Developer has drastically changed kitchen - where do I stand?

namecheck

I know a couple who bought a new build house and found the ground floor rooms were different to the show house (they had been assured their house would be the same).

The sales girl and the developer were useless and my friends went through with the purchase as the wife was expecting a baby and they did not want further stress.

Buying a new build is FULL of potential pitfalls. And most developers are not interested in you after you exchange.

(Health and Safety is often used as a convenient excuse for not viewing more than the show flat/house).

sirmosh

Normally things have to be how they were at exchange but since it wasn't built it's difficult to say. They always put 'subject to change' and things like that which may get them out of it but perhaps if you get a solicitor involved you can make them put it how it was described.

YMoney

We are also having an issue with a developer at the moment. We went to visit the property (60%) complete and was shocked to find that the living room measurement as per their brochure is not the same at one end. Basically the toilet was cut into the leaving room and the room just about 1.5 foot smaller on one side.

This is the same for all the other three room where they have cut the laundry room by three foot into the room when the room is being described as 14'11 by 9.10 but it is actually 10ft by 9'10.

YES we did use the developer solicitor and I have emailed her my concern and also discussed with the sales lady. Also the landing area did not have a measurement on the brochure but we were told that it is the same as the showroom and this is not the case. The landing is small compared to the show room. When I mentioned my concern to the sales lady she does not seem to be aware of it and just assumed that all the landing is the same.

If we seen this before we exchange we would not have exchange! Not sure what our position is legally and I don't think the solicitor will help. I am not sure if we were given a detailed plan of the room before exchange but we were given the full plan of the house where our property is and the boundaries. I wanted to pull out but i am sure we cannot do this. We were also the first person to exchange but if we waited we would get a better discount as they are discounting all the other properties. We have to live with that but this just does make it worst for us.