Property developer won't complete after exchange or tell us spec

moneyistooshorttomention

By now - in your position - I would be saying "You can buy my house back from me - BUT the price is £x" and make sure that £x was enough to get back your deposit and interest on it and allow a generous amount of compensation.

So - yep...I'd call their bluff and tell them straight out that I thought that might be their little game - but, if so, that £x was the amount they would pay me for my house and not a penny less and I would make sure it was down in writing.

I doubt they'd be willing to pay that (make that a certainty in fact) and yes..in your position...I'd be seeing a solicitor to see what my options were.

************

My suspicion is that they deliberately "kept at it" building your house until the second you Exchanged and then thought "Right...that's them safely in the bag and we literally don't care just how long it will take to finish the house, as we think we can make more profit from the next lot we are doing".

davidmcn

simongover wrote: »

Does anyone know if there's a cut off date for how long a builder can delay completion after exchange?

There ought to be one in your contract. Isn't there? If not, were you advised of the risks of not agreeing one?

xoAmyox

Your situation is very complex, and I'm not pretending that I can advise with the accuracy of a legal professional - but here's what I'd do:

1. Request a full copy of your file from your Conveyancer, impress upon them that you want EVERYTHING.

2. Read the file yourself, see what you agreed to, and see if anything looks like it might help you, or anything comes to light.

3. Decide what you WANT. Do you want the house? Would you trust it even if they sold it to you? Do you just want to get out of this with all of your money?

4. Write a list of questions you want answering, some of the ones in your most recent post seem very pertinent.

5. Take your file and your list of questions to a specialist solicitor (not conveyancing 'factory') and get their advice.

6. Move forward based on the solicitors advice and what you want to achieve.

simongover

Fed this to our conveyancer. Like the idea and it would send a pretty clear signal too! Thanks for the suggestion

EmmyLou30

I imagine they want you to tell them you'll take your deposit back and leave as they know they can sell it on for more now. My brother had this, waited 2.5 years from reserving the plot to moving in, 5 mortgage offers came and went, survey costs each time etc etc but he stuck to his guns as he really wanted the flat and knew prices were rising, they reimbursed him for expenses he'd incurred thanks to their negligence and wound up with a flat worth at least £25k more than he'd paid originally which is why they'd have welcomed him pulling out. You have to decide if you're willing to wait...

simongover

That's exactly right EmmyLou30, the simple fact is the place is worth 70-100k more than it was when we offered and we know damn well they could sell it for more now. But I'm !!!!!!ed if I'll let them slash a chunk off our deposit and benefit from cocking us about for 9 months and then make a nice extra 100k as a reward for incredibly negligent practices.

Also I've been staying with friends and on sofas for this entire time because they've said over and over "we're 6 weeks away": so I've not been willing to take on a rental with a 6 month contract. I'm not going to let them take the place away from me. Not a hope.

moneyistooshorttomention

Then - if that's their game and the price has risen that much - then hang on in there. Again - same advice as before, ie tell them "I know what you're doing" quite bluntly and that it won't work.

If you feel disenchanted with the place once you've managed to get your mitts on it eventually - then sell it on and buy somewhere else and look forward to the profit you will make from doing so.