New build release date cancelled !! - messing with emotions

williams55

A good friend of mine spotted a house which ticked all his boxes . It was printed on the estate agents literature that the house would be released by the builders for sale Jan 07 . This was in Oct 06 , in preparation my friend used the same esate agent to sell his home so he would be in a better postion when it came to making a offer on the new build . Sure enough he obtained a great price for his house and agreed it for sale . Today he has been informed by the ea that the builder is not releasing the house for sale and instead it will be turned into a showhouse so who knows when it will finally end up on the market . Question is how can a estate agent print literature stating that the house would be released in Jan and continue to update my friend with messages about the date for release . Talk about messing with peoples emotions . My friend and his wife are gutted and i feel gutted for them .
Can he force them to release it , can trading standards help .
any ideas ??

Vickicb

They can probably do what they want, but does the builder know that he wants to make a firm offer and has a proceedable chain in place? With new developments the first few are the hardest to sell as noone wants to move into an empty estate/building site, so they might choose another house for the showhome is they have a definate sale.