Refund of Reservation Fee For New Build?

paykanti

Found a very nice property on Saturday. Got in touch with the developers financial broker and he asked me for a load of details in order to get an agreement in principle for me. Agreement in principle granted, I went and reserved the property with the developer for a £500 deposit. The form states:

"We understand that should if we cancel the reservation, up to 50% of the reservation fee will be retained to cover the administration costs."

Well...turns out my financial broker failed to request any information about season ticket deductions and having learned that that would have an affect on my mortgage application and having informed him of it through my own initiative, it turns out my required mortgage is now deemed unaffordable

I'll be informing the developer tomorrow of my withdrawal so it would mean my actions have resulted in the property being off the market for just under three days but I'm wondering what do you think are my chances of receiving a full refund? Sounds like I'll be getting at least £250 back but should I be really pushing to get it all back or is my case fairly weak given the clause is fairly clear?

G_M

I don't see how we can answer!

By all means ask for a full refund and you might receive it.

But the contract clause is, as you point out, clear.

kingstreet

paykanti wrote: »

turns out my financial broker failed to request any information about season ticket deductions

I can only speak for ourselves.

We ask for loans, HP, credit card debt, maintenance and so on.

If your season ticket is on your payslips, that's usually because the annual sum was a loan from your employer and the payslip shows the monthly amount to repay it.

It should therefore have been included in your disclosure like any other loan.

ap1985

The same thing happened to my husband and I on the first property we received. We had got past the AIP stage and put in full mortgage application which was then declined. The developer returned our £500 back as it was a H2B application. The only thing I suggest you do is ask....if you don't ask you don't get

martinsurrey

paykanti wrote: »

Found a very nice property on Saturday. Got in touch with the developers financial broker and he asked me for a load of details in order to get an agreement in principle for me. Agreement in principle granted, I went and reserved the property with the developer for a £500 deposit. The form states:

"We understand that should if we cancel the reservation, up to 50% of the reservation fee will be retained to cover the administration costs."

Well...turns out my financial broker failed to request any information about season ticket deductions and having learned that that would have an affect on my mortgage application and having informed him of it through my own initiative, it turns out my required mortgage is now deemed unaffordable

I'll be informing the developer tomorrow of my withdrawal so it would mean my actions have resulted in the property being off the market for just under three days but I'm wondering what do you think are my chances of receiving a full refund? Sounds like I'll be getting at least £250 back but should I be really pushing to get it all back or is my case fairly weak given the clause is fairly clear?

Most national house builders abide by the "Consumer Code for Home builders"

http://consumercodeforhomebuilders.com/the-code/

part 2.6 states

"When the Reservation agreement is cancelled or expires, you should return the Reservation fee to the Home Buyer, less any reasonable costs you have genuinely incurred in processing and holding the Reservation."

As your reservation has only been in force for a few days, I doubt there are any genuine costs, or if there are they are tiny, so push for a full refund.