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

simongover

Hi everyone. I really hope one or some of you can help

My best friend and I are buying together and we're having a nightmare with a developer. I'd really appreciate some advice on whether they can be penalised for misconduct or if there's any way we can force them to hurry up and finish the job and also install the spec we agreed on when we struck the deal.

We exchanged off plan with developers last July 24th with a promise to be complete by September. The developer has since blamed US for their delays (they have 3 other developments on the go but that couldn't POSSIBLY be a factor!?) and tied to charge an additional £35,000 for works previously agreed verbally.

They have also made changes to the planning permissions without our consent and removed exterior windows and changed the layout of the interior.

Furthermore and most frustratingly they refuse to tell us what finish we can expect if and when the place is finally finished (although very little has been done since we offered last April). We are simply expected to take a guess by looking at other homes they finished in the development (all now occupied). They have flat out refused to communicate any details whatsoever. We don't even know what flooring is going in!

When we originally shook hands and had an offer accepted back in April last year, we paid a holding deposit on the strict understanding that wood floors would be going in along with various other spec of our choosing. We were told repeatedly it would be no problem at all to have a heavy hand in helping design the interior. They never at any point mentioned any costs. Never.

I have been sofa surfing for the entire time and it seems there is little we can do to force their hand. They have £60,000 of our money and yet we are powerless. Our mortgage offer expires in a few days and we are in a nightmare situation. And all they ever say when pushed is "it will be ready in 6 weeks". Well they've been saying that since the beginning and we are no closer to completion than we were in July!

Incidentally they have told their estate agent that they are NHBC registered but after contacting them I have found they are no longer members. Not since 2012!

The developer don't seem to be members of any similar voluntary regulatory scheme that are governed by any association which can enforce any code of ethics. They are operating (deliberately we suspect) completely outside of any association that can force them to behave fairly. The warranty they offer is from CPL and I've contacted them for advice, but pre-completion it may not be any use. Of all the codes of conduct listed by those useful association, the developer haven't even met any of the most basic ethical practices. We've never even seen a brochure. It's honestly a disgrace.

Lastly: every single one of their previous clients on the development have had terrible trouble with the developer also. They all experienced similar delays and treatment with their properties and to date none of their snagging items (including some expensive roofing repairs) have been taken care of. They have ended up spending thousands of their own money for the poor workmanship they ended up with.

We have exhausted our options with our solicitor it seems, and a litigator is extremely expensive.

We would sincerely appreciate any advise you can give us. Surely there is some sort of code we can access which prohibits developers from making deals and promising so much and then simply pretending none of it ever happened and delaying the project for as long as it suits them?

I have contacted trading standards via citizens advice but when I spoke to citizens advice last October they had no ideas I hadn't already tried.

Inccidentally; one of the other owners in the development contacted me recently to report the gas mains had been connected to illegally and the national grid were threatening to cut off the gas supply to the entire development and white hart were failing to respond to letters regarding the issue. The owners may end up with no heating many months after completion through no fault of their own.

This is a mess and we desperately need your help

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this

k3lvc

1) Remove your mobile number from your post
2) What does your solicitor say ?

davidmcn

Without seeing your contract there's a limit to what advice we can give you. What does it say about timescales, changes to spec etc? What advice did you get at the time you entered into the contract?

agrinnall

As well as removing your mobile number you seem to have gone to great efforts not to name the developer only to slip up towards the end, so you may want to remove that too.

And I can only echo k3lvc's question as to what your solicitor has to say.

G_M

Remove

* your name
* you phone
* the developer's name

to do so, at the bottom of your post, click "edit", make changes, then "save"

Did you choose your solicitor yourself, or was he 'recomended' by the developer?

Is your solicitor actually a firm of solicitors, or an online conveyancing factory or similer?

Ultimately, the courts are your route to redress/compensation.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm taking it that OP has all the details there in order to "name and shame" this awful developer and as an invite to others in the same position to contact them.

So - unless there is some way this developer could "hurt" OP by him having posted the details - I would see no reason to remove them.

Are people urging removal of those details because they think there IS a way the developer could hurt OP (ie more than they have already done)?

marksoton

Buying with a friend...

Verbally agreeing things with a developer...

Completion due 4 months ago...

No NHBC cover...

It's not looking good is it. I'd say court is your only option.

k3lvc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I'm taking it that OP has all the details there in order to "name and shame" this awful developer and as an invite to others in the same position to contact them.

So - unless there is some way this developer could "hurt" OP by him having posted the details - I would see no reason to remove them.

Are people urging removal of those details because they think there IS a way the developer could hurt OP (ie more than they have already done)?

Common sense
Scam merchants offering a solution to his problems (they have OP's real name and number and a quick search will bring up plenty of other details)
Not necessary for the advice he's asking for
etc
etc
etc


I didn't see it as anything to do with developer contacting them but do think there's more to the story than we're seeing here

fairy_lights

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Are people urging removal of those details because they think there IS a way the developer could hurt OP (ie more than they have already done)?

No, I'd urge him to remove his details because it's generally unwise to post your real name and full phone number on a public forum where thousands of people can see them!
I'm sure the developer already has his details anyway, so there's no need to put them on here for the attention of spammers and trolls.

simongover

Thanks for your posts everyone

I have removed my phone number and the names. It was accidental since some of this was a copy/paste from a message Id sent several of the association bodies I've been looking to for help. I have no issue with my name or their name being public as it happens. I haven't said anything that isn't true. But I'm not here to argue about the issue of who's name is down.

I need to make sure I'm not going to lose a deposit to the developer when our mortgage offer expires (or any extensions) and I was hoping someone had an avenue we could pursue to force them to tell us what they're installing and finish the damn place. I hold little hope of them honouring their word and allowing us the input in design, which was precisely the point of going off plan and getting a quick exchange. We shook hands on it and talked it thru plenty of times.

Our conveyancer is well aware, as are we, that the exchange contract contained no explicit completion date. We addressed it then but At that time men were on site and we'd all been advised the build was 6 weeks from completion. They had only just finished all the neighbouring builds so we had no reason to doubt this at the time. What we didn't know is they were also beginning other projects and as soon as we signed the exchange they sent their men to them. Perhaps before. We also tried weeks before the exchange to add a spec document to the contract detailing the finish we wanted but I was given their "word as gentlemen" on the day of exchange that they would do what had been promised and that there was no time to add an addendum. Stupidly we believed they would keep their word. Not present us with a 35k bill for some minor revisions to the planned spec. Which by the way, they have flat out refused to provide guidance on ever since. We have to guess from photos of other places on the development what we'll get. Literally guess.

Does anyone know if there's a cut off date for how long a builder can delay completion after exchange? Is there a legal president for this? This must happen a lot. We need to look into case history and see if judges have ruled in favour of buyers or developers when these problems have gone to court.

The fact they keep offering to scratch the contract and reimburse our deposit (minus whatever !!!!!!!! expenses they can conjure l) keeps setting off alarm bells with me. They want to keep it and sell it later for more. It's that simple. So what's to stop them?

marksoton

simongover wrote: »

The fact they keep offering to scratch the contract and reimburse our deposit (minus whatever !!!!!!!! expenses they can conjure l) keeps setting off alarm bells with me. They want to keep it and sell it later for more. It's that simple. So what's to stop them?

Then go back to them and say you want the full deposit and all your expenses reimbursed and you'll walk.

It'd be a lucky escape by the sounds of it.