Reservation fee paid, can persimmon sell to somebody else?

jimsparrow7

Hello,

Once a reservation fee has been paid, can a housebuilder then sell to another buyer? I know this sounds really paranoid, but there have been a series of events that has lead to my suspicion. We have a written mortgage offer and have instructed solicitors at this point.

Firstly, we have negotiated a deposit contribution from the seller, and although it was never mentioned verbally, they have slipped a time condition into the incentive (Ironically it is now them holding up the sale) I have written confirmation of extension to this agreement, but it seems like a tactic to worm out of the contribution.

Secondly, my solicitor informed me that the contract paperwork (delivered almost two weeks after I informed them of my chosen solicitor) had other peoples names on it in certain places. I would normally take this to be an innocent error, but through a friend we have been made aware that the incorrect names on the contract have also just confirmed they have bought a new house (facebook stalking )

So my question is: Have persimmon decided that they prefer Mr & Mrs Bloggs' offer over ours and gone ahead with them? I have read the reviews for persimmon and they aren't pretty.......

Again, apologies for the paranoia, but we are first time buyers and this is our dream.

TIA.

J

eddddy

I guess you need to read the reservation agreement to see on what basis the developer can cancel the reservation.

I expect the reservation agreement has an expiry date. So if you don't exchange by that date, the reservation could be cancelled. But there may be other circumstances as well.

I'd guess the 'wrong names' is just down to sloppy cutting and pasting - probably in a Word document or similar.

davidmcn

eddddy wrote: »

I'd guess the 'wrong names' is just down to sloppy cutting and pasting - probably in a Word document or similar.

Seconded, it'll be another plot they're buying. I've never heard of a developer selling a reserved plot to another buyer without first making it very clear that you've run out of time.

fashionvictim

eddddy wrote: »

I expect the reservation agreement has an expiry date. So if you don't exchange by that date, the reservation could be cancelled.

We have gone a week past our reservation date which was 28 days after the contract went to our solicitors. Until we had our mortgage valuation the sales office were chasing very regularly and reminding us they would re-market the property. I found it very pushy, but now they seem a bit more patient as they know it is in progress and we are just waiting on our buyer.

We too had wrong paperwork sent.

Leo2020

I would be wary of going past the reservation date unless you have it in writing that you can.

When I tried to buy a new build we had to exchange and complete within 28 days according to the reservation form but because we were buying off plan we couldn't.

We expected to be given reasonable notice of exchange and completion further down the line - we were given 2 weeks notice. Which was impossible for us to sort out as the searches from our buyer hadn't come back yet they were informed but kept us to the deadline anyway. The house hadn't even been signed off and the site manager wasn't even sure when it would be.

We complained and they justified the 2 weeks notice because in fact the had given us 5 weeks. They said they had agreed a completion deadline with our EA 5 weeks before, without our knowledge. A complete load of cobblers - they were paying the EA anyway but tried to pass the blame by repeatedly stating "our" EA. Not that is makes much difference because you don't agree completion deadlines with an EA you inform your buyer's solicitor.

This was with Keepmoat, it turned very sour including receiving threats off an employee's husband.

libf

fashionvictim wrote: »

We have gone a week past our reservation date which was 28 days after the contract went to our solicitors. Until we had our mortgage valuation the sales office were chasing very regularly and reminding us they would re-market the property. I found it very pushy, but now they seem a bit more patient as they know it is in progress and we are just waiting on our buyer.

We too had wrong paperwork sent.

I reserved in May and didn't exchange until October, in part because of wrong paperwork from the developers solicitors... But the house isn't complete until after Xmas.

Vampgirl

When we reserved our house last year the reservation stated we needed to exchange within 28 days of the builder's solicitors issuing the documents, not 28 days of the reservation itself. In the end it took them about a month to send the legal pack and we finally exchanged about 2 weeks later.