brand new flat not so brand new

tus100

We completed on a flat purchase on the 29th July for a brand new property. Subsequently to moving in we found signs of occupancy - remnants of food in the dishwasher, powder residue in the laundry drawer, oven rack brown with grease and signs of painting where there were pictures hung. We were sold this flat on the premise that it was brand new as that was one of my requirements. On no occasion were we told that it had been occupied - in fact the reason given for the floors and blinds being put in was that a sale had fallen through. Subsequent visits to the property we were told the same thing both my the developer and estate agents.

Today they confessed that someone had been living there. Naturally I am devastated to discover this as we have put all our savings into this purchase - as first time buyers we spent a while saving this deposit up. Our mortgage broker has also confirmed that we would have had more options in the choice of mortgage if this had been declared. However regardless of this I would not have purchased this had I known that someone had lived there.

Can anyone give any advice on this?

olias

Depends what you want. Compensation? Buy back from developer? etc etc. Speak to your solicitor about your options, they are in the best position to advise you.

Olias

tus100

sent an email to the solicitor who had yet to get back to me. She isn't the greatest - recommended by the developer - one thing I have learnt never go for anything recommended by the EA or developer. I believe that it was a deliberate misrepresentation as EA told me today that someone only stayed there for 4 days however I have proof that this property was advertised for rental by a different estate agency. This estate agency verbally confirmed to me that they found a tenant for the property. i am not sure we have the option of giving back the flat, that would be an additional expense for us in trying to find somewhere else and basically we are broke after this purchase.

GDB2222

tus100 wrote: »

We were sold this flat on the premise that it was brand new as that was one of my requirements.

That's in the contract or the pre-contract enquiries? Or the estate agent's particulars?

System

Shocking. Report who is to blame.

tus100

not sure have asked the solictor to check in the contracts. they filled in a cml disclosure form which i obtained from the valuer which states that this form must be completed "by the seller of any property that is yet to be occupied for the first time in its current form.." the developer's EA told me that we were the only ones that this has happened to. The flats are all advertised as new, we saw a few in the same building - the only difference was that this one had the floors/blinds already put in and the reason they gave us that someone was about to buy and it fell through.

tus100

it is berbastrike they deliberately left out that piece of information as they didn't we would find out. Have made an official complaint to them and waiting to hear what my solicitor says. our bubble has been burst, this is our first property purchase and we thought we were getting a sparkling brand new one!!

GDB2222

Why didn't they just sell you a different flat in the block?

tus100

the other ones were out of our price range. if they hadn't sold to us they would have tried to sell it to someone else again on the basis that it was new. they obviously just wanted their commission as well.

geoffky

I would go mental.....you must of paid the being new premium when it is not the case.....someone has a lot of questions to answer..

tus100

still in a state of shock. they are all over us trying to get a cleaner in to clean the appliances.....how is that going to take away the fact that we were lied to.....