if the builder sues them they will have to go bankrupt, a nice start to married life!!!

franklee

So to summarise for your current house that you are trying to sell:

Purchased in 2006 for £119,500,
Started selling May 2008 for £137,000 hoping to get £135,000.
Your outstanding mortgage is £105,000.

Redrow have recently offered you £100,000 for it in part exchange.

But after a year on the market and no offers you still think it's worth £128,999.

From the above £100,000 doesn't seem too bad if you've had no other offers in almost a year.

What is the asking price now? From what you've written it doesn't sound like you've dropped it more than 5-7K the whole time.

Also I'm struggling to see exactly what Redrow have done wrong, so far it seems to be slipping the anticipated finish date from October 2008 to May 2009, but finish dates aren't set in stone. A six month slip isn't too bad, if it gets to be over a year then I think the builder is then to blame. What guarantees on dates or end stop dates were in the documentation that you signed?

What advice is your solicitor giving you now? Is he looking at the contract for any loopholes to get you off? Also you need to ask him how long Redrow have to come after you as otherwise it could come back in a year or two when you have saved more.

Trollfever

Also you need to ask him how long Redrow have to come after you as otherwise it could come back in a year or two when you have saved more.

Land and property debt in Scotland lasts for 20 years before The Statute of Limitations kicks in.