Foul Play/case for legal action

lincroft1710

badaz52 wrote: »

I'm wondering if someone might be able to provide me with some advise

Yes. Move on and start enjoying life in your new home. You can't sue anyone for anything, as no one has done anything illegal and any deals which you were part of, you have agreed to, knowing the sums of money involved.

Builders are in the business of making money, if they don't they go bankrupt. They have to price their houses and any subsequent deals/offers/incentives at a price which is high enough for them to make a profit and low enough to attract buyers.

I know someone whose OH, 5 yrs after the event, is still bemoaning the fact he was "cheated" in a deal. He accepts he may have sold for less than he probably could have got, but he wanted the items sold and wasn't that unhappy with the price he got.

You have your new house, your old house is sold. OK perhaps a bit less than you wanted but there is never any guarantee that whatever an "expert" values an item for, the item will achieve that price.

MFSaver

I suspect that even if you turn out to be correct, it would be difficult to prove that you suffered any damages should you choose to pursue this in court.

badaz52

You guys are right, I won't be pursuing anything. There are no legal issues here as you say probably just issues on moral grounds with regards to the EA but hey nothing can be done about that now.

I haven't spoken to the lady although my mum does know her from when I was at school but they aren't really "friends" as such.

I just didn't like the way the developer handled the situation at all, they treat a PX like they are doing you a favour but they forget I'm doing them a favour by buying their house! :rotfl:

On a side issue, We have been moved for almost 2 months now and I haven't even had a breakdown of costs from the solicitors (not sure if this is standard practice or not) so I haven't got a clue what I've paid for and what I haven't as per the PX!

sonastin

The developer couldn't just call up the EA and say "we've taken over responsibility for this property and we want you to drop the price by £25k" so presumably you signed some sort of part ex agreement which they showed to the EA? Have you read that PX agreement? Does it say that if you get to sell the property before the new one is complete, the price you have to pay them for the new one is £140k more than you had to hand over along with the deeds of your house? I doubt it.

I would expect that once you've signed up to PX, it isn't "yours to sell" as such - you've made a commitment to let the developer sell it as part of your agreement to purchase one of their properties. Hence why they took over marketing the property, took over the relationship with the EA, took over the responsibility for negotiating the sale and took the burden of selling your house off your shoulders. If you wanted to negotiate a better deal for yourself, you shouldn't have entered into the PX agreement.

Of course, if you hadn't signed anything and the developer did just call up and say "they've agreed to PX - follow our instructions now" then the EA is in big trouble!

badaz52

We did sign a PX agreement which said they intend on marketing the property at £140,000. What they didn't tell us is that this would occur while we were in the property and with the same EA our property was already on the market with. IMO this should have been a separate EA to avoid a conflict of interest.

The PX agreement we did sign was no more than 2 pages and did not include any further details about how the house will be controlled, what seems to be an issue is up until the 30/08/11 the property was ours to sell and not theirs, we had not given up ownership of anything, therefore and on this basis any negotiations on who was lined up to buy it should have been discussed with us too.

We were told that as a PX the developer is your cash buyer but in actual fact they had already pre-arranged to sell it to someone who had a lodged interest with our EA, we moved out on the 30/08, this lady moved in on the 31/08.

I think they have exploited a loop hole, the basis of a PX is that they offer you less because they have to get rid of it after you have moved out, but they had a buyer already lined up and failed to inform us of this, we would have still sold it for £140k but we could have negotiated money off the asking price of the new one or extras etc.

Thats where my complaint is and in my opinion rightly so. Up until completion date we owned the house not them, alright they got involved with the marketing of it to get it sold quicker but an agreement MUST have been reached with the new owner at least 4 weeks before completion and a deposit would have been taken, we were not involved with this and were not informed, if the house was sold and they had someone lined up that wasn't them then they have broken their own terms of PX surely?????

lincroft1710

badaz52 wrote: »

I think they have exploited a loop hole, the basis of a PX is that they offer you less because they have to get rid of it after you have moved out, but they had a buyer already lined up and failed to inform us of this, we would have still sold it for £140k but we could have negotiated money off the asking price of the new one or extras etc.

There is no "loophole" to exploit. A P/X is like any buying/selling operation, you wanted to buy, they wanted to sell, but you couldn't buy until you sold your property, they took it off your hands for you. They have to pay solicitor's fees, do the running around to facilitate the sale, so they will have probably lost money on that part of the deal. You also didn't have to pay EA's commission.

A dealer doesn't buy an item off X with the intention of selling it on to Y, and before the deal is done, tell X that he intends to sell to Y who lives at etc. etc.

There is no guarantee you could have negotiated any money off or got extras, if you did sell it yourself. You would still have had EA demanding fee as he introduced the buyer.

emmell

How do you know the woman paid £140,000, she might have paid £130,000.
ML.

GDB2222

badaz52 wrote: »

We agreed to a PX of £140,000 yes but what gives them the power while you still own it and live in it to market it for that price? it could be months before your new house is completed and you still own the old house yet they are just selling it cheap and not giving you a chance to see if it sells in the meantime at the original price.

They also used our EA too so we had no choice on whether we wanted to wait for a better offer or else accept their PX.

I know it was marketed for £140,000 while we were still in it because I came across an old ad for it on right move.

Like I said up until completion we owned the house and agreed to sell it to TW for £140,000 we did not agree for them to market it at a reduced price while we were still in it.

The only thing is I don't know how much they did actually sell it on for, how can I find out? sold house prices usually appear on right move but only after a while.

One key question is whether you had exchanged contracts by the time they started marketing the house?

bris

Why shouldn't they markey the property while you were still in it? They have just bought it from you and you no longer have any rights to say what happens to it. You got £140k for it and so did they, I can't even see where a complaint lies. If you wanted to try and hold out for £165k why did you PX it, This post is baffling me.

badaz52

GDB2222 wrote: »

One key question is whether you had exchanged contracts by the time they started marketing the house?

They started marketing the house at the reduced price before we had exchanged contracts, it was already on the market though with a local EA, they continued to use the same EA. Exchange was about 2 weeks before completion should have been earlier but we were running late. Completion was the 30/08/11.

The new owner did pay £140,000 for it as I have obtained a copy of the title from the LR.

I've heard that developers sometimes have two ways of helping you move, a PX or assisted move? generally assisted move you get more bargaining power as they advise you to drop your house price to get it sold quicker and still pay your EA fees but they don't have the hassle of taking your house from you and worrying about finding a buyer, they just get in touch with your EA and throw a few feelers out which is what I believe happened with us but we weren't consulted about anything.

I have looked on their website and TW themselves don't say they offer "assisted move" but I have found some old reviews about George wimpey doing it and it sounds a lot like thats what we got, not a PX after all. Other developers do it though.

Edit: TW call it Easy mover http://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/0CB927D5-D12A-4C48-8F65-9D690029D554/0/TaylorWimpeyeasymoverschemeleaflet.pdf just read through this and this is exactly the deal they gave us but they seemed to have called it a PX?!?!?!?

The easymover also says they will pay for removal costs which they never did with us.

Plainly put, I believe they led us to believe it was a PX, removing us of all our bargaining power and changed the deal mid flow to the Easymover scheme because there was a buyer lined up and it suited them to just facilitate the deal between us and the new purchaser but they didnt tell us this and didn't give us any more incentives other than paying our EA fees, nor they did they inform us they had found a solid buyer prior to exchange/completion.

The only thing they paid was our Estate agent fees, we had to pay for removal costs and solicitors fees and every extra we wanted too as they said its a PX and we were not allowed to negotiate, so annoyed about this now. I know its in hindsight and I can understand why they may have followed the Easymover route but they should NOT have let us believe it was a PX all the way.

I believe at the very least they owe us solicitors fees and removal costs back.