URGENT Exchange Contracts Before Completion Certificate HELP

timmyt

the completion should be conditional on both a completion certificate and also a final inspection from NHBC, as the lawyer owes a duty to the Lender as much as you. the completion certificate is not as crucial if the contract says the developer will build in accordance with building control as Council's will indeed be slow about sign off, but you should battle for it. So many Developers solicitors are useless, and if the Developers chose a better firm - and paid them a little more - their deals would sale through

tommo2007

sonastin wrote: »

You can actually make the contract say anything (legal that is) and then exchange. Provided the vendors also agree, with the right drafting your solicitor could make it binding that they paint the entire interior of the property shocking pink with yellow stripes and if they fail to do so, they are the ones who are failing to complete with all the costs that offers.

Now that is an extreme example which would fall down for many reasons - vendors would never agree, solicitors would be reluctant to draft such an extreme clause in case the courts decided to interpret it as trivial regardless of how much they stressed it would be considered a material breach etc. but it could be done if it really was important to the buyer and the only way the vendor could get the sale!

But given the bully-boy stance of the vendor in this situation, getting their agreement to any sort of compromise conditional exchange could be the hardest part.

Yes, this is what the solicitor has finally told her, once she got a phone call back. And they agreed to make it very conditional, with an open completion date (sorry can't remember the exact term used) so that all works are fully completed.

GDB2222 wrote: »

Can they agree a retention for the drive, say double the likely cost, so as to give the builder an incentive to get on with it.

The final outcome has been a retention of the funds for the driveway + an extra 3000 just for his bullying stance :beer:

timmyt wrote: »

the completion should be conditional on both a completion certificate and also a final inspection from NHBC, as the lawyer owes a duty to the Lender as much as you. the completion certificate is not as crucial if the contract says the developer will build in accordance with building control as Council's will indeed be slow about sign off, but you should battle for it. So many Developers solicitors are useless, and if the Developers chose a better firm - and paid them a little more - their deals would sale through

Yes, it is now conditional on the completion certificate, what I find interesting is the final inspection by NHBC - I don't know if this is happening, this is for my own intrigue, I thought this had already been passed and they have the certificate, would a final check still be required?

Thank you each and every one of you for your replies.